As a long time music educator one of the roadblocks I’ve seen repeatedly is students who convince themselves that learning to read music is too difficult for them to accomplish – before they ever even begin the process. I developed a unique way to prove to my students that they already have and use the skills necessary to read music. I use their prior knowledge of and experience with street signs and traffic lights to create this proof.

Step 1 I draw an X/Y axis on the board and explain that every musical note tells us (on a basic level) two pieces of information.
I then draw an upside down triangle on the board and ask the students what street sign it is. When they answer correctly what the sign is I then ask them what the sign instructs them to do. After they answer correctly I then draw an octagon on the board and ask them to identify the sign and what it instructs them to do.
We then discuss that the board drawings are only the shape without the verbiage or the corresponding colors. I then point out that the SHAPE of the traffic sign tells them to take a SPECIFIC ACTION.

I then return to the X/Y axis and using the horizontal line I write “The shape tells us how long to make a sound” and then I go through the shapes of Whole, Half, and Quarter notes and how many counts of sound each of those shapes indicates.

Step 2 I draw a traffic light on the board using a marker color that isn’t present on a traffic light. I then point to a specific light and ask them what they would do as a driver if this particular light was turned on. Once a student gives the correct answer I ask them how they knew what to do – they invariably tell me that that specific light is X color and I remind them that color isn’t on the board – I then explain that they knew to stop because the TOP LIGHT was turned on. The POSITION told them to take a specific action. I then draw horizontal lines through the traffic light so that it now resembles whole notes on a staff.

I then write using the vertical line of the X/Y axis – “Position tells us what fingers to press down” and then discuss that the position on lines and spaces simply tells a performer what to manipulate on the instrument to perform the specific note.

After the students see that they’re brain is already trained to process that a SHAPE indicates and that the POSITION indicates a specific action, they feel more capable of learning to read music.

I hope that this is helpful for you and your students and it helps everyone to have a successful music experience!