Reading Music

[NancyK]

I've been thinking of trying to learn to read music. I was wondering if people have found it helpful. I've been playing for 30 years and I never had much call to know how to read, but I wonder if by learning to read I can start to understand the theoretical stuff better.

[chickenpicker]

No I can't, and I wish I could. I can't even understand tab.

[blue metalflake]

Originally Posted by chickenpicker

No I can't, and I wish I could. I can't even understand tab.

That exactly sums me up. I'm fairly lucky as my ears can pick up most things good and quick.

[Big John]

Put me down as a "yes but can't remember last time i HAD to".

It certainly wont do you any harm to give it a go, i really can't remember the last time i was handed a sheet of 'dots' i had to play but fairly regularly i will use some theory knowledge for constructing or figuring out a chord or progression.
It can be fun, try it.

[OrovilleTim]

I'm kind of teaching myself, and can *slowly* read notes as long as there are no flats/sharps on the signature. Now if I could reliably translate them to where they are on the guitar neck, I'd be doing ok ;)

[zombywoof]

I have been playing over 40 years and still can't make out those fly specks and hen scratches. I did make an honest attempt years ago - went to a jazz player to pick up what I could pick up and he insisted I learn how to read music. Guess I just did not have the discipline.

[woodman]

i learned to read as a youngster playing in school bands and youth orchestras (flute). i can look at sheet music and kinda tell how it goes.

but set me in front of a music stand on guitar ... i can't read a lick!

it was always more efficacious for me to learn the music in my head first, then translate it to the fretboard.

[tugboat]

I can read music. I find the piano easiest to translate with notes and standard music notation. I played the piano for about 11 years until I went to college (plan to pick it back up once I graduate, get a job, house, and piano).

But I have no motivation in any way, shape, or form to translate that to the guitar. Tablature is much more straightforward, and you can pick up on most popular rock and country with a decent ear and a little patience anyways. I play guitar because its fun, relaxing, a great way to vent, and a great way to escape. Anything that gets in the way of that for me will just turn it into work. Learning to translate notes to the guitar would just get in the way.

P.S. I didn't vote because there's no option for "I can read music, but can't translate that to the fretboard"

[sound dog]

I learned to somewhat when I was in school bands and first started taking guitar, but I fell out of it. I always had a good ear and was usually able to play whatever I wanted to, or a reasonable facsimile.

I do think it's one of those things like golf or skiing, that is best learned when you are young, just so it seems more natural. I look at it now and it looks SO intimidating...I am in total awe of anyone who can do it.

I can't read for squat now....there are times when I regret it, but at the same time it hasn't hurt as far as getting gigs or jobs in bands has been concerned.

[mark norwine]

I read, and can't imagine not being able to....to me it's a huge asset.

But, then again, my playing circumstances {big bands, pit bands} are such that it isn't an option

[BritishBluesBoy]

I learned to read music as a kid while having classical guitar lessons. To be honest, I rarely need to now although it is useful once in a while... Depends on what kind of music you play I suppose... If you are into Jazz I'd say you really need to read, otherwise tabs and a good set of ears should get you through...

[Disastercaster]

It's all about the blobs with my guitar teacher so I'm learning at the moment.

[Larry F]

Originally Posted by woodman

it was always more efficacious for me to learn the music in my head first, then translate it to the fretboard.

That's I how read music. I look at it, mentally hear it, and then play what I hear. It took me many years, though, to be able to look at a piece of music and hear it internally. Especially orchestra stuff.

Reading music is just a skill. There's a learning curve and one needs to keep at it. I think the problem that people have is that their guitar skills vastly outweigh the musical quality of beginning-level music reading, like Mary Had a Little Lamb.

If I were to do it all over again, I would immerse myself in it. When I was in graduate school, I had to pass piano profiency exams that involved sight-reading orchestral scores, old clefs, and figured bass realization. It was damn hard. But someone told me to use the immersion approach and it worked. If a klutz like me could eventually sightread a Brahms symphony at the piano, then anyone can read single line melodies for the guitar. Just immerse yourself in it and you can accomplish anything.

[Pete Galati]

Can't read music. Or tabs.

It would have helped me a lot to be able to though. I recommend learning while you're young enough for it to help you, and you can still see well enough to do it.

