Question: Is it easier to learn chess or reading music?
Chess notation and musical notation have a fair amount in common. Those who have studied diligently are rewarded with a chessboard/symphony in their mind. Still, reading musical notation and/or recording chess games are arguably the least fun aspects of “playing.” Some instructors even claim that it slows the learning process while new students find the practice dull or even revolting.
As a musician, I find that it is helpful remember that when learning a piece of music you can go as slowly as you need. Unless you are studying at a college level, no one should have a hard deadline to finish at a certain time. In the real world, a great deal of musical literacy has no speed necessity on the sight understanding part. It’s much more critical for practicing musicians to learn it right. Always remember that trying to learn a new piece of music to fast will undoubtably end up in working twice as hard to fix already well practiced mistakes.
As a chess player, the basic rules of chess are not very difficult to learn/teach but most new players despise notating their games at first. It’s simply much more fun to play 15 games in 1 hour than spend 1 hour focusing on playing and recording one game well. In chess, forging ahead without learning to notate properly will undoubtedly hurt newer players in the long run as they will repeat mistakes rather than learning from them. In youth chess tournaments, only the least skilled players do not notate their games and in professional circles, every player does.
As an instructor, I require that my students be either musically or chess literate based on their field of study. IMHO if you wish to have long term success in either art form you simply must be willing to put in the effort to build a foundational understanding. It stands to reason that such an understanding is much less likely without sufficient literacy in the art for which you hope to achieve success in.
My Wyzant profile is located here: Chris T. – Guitar and Chess Tutor in Fremont, CA