Heather Niemi Savage, founder of The Music Hub, is a professional collaborative pianist, composer and adjunct professor of music theory.
Over the years, I have taught piano privately to students of all ages, and I noticed a few patterns related to the traditional way music reading is taught.
When the 2nd clef was introduced, my students forgot which sentence was used for which clef and sometimes they were mixed together.
My students would stop at each note, figure out its letter, then find it on the piano and play it. This was slow and tedious and interfered with my students being able learn songs quickly or play smoothly.
I considered how I read music as a professional pianist and changed how I taught.
Now, I teach my students to read the shape of the line of notes using musical movement and intervals instead of deciphering each individual letter name. My students progress more quickly now and experience less frustration!