How do I learn to read sheet music, and how long does it take?
Learn landmarks, not all lines at once: with daily 10-minute reps most people read simple music in weeks and comfortably in 3-6 months.
The staff is a graph: higher on the page means higher in pitch, left to right is time. You only need to memorize a few anchor notes; the rest you read as neighbors.
Daily ten-minute practice reading easy material beats everything else. Expect slow note-by-note reading at first; that is normal and temporary.
Start with landmarks: middle C, treble G (the line the clef curls around), bass F. Read intervals from the anchors: next line or space is a step, skip a line is a third. Learning "every line and space" as separate facts is the slow way.
The treble lines are E-G-B-D-F and spaces spell FACE; use them to check, not as your primary method. Add rhythm reading separately: clap notation before combining pitch and time.
Timeline with daily practice: simple melodies within 2-4 weeks, comfortable reading of easy repertoire in 3-6 months, real sight-reading a longer game measured in material read, not months elapsed.
Fluent reading is pattern recognition, the same skill as reading words: experts perceive shapes (scale runs, arpeggios, chord voicings), not individual notes. Volume of easy material is therefore the training variable that matters: read lots of music below your instrument level.
Connect symbols to sound from day one: audiation (hearing what you read before playing it) is what separates readers from decoders. Reading drills that immediately sound the answer, as the notation trainer here does, build that link automatically.
Key signatures become one-glance reads once the circle of fifths is internalized: the signature names the key, and accidentals become expected events rather than surprises.