Reading Music: Does it help guitar players?

[KCKC]

As a bassist life would have been alot easier if I was a site reader. I can muddle through on my own. But I agree, learn to read and a whole new world opens up!

MHO from the bottom end,

kc

[Jeffscreamedcorn]

You need what you need.

[Leon Grizzard]

Originally Posted by TelZilla

a question for you, jazztele:

1. Can you point me to a good jazz guitar book which would "require" me to read music? I'm interested in the Kenny Burrell/Wes Montgomery jazzy blues/ bluesy jazz neighborhood in particular, and I'm not sure I'd go that route, but I'm interested in checking something out.

I'm not jazztele, but Micky Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar, book 1, is often cited as the best first Jazz book. The reading is straightforeward, and no tab to distract you. If you don't play any Jazz, it is a great introduction. Cool chords, riffs, vamps and rhythm changes. First published in 1955; still in print.

[TeleLubber]

When I attended G.I.T. (Musician's Institute) in the 80's, they pretty much forced you to learn to read music.. but also used some tab and alot of chord diagrams along with it.. I couldn't read music for squat when I arrived, and in the beginning had to ask people to hum the melodies for me so I could play things back by ear... but I eventually learned to read halfway decently in a short amount of time by practicing everyday for just 15-20 minutes.. and I learned ALOT about music along the way, which came in handy when I started picking up and playing other instruments like sax and keyboards..

I think the most important thing about being able to read music is that when learning standards or other pieces, is you get to learn about the relationships between melody and harmonies which helps when improvising, and makes modal playing more accessible..

That being said, when in doubt, you could always take the SRV approach, dig in and just play a blues scale over everything.. but you're limiting yourself..

[Larry F]

Originally Posted by TeleLubber

I think the most important thing about being able to read music is that when learning standards or other pieces, is you get to learn about the relationships between melody and harmonies which helps when improvising, and makes modal playing more accessible..

Right on. There is a lot to be learned by comparing melody with the underlying harmony. A good first question to ask is how is the harmony projected through the melody? If you took the chords away and had only the melody, could you reconstruct the chords? Undoubtedly true with the classical greats and probably with most jazz. Non-tonal classical music and outside jazz is another story, since that music is not based on traditional harmony.

[Tim Bowen]

Maybe it's just me, but the question I'd ask is:

Reading music: Does it help musicians?


Certainly, you can blaze through a Friday night at Wagon Willie's Western Saloon or similar venue without being able to read. And you can play loads of cool music without reading a note.

Speaking strictly for myself, I truly believe that the ability to read music offers one a deeper understanding of music. Some say that harmony and theory is a separate discipline and study, and maybe it is, but my feeling is that the two not only go hand in hand, but nurture and cultivate each other.

I'll put it in another light, one that most anybody can relate to: reading music has allowed me to earn more money as a musician. And I'm not even a great reader. However, there have been casuals/society gigs and sessions along the way where I simply would've had no choice but to throw in the towel, sans the ability to read. And I surely wouldn't be comfortable in teaching music to 35 clients a week if I didn't read and speak the language.


Academics, sessions, and casuals aside, a few real world examples of why I'll never ease up in this regard:


* My duo partner and I have worked together off and on for decades. Our conversations about making harmonic and arrangement alterations used to be like pulling teeth, just absolutely painful ("no, put your finger *here*..."). However, about 6-7 years ago, he started taking weekly piano lessons, which he continues to this day. He's learned the language. Now, our musical conversations are concise, pragmatic, painless. It's about communication.

* I've endured every bonehead count and trainwreck start to tunes on the bandstand over the years that is imaginable, and I've contributed to such before I got hip. Tunes that start with pickup notes and incomplete measures in particular are disasters waiting to happen. I feel that reading music, more than anything else, creates confidence in this regard. I think it's actually important to know whether a tune is in common or cut time, whether it's in 3/4, 6/8, or 12/8, or something unusual like 5 or 7, and if there's a single bar of 2/4 within an otherwise common time (4/4) signature. I guess I'm just not a fan of bonehead counts and trainwrecks.

* Song forms. Reading from (seeing) a variety of musics teaches you loads about songforms. Whether it's cross referencing between Scottish reels and bluegrass, or between Gershwin and jazz, the differences and similarities between song forms jump out more readily when you see the formats on a regular basis. Anybody that has ever been hired to play a show with a bunch of unfamiliar material, with no rehearsals, and very little time to pull it all together, knows what a stressfest this can be. Having been in this situation many times, I'll say that the ability to write a proper chart with repeats, first and second endings, codas, etc. has saved me from being the idiot more than once. I see all sorts of bizarre "shorthand" charts - and while this can work for the individual that writes it, it's rarely the sort of thing that can practically be shared with other musicians (see "communication" above).

