Learning to read music is an important skill unless you only ever want to play the piano by ear. It doesn’t matter what style or genre of music that you prefer to play, learning to read music is a very useful skill.
If you want to learn to play classical music, then learning to read music is essential. You really can’t learn classical piano without learning to read music. With jazz or modern piano, which is more based around playing chords, then it is possible to learn these both without learning to read music, however it would be as limiting as playing the piano with one hand tied behind your back.
The advantage of learning to read music is that you get a greater understanding of what makes a melody, what notes are in different chords and even how rhythms can work. You also have the opportunity of discovering new music with new melodies, new chords and even new rhythms with written music, that you have literally never heard before. Some people (myself included) learn to read music well enough that they can look at some music and can then hear the melody in their head.
Learning how to read music is important, no matter what sort of music you want to play, because it can give you a greater understanding of what is happening with the melody, the chords or accompaniment part and the rhythm. I remember being familiar with the tune of ‘In the Mood’ composed by Glenn Miller, from a very young age. I thought it was pleasant. I finally got to see the music arranged for the piano when I was a teenager and it was at then that I realized that it was indeed brilliant because I could see that the melody was just using the notes of a C major chord over and over again, but what creates the interest is each time the notes of the chord are played separately, a different note was accented and made louder than the others. In some ways that music is very simple but the way it is played is genius.
I understand that learning to read music is downright daunting for many people. I also get that I was lucky to learn to read music before I could actually think in terms of something being easy or hard. It can be daunting when the music is all crowded together on the page. If music publishers allowed more space between the notes, then the music would look much less daunting.
I also think that some think that learning to read music is hard because that is what they have heard. People decide it is too hard before ever even trying. You can’t think something is too hard unless you have sincerely tried over a period of time. Just for the record, every single piano student I have ever had, has successfully learned to read music to the same level that they can play.
This is why I think learning to read music is not really hard: the music notation is logical. Written music follows a much more logical system than the English language, so if you can read English (which you are obviously doing now) I think you can learn to read music.
I think many people have made the mistake of trying to read too complex music way too soon and of course that would be hard. I think the golden rule for learning to read music is; to learn as much as you can play. This means that if you can only play a piece of music that only uses eight notes, then you should only expect to be able to read those eight notes. If you can only play one note at a time, then that is all you need to be capable of reading. If you are only playing crochets and minims (quarter notes and half notes), then that is all you need to be able to read at that particular stage.
Don’t fall for the lies that learning that learning to read music is too hard and not important. It is important because it can facilitate learning new chords, new rhythms and explore new music.