Chords for How to Speed Read Music
Tempo:
115.3 bpm
Chords used:
C
G
D
F
F#
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
Today I'm going to talk about how to read a song using speed reading principles.
This may sound kind of weird, but years ago I took a speed reading class,
and it really changed the way that I read books.
Conventionally, when reading words or music,
we tend to start out more with our left brain side by focusing on one thing at a time.
[G] And it takes a lot of [N] energy and effort, and it's a fairly contracted process.
And then as we get more skilled at reading,
we actually expand the way we look at words in music, and it becomes more relaxed.
So I'm going to explain a little bit about that today,
and give you some things you can practice to develop those skills.
So I actually learned this in a speed reading class.
The idea was you would start by reading some words in a typical contracted way.
For example, you might read, too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra.
But then you would practice moving your finger across more words at a time,
and trying to start seeing more words at the same time.
And in doing so, relaxing and letting those words go into your brain in a picture-taking way.
And then you would practice seeing an entire line of words going into your brain.
And then you would see two lines, and then you would eventually see a paragraph and the whole page.
And it's very similar to taking a picture of the page in your brain.
So with music, it's the same idea.
So here's what I'm going to [G] suggest.
If you're interested in going from this contracted focus of looking note by [C] note,
measure per measure,
[F#]
to instead having a more expansive receptivity,
looking at [B] the picture of the page,
then here's what you can do to accomplish that.
So I would start with looking at one measure worth of music.
[C] And notice how [D] you're feeling when you're doing that.
Are you focusing really intently?
And try to just breathe and relax as you're doing that.
Then practice looking at two measures at the same time.
And again, try to be relaxed when you're doing that.
Then practice looking at three measures at a time.
[G#] [E]
[Cm] [N] And then again, what you're doing is you're training yourself to use what's called soft eyes,
where you relax your eyes, let your peripheral vision expand,
and you let the picture of what you're looking at go almost passively into your brain.
And in my opinion, the difference between looking in a contracted way at words or the language of music
is equivalent to using your left brain.
You're just thinking and processing and being very analytical.
Whereas using the soft eyes approach or the speed reading approach,
you're actually just letting the picture of what you're looking at
be absorbed into more the right side of your brain.
So the idea is that you're letting your right brain absorb the entire song
rather than thinking note, note, note, note, note, contracted, contracted, contracted, left brain, left brain.
You're instead thinking, here's the picture of the page.
It's coming into my brain.
[C] So I could [G#] just look at this entire song [C] as a picture.
[Am] [C]
[D] [G] So I'm really relaxing while [F] I'm looking at it.
[C] And I'm playing it, not thinking, I'm not focusing note by note.
I'm really [F] just seeing the whole picture [F#] and letting myself [C] respond to that [F] picture by playing.
[C] The notes of the picture.
[D] [C]
So to practice this idea, just like speed reading, start with a small amount of looking at it
and practice looking at an increasing number of measures, words and notes at a time.
And playing that, for example, here you might look at four measures.
[C#] Again, relaxing.
[B] Then practice looking at six measures.
[C]
[N] And then practice looking at two lines of music at the same time and playing the song.
Then practice looking at the entire song.
It takes a little while to get to where that feels comfortable.
But I think it's a really good goal to have in reading music to go from this left brain contracted focusing
to more right brain absorbing receptivity [C] in how the music goes into your brain.
So there you go.
Sight reading music from a speed reading, holistic right brain point of view.
Have fun!
[D] [G] [C]
This may sound kind of weird, but years ago I took a speed reading class,
and it really changed the way that I read books.
Conventionally, when reading words or music,
we tend to start out more with our left brain side by focusing on one thing at a time.
[G] And it takes a lot of [N] energy and effort, and it's a fairly contracted process.
And then as we get more skilled at reading,
we actually expand the way we look at words in music, and it becomes more relaxed.
So I'm going to explain a little bit about that today,
and give you some things you can practice to develop those skills.
So I actually learned this in a speed reading class.
The idea was you would start by reading some words in a typical contracted way.
For example, you might read, too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra.
But then you would practice moving your finger across more words at a time,
and trying to start seeing more words at the same time.
And in doing so, relaxing and letting those words go into your brain in a picture-taking way.
And then you would practice seeing an entire line of words going into your brain.
And then you would see two lines, and then you would eventually see a paragraph and the whole page.
And it's very similar to taking a picture of the page in your brain.
So with music, it's the same idea.
So here's what I'm going to [G] suggest.
If you're interested in going from this contracted focus of looking note by [C] note,
measure per measure,
[F#]
to instead having a more expansive receptivity,
looking at [B] the picture of the page,
then here's what you can do to accomplish that.
