Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2009-10-28 02:24
Hi Kevin --
Questions that immediately come to mind:
Do you have a learning disability (like, was it difficult on any level for you to learn to read and/or write?) Perhaps you are an auditory learner -- you say you play more easily when you are not reading the music. This can be an asset to a musician, but of course, reading ability is pretty necessary, too.
Have you played another instrument? Are you learning music notation at the same time as you are trying to learn a new instrument? How is your innate sense of rhythm (e.g., can you clap a rhythm back if someone claps it to you?).
If you are just learning to read music, or have unseady rhythm, be patient with yourself. You are learning a new language.
The basics of that language is scales and rhythms. Get a good method or scale book. There are all sorts of books out there. The Rubank series is what I started with, and is especially good for someone learning individually, but there are many other good ones. The Pares Scales books is also good.
Start with the easiest keys-- C major, G major (an oboe-friendly key). READ the scales, even if it is easier to do it without looking at the music. Relax. Take all the time you need. Days and weeks, if necessary. Do the easy scales over and over and over and over. Then, when you just begin to feel a little comfortable with those, move on to the next slightly more challenging key, and repeat the process. Next day, do that new scale again first, and then go back to the ones you learned before. You will find them to be like old friends. Keep following this pattern, moving from simpler to more complex, then back to simpler. This takes time, but if you persist at this over a course of several months, you may be surprised at how far you will progress.
I'm presuming you are an adult, and not a youngster. Sometimes our "older" brains rebel when we try to take them down new pathways. As adults, we are accustomed to a certain level of accomplishment, and we feel terribly embarassed when we find that we cannot immediately master what would appear to us to be an extremely elementary step in a new endeavor. Become like a little child. Relish, savor, and enjoy each little bit of learning. Put aside any though that you "should" be swallowing the thing whole.
It's a game of inches.
Susan
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