The course › Unit 4: Reading the treble clef
Lesson 23 of 72 · Steps and skips: read the distance rather than every note
When you read a word, you don’t decode every letter: you see its shape. Music works the same way: instead of naming every note, look at the distance from one note to the next. That’s an interval.
A 2nd is a step: from a line to the next space, or the other way around. On the keyboard, it’s the next white key, the next finger.
A 3rd is a skip: from a line to the next line, or from a space to the next space. On the keyboard, you skip one white key, and one finger.
2nds: from a line to the next space, or the other way around.
3rds: from line to line, or from space to space.
Find the first note (a landmark helps: middle C or G), then read the interval. A step: the next finger. A skip: skip one finger.
To read a melody: find the first note, then follow the intervals one by one. Step or skip? Up or down? Or the same note, repeated?
Only the first note is named: the rest is read by intervals.
Why this way: This is the intervallic reading of the Frances Clark and Faber methods: a good reader doesn’t name every note, but sees the outline of the melody from a starting note. Note names are still useful, but your eyes mostly learn to see distances.
The beginning of a very well-known song: do you recognize it as you play? Find the first note, then read the steps and skips.
An old German folk song, all the way through. It’s full of 3rds going down (G – E, F – D): read them as skips, without naming every note.
In Germany, this song is called Hänschen klein. As Lightly Row, it’s one of the very first pieces in the Suzuki method. In rhythm, with the accompaniment. The skips G – E and F – D are played with fingers 5 – 3 and 4 – 2.