[guit145]

Originally Posted by woodman

i learned to read as a youngster playing in school bands and youth orchestras (flute). i can look at sheet music and kinda tell how it goes.

but set me in front of a music stand on guitar ... i can't read a lick!

+1

It does help knowing time signatures, basic termonlogy, bars, beats, counts, codas, and things like that sometimes slip into charts. But I haven't found a use for having all the notation and staffs memorized.

[0le FUZZY]

...Learned tew read music back inna 50s onna pie-anner with formal lessins but soon found that there waz noe music rit fer the songs I wanted tew dew onna pie-anner or my TELECASTER sew by ear waz the onlee way after that. Songs like "Hang down yer head Tom Dooly" er "I walk The Line" er 'Blueberry Hill" er "Wildwood Flower" jes weren't rit down noe kind place.

...For 50 years and with a dozen er sew bands pickin all kind of music there has never been a need tew reed noe cottin pickin sheets fer me although I hadda dew wit in fiddy ate with the skool band.



...I wood dent waste my time now iffin I had it tew dew all over again. I'd skip all them funny lookin dots with stems and flags on em and jes dew the songs.







(deranged internet-based alter ego, with my own lexicon and all.)

Please visit my page

[Larry F]

If a young player is deadly serious about a career, then reading music can be a big plus. When I was younger, I got a million gigs just based on my ability to read. These paid really well and put me in touch with musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds. It led to many collaborations and friendships. It was a different world than playing in a single band, which I had also done and liked for different reasons.

One of my favorite memories is the time my guitar teacher and I spent 4 hours on a Thanksgiving day sight-reading 2-part single line stuff. Just digging and letting it fly. What a blast that was.

Reading also gives one access to a wide variety of music practically at one's fingertips. Libraries have loads of classical stuff, fake books give you access to a bazillion tunes, and there are tons of fiddle-tunes in print. All you have to do is open up the book and off you go into worlds outside of your everyday musical experience.

[JohnnyCrash]

I can, but rarely need to.

This looks like it may be changing in the near future though :)

[magicguitar]

I played sax in HS and read music well. But never bothered to learn the notes on the guitar... I can still read music, just slower. Have been thinking that it would be nice to learn the note positions on the guitar so I could follow sheet music. I also do very well with tab, provided I KNOW the song. Tab is pretty much useless if you don't know what the tune is.

[Robin Nahum]

At the jazz workshop I attend, I am starting to have to play parts - usually 3s or 4s. Because these parts do not sound like the melody, there is little choice but to learn them by reading. I could key them in to the computer and play them back using Finale but this now feels like cheating and/or putting off the inevitable.

It has been a struggle - and still is, but I am getting to the stage where the fingers go to the right place automatically. It's still early days for counting and rhythm though.

I have spent the summer break practising by reading tunes that I enjoy listening to - "Yardbird Suite", "Doxy", "Oleo" and "A Remark You Made", rather than "Mary Had a Little Lamb". I am also working through a transcript of Miles' solo on "Oleo". But I suspect that I will need to go back to simple exercises in Leavitt to really nail the counting.

The other reason I'm learning to read is to be able to read (and later compose?) chordal melodies.

[Joe-Bob]

Wow...this is sad....

[DJG105]

Reading music is pretty important to me, i spend a lot of time shuffling through random sheets and the real books, and i really feel reading music has helped me alot at becoming a better guitar player.

Negotiating fingerings was, to me, one of the harder aspects of reading sheet music for guitarists. its important to be able to play any line in many different fingerings for sight reading (knowing the fretboard well is a pre-requisite, naturally), because as the notes come at you, you need to figure out which position is gonna be the one that'll work out best.

like everything else, It is and always will be a work in progress for me, but i feel it's rewarding enough to pursue.

[genelovesjez]

I've always felt that traditional music notation works fine for some instruments (like the saxophone I played in high school), but doesn't work so well for guitar, where you can play notes in a whole variety of positions. Maybe someone can come up with a better system?

[Leon Grizzard]

I no whiz sight reader, but I read well enough to have learned a bunch from books in standard notation. I also think you understand what's going on much better (if you know some theory) by seeing the note and rhythmic notation.

That said, if there is tab below the standard notation, my eyes go the tab.

[sean79]

I learned how to read it in fourth grade. Used it in grades four, five, and six - playing the saxophone at school. Now, many years later, I can't read a lick of music (can't play anything on that old sax either).