It's a common myth that the Suzuki method focuses solely on learning music by ear, neglecting the reading of music notation. That is not so. At Triad Suzuki Academy, we believe that music reading and ear training go hand in hand. Reading music opens up the whole library of written music for a student to explore. Our approach integrates reading from the very beginning, tailored to the child's developmental stage, ensuring a balanced skill set that serves as a foundation for lifelong musicianship.

We recommend a few resources to help with reading. For learning to read music, our free Name That Note game is a good place to start, and apps such as NoteWorks and StaffWars Live make note-reading practice fun for young learners. Websites such as musictheory.net offer tutorials and exercises that complement our lessons, at each student's own pace. We also use books such as I Can Read Music by Joanne Martin, a first note-reading book written for string students who learned to play by ear, as Suzuki students do.

At Triad Suzuki Academy, our students learn to play beautifully by ear and to read what they play. Reading lets them learn new pieces on their own and play in groups that read from written parts, and it helps them understand and enjoy music more deeply.

For more music reading resources, see the links below:

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