[Flat357]

I taught myself to read music to a degree . Understanding time lengths and Italian phrasing etc was a little harder .

Was it helpful ?

Not in the least ( to me )

I find it hard to see for starters , and tab even harder . YES I NEED GLASSES LOL

But seriously , if you want to use notation , you have to basically relearn how to play guitar regarding how you approach the instrument .

The average guitarist tends to not think too much about the notes that he is playing on the guitar , and generally speaking knows the root notes , and (some of ) the 3rds , 7ths , 9ths etc , but rarely thinks about what those notes are called .

Biggest bad habit there is in my opinion .

Most guitarists know every note of the E strings , and probably the A string , but the other strings tend to be a weak point .

If you are self taught , the chances of you reading music are greatly reduced , but it's really quite easy to learn . It's just not so easy to apply , unless you readdress your approach to playing , as previously stated .

I'm fairly sure that if we all were to take a month out from our general practise routine , and learn the notes of the guitar whilst reading music , we'd all benefit .

As to whether reading music ( or even tab ) is then useful :

It won't play the guitar for you ; That's for sure
It won't develop your improvisational skills , though may help you to learn more riffs ( imho )
It won't develop your ear ( imho )
It won't tell you where to play the notes as tab does .
It won't get you a band / session job on it's own merits .
There are more .......

It will focus your knowledge of the fret board .
It will help you to play a piece of unknown music .
It will give you a better understanding of how a piece is constructed
It will improve your knowledge of theory
There are more ........

Would I say it makes you a better musician ? NO / YES

For me , it's similar to a guy reading an instruction manual in order to do a job v a guy who has done the job a hundred times and no longer needs the manual .
The only difference is , is that when the job description changes , the music reader has another instruction manual , where the non reader is left having to having to figure it out .

However , take away the instruction manual from the reader , and the majority of them will take longer to do the job than the non reader .

The key is to be able to do both , which many of the better players can .

[klasaine]

"It won't get you a band / session job on it's own merits."

Yeah it will if you're a good reader.
Really! If you read well, play in tune and in time and have decent tone you will absolutely work in this business. There are many opportunities for guys to "just read the part down" and not make too many audible mistakes.

"However , take away the instruction manual from the reader , and the majority of them will take longer to do the job than the non reader."

In my experience, which is vast - almost totally a falsehood. Most guys and gals that read really well are also great improvisers and part 'maker-uppers', rhythm players, arrangers, etc., et al.

Reading music will also absolutely help your improvisation and will definitely help your ear - ever hear of solfege?

[thekillingjoke]

Do I know how to read music? Yeah, a little. I can make out the notes and get the gist rhythms and all, though reading chords is difficult at times.

Do I need it? Not really. I've been playing for a while, and I know where all the notes are without thinking about it. I'm not real worried when I start playing.

[TelZilla]

Originally Posted by Leon Grizzard

I'm not jazztele, but Micky Baker's Complete Course in Jazz Guitar, book 1, is often cited as the best first Jazz book. The reading is straightforeward, and no tab to distract you. If you don't play any Jazz, it is a great introduction. Cool chords, riffs, vamps and rhythm changes. First published in 1955; still in print.

Must bee good if it's been in print for 53 years.

A couple of folks mentiontioned "the real book". Whazzat?

[Vladimir]

It sure helps if you're into jazz, since most of the good books are in sheet music.
I consider my self to have excellent pitch and I've been able to learn lots of stuff by ear, from classical to hard-rock. But jazz is sometimes very difficult to figure out by ear, even the very slow solos.

[SatelliteOrders]

This is something that has been on my mind. And my answer is, it depends on what you do.

I play for my church. We get chord sheets. Often fairly obscure chord sheets where they try to force a certain nuance and the wrong chords, but we get by.

I play and jam with friends. For much of these, it's either blues or someone plays a chord progression and the rest join in.

I pound on computers for money. I pound on guitars for love. For jamming and church, which constitute most of my playing, I do not and likely will not ever need to read music.

But....

I am trying to learn to play flatpicking and mandolin, which means fiddle tunes. I am not a plugged-in member of a local folk community, only connecting with other folkies about once or twice a year, so I don't have fiddlers all around me to steal melodies from. What I do have is the Fiddlers' Fakebook. It has everything in standard notation. If I'm going to learn the song, I'm going to have to learn it from notation. So, that's where I'm learning now.

[Ptrallan01]

I can't really read tab. I use it to get a general feel for the song and then throw it away and I can then only do what I learned in the tab because for me it doesn't = music. When I use standard notation to learn a song, I can learn the melody, the bass line if its there and figure out the chords by the notes in both staffs. I can switch over and play it on the piano to work out the intervals better and then I can decide where on the guitar I want to play it.

