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Originally Posted by Alawiggle
but at the same time I still get a feeling the notation is just kick starting my memory.
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Isn't that pretty much what you want notation for anyway?
I can 'read' standard notation in as much as I know what all the notes and signs mean. But I can't read it at playing speed straight off the page, first time through. I have to work through it slowly, looking at all the marks and working out what information they are all passing on to me. Then the more I play the piece, the quicker I am at 'reading it'. But the notation is just a tool, not the main event, so that doesn't seem to matter.
I'm sure that profession conductors and orchestra player can read a score like a book, and recreate the music in their heads as they go. But I don't really need to do that just yet. Each month of practice makes me quicker at it though.
When I first had some piano lessons - many years ago - I had huge trouble trying to read the music. I actually started to think that I had some sort of 'musical dyslexia'.
But I found that if I scanned the music and blew it up - in the manner of those 'big print' books for kids or people with bad eyesight - then it was
way easier to pull the information off the page. I also briefly used some flash cards to try and learn the note positions on the staff. But what really worked was just keeping on using it (the old practice, practice...). It just gradually gets faster and easier. I'll never be able to sight read a symphony straight off the page - but who cares!
Stick with it. It's a very handy skill to have. Not only is there a vast storehouse of music written that way that you can access, but it's very useful when you start delving into theory. It's also extremely useful if you want to make notes about your own compositions. (That sounds like a pun, but it's exactly what you do really....
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Cheers,
Chris