Okay, I never forgot how to read music, but every year I have a few students who do. It happens pretty often, just like 1st graders forget how to read words over the summer.
What Not To Do
Don’t write the notes into your music. You’ll pay more attention to the letters than you do to the notes, and you won’t re-learn the information. You also won’t notice which octave in which to play the notes.
A Grand Staff
Have a grand staff sitting next to your music while you practice. I really like this free one. It may be frustrating to look up the note you can’t remember every time, but this is how you learn. After awhile, you won’t have to look up the notes anymore.
Note Naming Worksheets
These are grueling, but they work. My favorites are these ones. They’re no-nonsense and they’re free.
Anchor Notes
What works well with anchor notes is that once you get those, you can use your intervals to get you around while you gain your fluency..
The Treble (G) Clef circles around the G. The two dots on the Bass (F) Clef are on either side of the F. Middle C is another easily identified note.
When my students are reviewing scales, I use the popcorn method, described here. If a student is struggling with note names, the student must name the note on the flashcard before they play the scale, chord, cadence, or arpeggio. If the flashcard shows a C or a G and the student gets the name of the note wrong, I draw again.
The students want to get a C or a G because in the 5-finger pattern, those are the only two without flats and sharps. This drives them to learn the C’s and the G’s on both staves. That’s a lot of anchor notes.
Flashcards
When I use flashcards with a student, I set the timer for a minute and have them say the name of the note and play it. This helps them understand which octave to put the note into on the keyboard.
I don’t care whether they say the name or play the note first. Usually they’ll name it first then play it, but it shows that they’re becoming more fluent when they play it first, then say it.
Fluency
The eventual goal is to get to fluency. In true fluency, you’re not even thinking note names. The goal is that you look at the note on the page and your finger automatically goes to the note. The name of the note is an afterthought. That is what it feels like to be fluent in the language of music.
Conclusion
I usually use all of these tactics at the same time, but sometimes I only do one or two of them because I can tell the student didn’t forget as much as they think. It’s a tough road, but it works. I usually talk to the students and say what the steps will be and tell them it’s going to be tough, but they can do it. They are usually more than willing to relearn how to read the music.