So I would start with looking at one measure worth of music.
[C] And notice how [D] you're feeling when you're doing that.
Are you focusing really intently?
And try to just breathe and relax as you're doing that.
Then practice looking at two measures at the same time.
And again, try to be relaxed when you're doing that.
Then practice looking at three measures at a time.
[G#] [E]
[Cm] [N] And then again, what you're doing is you're training yourself to use what's called soft eyes,
where you relax your eyes, let your peripheral vision expand,
and you let the picture of what you're looking at go almost passively into your brain.
And in my opinion, the difference between looking in a contracted way at words or the language of music
is equivalent to using your left brain.
You're just thinking and processing and being very analytical.
Whereas using the soft eyes approach or the speed reading approach,
you're actually just letting the picture of what you're looking at
be absorbed into more the right side of your brain.
So the idea is that you're letting your right brain absorb the entire song
rather than thinking note, note, note, note, note, contracted, contracted, contracted, left brain, left brain.
You're instead thinking, here's the picture of the page.
It's coming into my brain.
[C] So I could [G#] just look at this entire song [C] as a picture.
[Am] [C]
[D] [G] So I'm really relaxing while [F] I'm looking at it.
[C] And I'm playing it, not thinking, I'm not focusing note by note.
I'm really [F] just seeing the whole picture [F#] and letting myself [C] respond to that [F] picture by playing.
[C] The notes of the picture.
[D] [C]
So to practice this idea, just like speed reading, start with a small amount of looking at it
and practice looking at an increasing number of measures, words and notes at a time.
And playing that, for example, here you might look at four measures.
[C#] Again, relaxing.
[B] Then practice looking at six measures.
[C]
[N] And then practice looking at two lines of music at the same time and playing the song.
Then practice looking at the entire song.
It takes a little while to get to where that feels comfortable.
But I think it's a really good goal to have in reading music to go from this left brain contracted focusing
to more right brain absorbing receptivity [C] in how the music goes into your brain.
So there you go.
Sight reading music from a speed reading, holistic right brain point of view.
Have fun!
[D] [G] [C]
Key:
C
G
D
F
F#
C
G
D
Today I'm going to talk about how to read a song using speed reading principles.
This may sound kind of weird, but years ago I took a speed reading class,
and it really changed the way that I read books. _
Conventionally, when reading words or music,
we tend to start out more with our left brain side by focusing on one thing at a time.
_ _ _ [G] And it takes a lot of [N] energy and effort, and it's a fairly contracted process.
And then as we get more skilled at reading,
we actually expand the way we look at words in music, and it becomes more relaxed.
So I'm going to explain a little bit about that today,
and give you some things you can practice to develop those skills.
So I actually learned this in a speed reading class.
The idea was you would start by reading some words in a typical contracted way.
For example, you might read, too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra.
But then you would practice moving your finger across more words at a time,
and trying to start seeing more words at the same time.
And in doing so, relaxing and letting those words go into your brain in a picture-taking way.
And then you would practice seeing an entire line of words going into your brain.
And then you would see two lines, and then you would eventually see a paragraph and the whole page.
And it's very similar to taking a picture of the page in your brain.
So with music, it's the same idea.
So here's what I'm going to [G] suggest.
If you're interested in going from this contracted focus of looking note by [C] note, _ _
measure per measure,
_ _ _ [F#] _ _
to instead having a more expansive _ receptivity,
looking at [B] the picture of the page,
then here's what you can do to accomplish that.
So I would start with looking at one measure worth of music. _
[C] _ _ And notice how [D] you're feeling when you're doing that.
Are you focusing really intently?
And try to just breathe and relax as you're doing that.
Then practice looking at two measures at the same time.
_ _ _ _ _ And again, try to be relaxed when you're doing that.
Then practice looking at three measures at a time.
_ _ _ [G#] _ _ _ [E] _
_ [Cm] _ _ [N] And then again, what you're doing is you're training yourself to use what's called soft eyes,
where you relax your eyes, let your peripheral vision expand,
and you let the picture of what you're looking at go almost passively into your brain.
And in my opinion, the difference between looking in a contracted way at words or the language of music
is equivalent to using your left brain.
You're just thinking and processing and being very analytical.
Whereas using the soft eyes approach or the speed reading approach,
you're actually just letting the picture of what you're looking at
be absorbed into more the right side of your brain.
So the idea is that you're letting your right brain absorb the entire song
rather than thinking note, note, note, note, note, contracted, contracted, contracted, left brain, left brain.
You're instead thinking, here's the picture of the page.
It's coming into my brain.
