From Sound to Sign

Abstract

One of the most contentious issues in music pedagogy concerns when and how to introduce notation to a beginning instrumentalist. Most current teaching introduces musical notation very early in the process, perhaps because many teachers believe that beginners who are taught by ear will never reach the same level of reading proficiency as children who are introduced to notation from their earliest lessons. In contrast, proponents of the sound before sign approach argue that children will have difficulty learning to read notation unless their musical knowledge is sufficiently developed for them to be able to relate the sound of what they can already play with the symbols used to represent them...