Sheet Music, Oppenheimer, and Realizing I've Missed the Entire Point

navindra

Algebra is like sheet of music. The important thing isn’t can you read music, it’s can you hear it. Can you hear the music, Robert?

— Niels Bohr to J. Robert Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer (2023)

A few minutes in to this movie, and I'm already questioning whether I've missed the whole point of sheet music this entire time. And Algebra for that matter. 😃

Sheet music is nothing to me except a way to translate notes on to the keyboard — in fact, it gets in my way and I'd rather memorize the music. I most definitely don't hear the music when looking at paper. And it makes me sad that I haven't even been trying to do that.

PS In retrospect, I think the quote means sheet music isn't as important as being able to know the music intrinsically in your mind.

Animisha

navindra I most definitely don't hear the music when looking at paper. And it makes me sad that I haven't even been trying to do that.

You can try it now! I found out I could do this without even having practised it.
I leafed through the pages of Pianist Magazine with the scores, and there was a symphony or something from Beethoven - nothing I could identify by the number. But then my fingers started to loosely play the notes on my table, and slowly, slowly a melody emerged in my mind. I checked and it was correct. Now this was a symphony that I had already heard previously, not something brand new, but since then, I often try to hear the melody when reading notes.

Just try it Navindra! Google Beethoven, or Bach, or any composer that you have some familiarity with, choose a score, let your fingers move on your table, and see if you can hear it.

navindra

Animisha You can try it now! I found out I could do this without even having practised it.

Wow, that's amazing! Thanks for the inspiration! I'm definitely going to try this going forward. 🙂

ShiroKuro

I can never hear the pitch in my mind just from looking at a score, unless I already know the music. But I can get the melody line or the rhythm. I always wonder how it is for people with perfect pitch or people who are really good at sight singing. Also, I wonder what a conductor or composer can hear in their mind’s ear…

But as to @navindra ’s question about missing the point of sheet music… I’m not worried about it because even if I can’t hear the music in my head just from reading it, when I sit down at the keyboard, the sheet music allows me to create the music, to bring those notes off the page and into the air. That is a wondrous gift.

And to me, that is the point of sheet music.

❤️

Sidokar

ShiroKuro You can develop your sense of pitch by singing. The first step is to learn to recognize intervals and be able to sing them internally. The sense of pitch is something that comes naturally. For me BTW my first point of reference was G and not A.

Sam

Here is an exercise:
Away from the piano, look at the score for a piece that you know well.
Play it in your head while looking at the score.
Sing just the first note.
Now go to the piano and play the first note.
You will be surprised how close in pitch you are.

I can do this for pieces I have played in the past and get pretty close.
I can also hear the melodies of music I have never played before - although the pitch is not usually very close.

I never set out to do this - it just happened.

Funny story - I was taking a vocal collaboration (aka accompaniment) class at school. We were assigned a piece to play with a singer. We could practice our part all we wanted, but the first play through with the singer was to be in class. (Not too much pressure!) Everybody had the same piece. When the first student got up to play I thought something was terribly wrong - that was not the piece I had practiced! The pitches were all wrong. Finally I realized - different key. There were two versions of the song - high voice and low voice - in different keys. It was a relief when it was my turn to hear familiar pitches when I played.

Sam

ShiroKuro

Sam Away from the piano, look at the score for a piece that you know well.
Play it in your head while looking at the score.
Sing just the first note.
Now go to the piano and play the first note.
You will be surprised how close in pitch you are.

I’ll try this later, I’m pretty sure I will be able to do it reasonably well.

It’s pieces I don’t know that I don’t believe I can do at all.

Speaking of the disorienting experience @Sam described…. When piano shopping, I played some pianos that were so neglected and out of tune, wow! I would sit down to play, with my music out, with a piece I knew well. But after starting to play, I would feel like I was playing in the wrong key, or maybe like I had shifted my hands a few steps away from the keys they were supposed to be.

That is truly disorienting! And also meant I wouldn’t be buying that piano! 😆

ShiroKuro

@Sidokar I think my sense of pitch is fine, probably pretty good. And I'm pretty confident in my relative pitch.

But that's not the same as being able to sight-sing or find the right pitch from a musical score with no reference note. That is a skill I know that I don't have.

Player1

ShiroKuro

Sounds like you need to do some "do re mi fa so la ti do" practice with your sheet music.

I wonder if anyone has translated that song into the notes only. Do, re-do, do, do, re, do...

ShiroKuro

Player1 Sounds like you need to do some "do re mi fa so la ti do" practice with your sheet music.

Well, yes, if I wanted to be able to sight-sing. But heretofore, I have always thought that this is a skill I don't need to be working on.

Unless there's something I'm missing? I would imagine that this could be beneficial for sightreading, but I guess the question is, beneficial enough to justify the time spent to develop it?

Player1

ShiroKuro

I find it helpful when trying to find the rhythm and phrasing of a new piece. I can sing the notes in my mind and see where the rhythm/melody changes.

My problem is that I like drama. Instead of;

I've... been working on the rail...road...

I like to play it as:

I've..................................
been working on the rail......road......

And that messes up my timing and rhythm.