I play in a church band where none of the other members or singers read music. This forces me to improve my ear, but when we get around to working on hymns or more classical pieces I have to translate the sheet music for the group so that they can. Our keyboard player uses the number system so I can say iimin7/V7/Imaj7 in A and he can muddle through but I wouldn't put a chart in front of him.

As far as not knowing what posititon to play in the guitar in standard notation, try them all. You will find lots of new ideas to inspire you and some even cooler ways of playing partial chords then you could have imagined.

[jazztele]

Originally Posted by TelZilla

A couple of folks mentiontioned "the real book". Whazzat?

the original real book was a illegal collection of chord charts with melodies that was passed around between jazz students and players. it was notorious for mistakes and mislabelled songs.

the modern "real book" is published by hal leonard, in three volumes (1 being the most essential, but 2 is pretty damn important too) that contain the chords and melody for hundreds of jazz tunes

the real book is a template, of sorts, a suggestion. a working group will discuss their own changes to songs, but the real book allows folk who've never met to get together and play tunes...i actually have a "real book" gig tonight...me and a piano player at a party. All we've done is talk tunes and keys--otherwise we're going in blind...and we're gonna have a blast.

[TelZilla]

Originally Posted by Ptrallan01

I can't really read tab.

I can't understand when people say that. I mean, all you need to know is what fret is what number, and which string on the tab is the Low E and which the high e. I hope I don't come across like a jerk, but I've seen this lots of times, and I just don't get it.

Do you really mean you can't read tab, or just that you don't like to?

Also how does sheet music represent things like bends, slides up or down to a note, pulloffs, or really heavy vibrato?

[sax4blues]

This really isn't a yes/no question. We could ask the same about any music skill. Sweep picking: Does it help guitar players? (Probably more than it helps auto mechanics). The answer might be “not really” if I’m a rhythm player in a 50’s DooWop band. The answer might be “absolutely” if I’m in a death metal band.

A more complete question could be: I want to play power chord rock in a garage punk band, will I need to learn to read music?

or

I want to be a professional guitar player for Broadway shows, will learning TAB help me?

[klasaine]

Originally Posted by TelZilla

I can't understand when people say that. I mean, all you need to know is what fret is what number, and which string on the tab is the Low E and which the high e. I hope I don't come across like a jerk, but I've seen this lots of times, and I just don't get it.

Do you really mean you can't read tab, or just that you don't like to?

Also how does sheet music represent things like bends, slides up or down to a note, pulloffs, or really heavy vibrato?

The same way it does on violin music. Or any brass and wind inst that can 'swoop' up or down into a note ... or use vibrato.

For example: Vibrato - a big curvy line over the note.

Trust me, there's very little in modern guitar music that hasn't been done before (or something very close to it) and "notated".
If you want to see some ... http://cnx.org/content/m11884/latest/

[charlie chitlin]

My guitar doesn't have any notes.
I just play it.

[Larry F]

`AZsz1`

Originally Posted by klasaine

The same way it does on violin music. Or any brass and wind inst that can 'swoop' up or down into a note ... or use vibrato.

For example: Vibrato - a big curvy line over the note.

Trust me, there's very little in modern guitar music that hasn't been done before (or something very close to it) and "notated".
If you want to see some ... http://cnx.org/content/m11884/latest/

Also, there are standard methods of indicating which notes to play on which strings. One way is to use circled numbers to indicate strings. Usually you only need to do this once or twice in a passage, since logically the other strings can be inferred. The other method is to use roman numerals to indicate position.

[daves561]

Two things about reading standard notation that I didn't see addressed here:

• Once you learn the system, it's faster to read than tab. When it comes to the pitches themselves, standard notation is nothing but pictures, shapes, and contours -- a position on a bunch of lines. A scalar run is immediately obvious because it has an obvious shape: a run of notes going up or down. Same goes for arpeggios. Thirds and seconds are very easy to develop an intuition for. Tablature, by contrast, is a combination of a position on a bunch of lines (which string) but *also* a symbol telling you which fret to play. This symbol is abstract and complicated: this little swirly thing means "six" and this straight line means "one" and this *slanted* straight line with the horizontal line on top means "seven." It's not only an extra dimension, but a different way of decoding. This is brain damage, asking your head to combine two different deciphering mechanisms for one goal. No one will ever sight-read tab. Not to say I don't like tab for learning. It's just more complicated than people realize, because we all learned Arabic numerals years ago, so the learning curve isn't as steep.

• Standard notation is really neat and beautiful to look at. One of my favorite pastimes since I was eight years old is getting out a score and following along to a recording. Seeing how the printed communication is transformed into living music is fascinating and instructive. The notation of Debussy and Ravel is a novel in itself.
  

Conclusion: Whether or not reading standard notation helps your guitar playing, it's really cool.