[C] _ _ So I could [G#] just look at this entire song [C] as a picture.
_ [Am] _ _ [C] _ _ _
[D] _ [G] So I'm really relaxing while [F] I'm looking at it. _
[C] And I'm playing it, not thinking, I'm not focusing note by note.
I'm really [F] just seeing the whole picture [F#] and letting myself [C] respond to that [F] picture by playing.
[C] The notes of the picture.
[D] _ _ _ [C] _ _
So to practice this idea, just like speed reading, start with a small amount of looking at it
and practice looking at _ an increasing number of measures, words and notes at a time.
_ And playing that, for example, here you might look at four measures. _ _
[C#] Again, relaxing.
_ [B] _ Then practice looking at six measures.
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[N] And then practice looking at two lines of music at the same time and playing the song.
Then practice looking at the entire song.
It takes a little while to get to where that feels comfortable.
But I think it's a really good goal to have in reading music to go from this left brain contracted focusing
to more right brain absorbing _ receptivity [C] in how the music goes into your brain.
So there you go.
Sight reading music from a speed reading, holistic right brain point of view.
Have fun! _
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
This may sound kind of weird, but years ago I took a speed reading class,
and it really changed the way that I read books. _
Conventionally, when reading words or music,
we tend to start out more with our left brain side by focusing on one thing at a time.
_ _ _ [G] And it takes a lot of [N] energy and effort, and it's a fairly contracted process.
And then as we get more skilled at reading,
we actually expand the way we look at words in music, and it becomes more relaxed.
So I'm going to explain a little bit about that today,
and give you some things you can practice to develop those skills.
So I actually learned this in a speed reading class.
The idea was you would start by reading some words in a typical contracted way.
For example, you might read, too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra.
But then you would practice moving your finger across more words at a time,
and trying to start seeing more words at the same time.
And in doing so, relaxing and letting those words go into your brain in a picture-taking way.
And then you would practice seeing an entire line of words going into your brain.
And then you would see two lines, and then you would eventually see a paragraph and the whole page.
And it's very similar to taking a picture of the page in your brain.
So with music, it's the same idea.
So here's what I'm going to [G] suggest.
If you're interested in going from this contracted focus of looking note by [C] note, _ _
measure per measure,
_ _ _ [F#] _ _
to instead having a more expansive _ receptivity,
looking at [B] the picture of the page,
then here's what you can do to accomplish that.
So I would start with looking at one measure worth of music. _
[C] _ _ And notice how [D] you're feeling when you're doing that.
Are you focusing really intently?
And try to just breathe and relax as you're doing that.
Then practice looking at two measures at the same time.
_ _ _ _ _ And again, try to be relaxed when you're doing that.
Then practice looking at three measures at a time.
_ _ _ [G#] _ _ _ [E] _
_ [Cm] _ _ [N] And then again, what you're doing is you're training yourself to use what's called soft eyes,
where you relax your eyes, let your peripheral vision expand,
and you let the picture of what you're looking at go almost passively into your brain.
And in my opinion, the difference between looking in a contracted way at words or the language of music
is equivalent to using your left brain.
You're just thinking and processing and being very analytical.
Whereas using the soft eyes approach or the speed reading approach,
you're actually just letting the picture of what you're looking at
be absorbed into more the right side of your brain.
So the idea is that you're letting your right brain absorb the entire song
rather than thinking note, note, note, note, note, contracted, contracted, contracted, left brain, left brain.
You're instead thinking, here's the picture of the page.
It's coming into my brain.
[C] _ _ So I could [G#] just look at this entire song [C] as a picture.
_ [Am] _ _ [C] _ _ _
[D] _ [G] So I'm really relaxing while [F] I'm looking at it. _
[C] And I'm playing it, not thinking, I'm not focusing note by note.
I'm really [F] just seeing the whole picture [F#] and letting myself [C] respond to that [F] picture by playing.
[C] The notes of the picture.
[D] _ _ _ [C] _ _
So to practice this idea, just like speed reading, start with a small amount of looking at it
and practice looking at _ an increasing number of measures, words and notes at a time.
_ And playing that, for example, here you might look at four measures. _ _
[C#] Again, relaxing.
_ [B] _ Then practice looking at six measures.
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[N] And then practice looking at two lines of music at the same time and playing the song.
Then practice looking at the entire song.
It takes a little while to get to where that feels comfortable.
But I think it's a really good goal to have in reading music to go from this left brain contracted focusing
to more right brain absorbing _ receptivity [C] in how the music goes into your brain.
So there you go.
Sight reading music from a speed reading, holistic right brain point of view.
Have fun! _
_ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _