When Duolingo released the new Music course, I decided to give it a try. After seeing how it works, I embarked on the journey through the 69 lesson units. It is a fun way to learn something when I can only spend a few minutes on it daily.
Even though I have been writing music for several years, I can’t write or read it on a music sheet. I have a very minimal understanding of note lengths and where they are on the staff (provided it’s in the treble clef), but I feel like a child learning to read: “That’s an A… that’s a B… that’s a C…”
My expectation for this music course was simple: improve sight-reading. Such improvement helps me achieve two goals:
- Write and read portions of my music to facilitate recording
- Learn to play a few of my favorite songs on the piano by reading sheet music
Important: I’m NOT expecting to learn to play the piano; playing a virtual piano by tapping a finger on a phone screen isn’t cut for that.
Write and Read portions of my music
When composing my music, I often come up with a few parts that I want to add: strings, piano, orchestration, etc. To do that, I pull up my old IRig Keys and start playing until I find something I like. When I do, I need to memorize it and then record it.
That approach is time-consuming and very error-prone.
If I can write the notes down and read them as I play them, it’ll save me time and encourage me to do more of it. I don’t need to write the notes’ length precisely, even though that could be helpful in the future if I ever have somebody else play it.
I will put into practice the lessons I learned whenever I’m working on a new song for which I need these skills.
Play a few favorite tunes on the piano
There are a few of my favorite tunes that I’d like to learn how to play on the piano. I’m expecting to shred Chopin’s pieces a while ago. My goal is to play some simple tunes.
A few months after starting the music course, I completed the last lesson of unit 69. Although I didn’t get perfect scores (3 stars) in many lessons, I planned to get through the entire course and familiarize myself with everything covered.
The last lesson looked something like this:
Thinking that might be sufficient for me to at least start trying to play a song, I found the music sheet online. It begins like this:
Nope, I’m not ready yet.
- That’s a lot of sharp (#) notes. Duolingo only had a few lessons to practice that.
- Bass clef, dude, Duolingo has no lessons showing the bass clef.
What now?
New plan:
- Go through the lessons again, aiming for perfect scores. I have been doing this and feel I’m making progress (sight-reading a little faster), but I need a lot more practice.
- Get familiar with the bass clef. I may look for an iOS app, put it on my iPad, and practice using my iRig Keys.
I’m not in a hurry and only want to get a little better every day.
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