I'm going to try to learn to sight read notation

[TBman]

I can identify the notes on paper, sometimes I have to take a moment and do a little count thing, but I get there. What I don't do is take a notation only arrangement and then go from there to play it. I purchased Stanley Yates Graded Repertoire for Guitar Book 1 and decided to have a go at just using the notation. It will be slow going at first, but it will be interesting to see how it goes long term.

I suppose after 60 years of on and off playing I should really learn the fretboard upside down and inside out.

[canuck7]

Will be interested to hear how things go. I read music well from a piano perspective and trumpet but have not learned notes up the fretboard beyond the 5th fret on most strings…would really like too though!!

[Sev112]

If you buy e.g classical guitar pieces, then sometimes they will provide the fret or position to play certain phrases. Often they do not and certainly not if it’s not a guitar piece

So, the challenge of sight reading guitar pieces is identifying multiple notes that are plucked/played at the same time (ie which are stacked vertically), which is far less easy to sight read . Also in conjunction with playing a melody around those.

What you can do is remember that

(A) most chords are a 1st 3rd 5th and 7th - so they will be by coincidence all on the horizontal lines, or all in the horizontal gaps. That tells you it’s a standard-ish chord.
(B) So read what the 3 or 4 notes are, say they are ACE then it’s an Am chord (or variant). Now what are the various positions you can play those notes - at the root fret, at the 2nd fret, at the 5th fret etc. if you know those chord extension shapes, then that will help you where you want your fingers to be

Written down it sounds more complex than the point I’m trying to make

[EZYPIKINS]

Good luck

I sometime thought I should've learned notation, shape notes.

Decided, to focus my time on learning to play instead of learning to read.

In the end, and that's were I consider my current being. I believe I made the right choice.

[leew3]

Good for you. I"m in a similar position in that early in my learning I read fluently but the ensuing 50 years have not included it much. I too will work on it over the winter and see how it goes. At about age 14 I got a B.B. King songbook and could play the leads note for note on my Gibson Melody Maker through my Kalamazoo amp. I quickly concluded that there was more to B.B. King's sound than just playing the notes!

[Mandobart]

All the best in this endeavor Barry! Learning notation as a kid has been a big benefit for me as I branch out into other genres that have a large sheet music library. I started on violin, and am still able to sight read music on violin or mandolin as easy as reading a newspaper.

Gotta figure if I could pick it up at 10 it's certainly possible for others too.

Transferring notation understanding to guitar didn't come until later for me as I was mostly self taught and learned the chord progressions by ear first, then picked out the melody from the notes in the chords. I'm still not as fluent reading notation on guitar as I am on violin/mandolin, but it's coming along as I work on it. Part of the challenge is the wider range of the guitar - it's easy to get lost in all the ledger lines below C4 or above C6 on the treble clef.

[GCWaters]

I found this series helpful—visualized the fretboard the way I did:

https://themissingmethod.com/b/missing-method-2

[TBman]

Originally Posted by GCWaters

I found this series helpful—visualized the fretboard the way I did:

https://themissingmethod.com/b/missing-method-2

That's a good approach. Learn by position. Good idea.

[thefsb]

Originally Posted by TBman

I suppose after 60 years of on and off playing I should really learn the fretboard upside down and inside out.

That's a different thing from learning to sight read tadpoles and telegraph lines.

Some players need to be able to sight read but many don't and I don't and don't expect to. When I'm learning a piece written in tadpoles and telegraph lines I have to figure out the fingering anyway I save that in tab format in Guitar Pro.

I think it's very cool to be able to sight read but it's a big task to learn it and I want to spend that time on other things.

[mr. beaumont]

I think knowing the fretboard is absolutely key. And if you're arranging your own stuff, fretboard knowledge plus chord construction.

Sight reading--for some players in some situations it's very important. But obviously not for all. But even getting better at reading in general, whether or not you're actually sight reading in real time, is very helpful. There's a lot of music that becomes available to you when you can.

Together--being able to read and knowing the fretboard inside out, makes learning new pieces SOOO much easier and more efficient.

[GCWaters]

Originally Posted by TBman

That's a good approach. Learn by position. Good idea.

Not the traditional positions thoughgh— breaks the fretboard down into three regions

[mtdmind]

TB, it's great you are doing this. Reading will open up lots of music doors. The tip that was helpful to me was to learn/memorize all the notes in the first four frets. Then the notes on frets 5 to 8 and then 8 to 12.

[Chromatic Nomad]

Hey TBman, good luck on this endeavor. I would like to share with you a technique I used when learning to read all around the neck. I read the treble clef from Bach Inventions. At first, it seemed impossible and I thought this must be why pianists play it and not guitarists. But soon I began to figure out all sorts of neck positions to play these melodic works of genius. The melodies are largely scalewise and arpeggiations and they follow the key signatures in a very common way. It is great preparation for learning the neck up and down. The left hand or bass clef can also be read quite nicely with some practice.

You can find the Inventions for free on IMSLP.org. https://imslp.org/wiki/15_Inventions...hann_Sebastian)