A guide to reading sheet music

Not every piano player wants to reach the heights of grade eight or drill into the theory behind modal scales. For some of us, it’s enough just to start reading music to play our favourite songs. If you would like to find out how to read piano sheet music, here are some tips to get started.

Don’t run before you can walk

If you’re just starting to play piano, be realistic about your abilities and choose sheet music titles that are for your level. Once you’ve learnt the fundamentals, like time signature, basic notation symbols and how to read them on the treble clef and bass clef, try picking out some sheet music specifically targeted at beginners. You’re looking to challenge yourself, not shatter your confidence.

A guide to reading sheet music | A student learning piano scales

A guide to reading sheet music | Piano teacher Tim Stein

Watch, learn and play

Until you’ve got some sight-reading experience under your belt, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to open a new musical score and play it on the spot. For starters, of course, it’ll help to listen to the music before you attempt to play it, but as an additional learning aid, why not find a video of your chosen piece on YouTube or PiaScore and watch it being performed. It’s a great way to learn all the factors that the notation doesn’t show you, like the best hand positions and the correct fingering techniques. As a quick example, here’s Tim Stein to talk you through the basics of piano sight reading.

Choose a piano that helps you learn piano sheet music

If you want to learn to read piano music, Roland’s digital pianos are ready to help. Learning is faster and more fun when you connect your digital piano to a mobile app like Piano Every Day, which helps develop reading skills with the Flash Card game and lets you view digital sheet music using DigiScore Lite. Our current digital piano models also feature Bluetooth wireless connectivity.

A guide to reading sheet music | A student playing a Roland Digital piano using the Piano Partner 2 app

A guide to reading sheet music | A young piano player learning a song via notation

Try playing with digital sheet music

There’s nothing wrong with the old-school approach of propping a book on your piano stand, but you can also display sheet music on the screen of your tablet or smartphone. If you’re into classical, try PiaScore, which has over 70,000 free pieces of sheet music for piano. For popular piano sheet music, there’s Sheet Music Direct, which offers many tracks with a MIDI file backing track that lets you isolate and practise left and right-hand parts. With Musicnotes’ Sheet Music Player, meanwhile, the notes light up on the digital sheet music, so you’ll always know exactly where you are in the score.

The Benefits of Learning To Read Digital Sheet Music

A guide to reading sheet music | Music notation being read on a tablet

1. Portability
Digital sheet music makes it easy to take your piano music with you wherever you go. Instead of lugging around heavy music books and folders of loose scores, you can now carry everything you need for lessons, and practice on a laptop or tablet.

2. Convenience
When using a computer or tablet with an Internet connection, you have instant access to nearly any music you want to play. If you’re playing for others and get a request you don’t have music for, just log on to a site like Sheet Music Direct to find the song. How about that holiday gathering where everyone wants to sing along with a favourite tune? Just hop on the web to keep the party rolling.

3. Connectivity
Digital sheet music is even more powerful when paired with the advanced tech in the latest digital pianos from Roland. Most Roland digital pianos let you easily connect your tablet or smartphone via Bluetooth. Using the free Roland Piano Partner 2 app, you can view notation for the piano’s built-in song collection. The piano can play the songs first, so you can hear how they sound. Then, you can read the notation and play on your own, or practice just the right- or left-hand part while the piano plays the other.

4. Interactivity
Using digital sheet music offers powerful interaction that’s simply impossible with standard printed notation. You can change the key, expand the note size so it’s easier to see, adjust the play-along tempo, and more. With apps like Piano Partner 2 or piaScore, you can even use the pedals on certain Roland piano models to turn pages, so you never need to lift your hands off the keys. And when using an education app like Faber’s Piano Adventures Player, the page turning automatically follows your playing, making it simple to learn at your own pace.

Other piano learning methods

Piano Lessons

Even in an online world, there's still a strong case for one-on-one lessons with a piano teacher. Find the right tutor and they'll be able to give you tailored advice on everything from reading music to nailing your technique - plus the encouragement to keep pushing when the going gets tough. Find out more about this approach here.

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Learn Online

Learning piano online has grown in popularity in recent years as learning piano software has developed. Our guide presents some of the current options available; from YouTube piano lessons to free trials of some of the newest learning software. Whether you're into classical music or the latest hit tunes, simply search for your favourite songs and you'll find what you need to get started.

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By Ear/Rote

The traditional approaches above don't suit everyone. Some aspiring pianists are happier learning under their own steam, whether that means listening to a favourite song (then working out how to play it by ear) or watching a pianist friend perform a piece (then copying and self-correcting). If this path appeals to you, get started here.

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