Five months in and I still couldn't read music. Every song I learned was from watching YouTube tutorials, copying finger positions. It worked but I was completely dependent on tutorials. If nobody made a video for a song I wanted, I was stuck.
Finally sat down to learn notation. Took maybe three weeks of 10-15 minutes daily. Not hard – just had to actually do it instead of avoiding it.
The basics: music is written on a staff – five horizontal lines. Notes can sit on lines or in spaces between them. Higher position on staff = higher pitch. Lower position = lower pitch.
For piano, you get two staves connected. Top staff (treble clef) is generally right hand, higher notes. Bottom staff (bass clef) is generally left hand, lower notes. The two staves together are called the grand staff.
Treble clef lines from bottom to top: E, G, B, D, F. "Every Good Boy Does Fine." Spaces from bottom to top spell FACE. Just memorize these – there's no shortcut.
Bass clef lines: G, B, D, F, A. "Good Boys Do Fine Always." Spaces: A, C, E, G. "All Cows Eat Grass."
Middle C sits on a small line between the two staves. It's the reference point connecting everything.
Note shapes tell you duration. Whole note is a hollow oval, gets four beats. Half note is hollow oval with stem, gets two beats. Quarter note is filled oval with stem, gets one beat. Eighth notes have flags on the stem, get half a beat. Sixteenth notes have two flags.
The time signature at the beginning tells you how to count. 4/4 means four quarter notes per measure. 3/4 means three quarter notes per measure (waltz time). The top number is how many beats, bottom number is what note value gets one beat.
Sharps and flats appear either at the beginning (key signature, applies to whole piece) or next to individual notes (accidentals, apply just to that note in that measure).
How to practice reading: Start with simple pieces. Beginner method books like Alfred's or Faber Piano Adventures are designed for this. Don't use tutorials – force yourself to decode the notation.
Go slowly. Like embarrassingly slowly at first. If you can't read a note instantly, you're going too fast. Speed comes with pattern recognition, not rushing.
Flashcards help for memorizing note positions. Apps like "Notes Teacher" or "Music Tutor" drill you on identifying notes. Do 5 minutes daily for a few weeks.
Learn to see intervals, not just individual notes. If one note is on a line and the next is the very next space, that's a step. If it skips a line or space, that's a skip or larger interval. This speeds up reading significantly.
The compound skill: You're processing pitch (what note), rhythm (how long), and execution (which fingers) simultaneously. This is why it feels overwhelming at first. But once each piece becomes automatic, they combine naturally.
How long until comfortable? About 2-3 months of regular practice before simple pieces are readable in real-time. 6-12 months before it feels natural. Years before truly sight-reading complex pieces. But you'll be functional much sooner than you think.
MusicTheory.net has free note identification exercises. And MuseScore has tons of free sheet music to practice with once you're ready.