A piano sheet music or a music score is a piece of paper containing a special method of writing elements in music in order to represent the time value of sound and silence, notes of every key, the manner of playing, speed, etc. This manner of music writing is musical notation. Music notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols. In history, people wanted to find a way to effectively write music by making special symbols to represent the elements there is in music. The earliest form of musical notation was found in Nippur, Iraq in a cuneiform tablet. It was a complex musical notation that is still under research. Musical notation and piano sheet music have evolved since then to a more systematic and understandable form of art.

Not all people know how to read piano sheet music. Some people don’t even know how to read a piano sheet music but know how to play the piano “by ear”. Playing by ear is another way to play the piano. By vividly listening to a song, they are able to identify the melody, notes etc. and apply it on the piano. This is also an aural skill that is learned but not all can have. If a musician both read a piano sheet music and play by ear, then he can be versatile to all kinds of music. But then again, this poses another question. What if you can only have 1 of the two skills? Which skill would you learn first?

The answer is simple and complicated. First, learning how to sight read a piano sheet music is a difficult skill to learn.  It can take lots of years to master. Mastering this skill makes you an “accurate” pianist in all types of music, especially classical music where lots of music discipline are being applied. You can possibly be a concert pianist someday if you know how to sight read a music sheet and interpret it on the piano. Eventually, as you get accustomed to playing piano for a long long time, you will develop the skill of playing by ear.

Second, playing by ear is a talent. This doesn’t require strict discipline is piano playing since you can improvise a song on the piano. It is a great skill for piano beginners. An alternative aside from reading piano sheet music. But, if compared to the skill of reading the music sheet, playing by ear is rather less accurate.

As what Mr. Andrew Furmanczyk, a free piano tutor at youtube.com said:

“My personal answer is you SHOULD learn how to read notes. It would be like someone asking, “Hey, do you think I need to learn how to read words so that I can read a story from a book? Or can I just listen to someone else read the story for me, and then I’ll try to recite the story word for word and commit it to memory!” Which do you find to be more practical? The thing is, it actually doesn’t take very long to read music..”

A very practical answer indeed. Everyone should understand music if he/she yearns to be a professional musician someday. Don’t worry. If you get a piano teacher or just plain dedication in training, you will get there.  You can check online resources like readsheetmusic.info, piano.about.com, and on youtube.com. You will definitely encounter Sir Andrew Furmanczyk and his tutorials on different aspect on piano training. You will learn alot from him. Visit also his main website howtoplaypiano.ca.

You can also download nice music sheet collections for free in sheetmusictrade.com, sheetzbox.com and ffpianomelodies for best final fantasy music sheets.

Learn a lot, play a lot. Enjoy.

Tags: good songs to learn on piano, how to learn piano by yourself, learn how to play piano, learn to read piano music, learning piano notes