Do you read music?

[RonS]

BB King was once asked this and answered "Not enough to hurt my playing".

I can read music, but I'm painfully slow. I always wanted to read better, but playing always got in the way.

When my girls where young I had them take piano lessons. 12 years later they can sight read almost anything put in front of them.

My oldest was in from college and she heard me struggling with Tchaikovsky's March on the guitar. I was using piano music and I could have figured it out in a few days. She took the music to the piano and within 30 minutes we figured out a nice arrangement.

The time we spent was a great Christmas present, but I still wish I could read better.

How about you, do you read music?

[djphelan01]

I read music but if it's not in the key of C I always screw up the sharps and flats. I then wonder why it doesn't sound quite right until I look at the key signature.

[ewalling]

I can read music, but unless it's something pretty simple, I have to check the fingerings with the music first before I can play it with fluency. But I am grateful for my old music lessons at secondary school. They not only helped with sight reading but also with chord structure. When I began learning the guitar this really made the theory side a lot easier.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by RonS

...How about you, do you read music?

Hi Ron...
I hold a degree in music, and have had lessons since 3rd grade - I'm 60 years old. I can read music, but have very little call for it.

They don't print scores of what I play, and my song arrangements are the ones I originate, so I'd have to score them myself to even make them available.

I think note reading is a bit overrated for the average player who just wants to play a few tunes and have some fun with his/her guitar.

Is there some area of music you are feeling drawn to where note reading would be helpful to you, or of use?

[kc8hyg]

i never had a need to read music till i turned 60 years old and became a part of the colerain consort. www.colerainconsort.org. all of the sudden there was this need to read,it has opened up many musical doors. it did take a year to get the hang of the little black dots. i'm still not an expert,but improving. gordon

[Brian Hague]

Un peu, but only for singing. I don't try to apply it to guitar playing b/c I can't find the black keys on my fretboard.

[El Conquistador]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

[SIZE="3"]Hi Ron...
I hold a degree in music, and have had lessons since 3rd grade - I'm 60 years old. I can read music, but have very little call for it.

I think note reading is a bit overrated for the average player who just wants to play a few tunes and have some fun with his/her guitar.

SIZE]

This is an issue that has proven to be very sensitive in the past, so, I am glad that Larry, who does read music, chimed in with what I think is very true. I do not read music, but, like BB, it hasn't gotten in my way. As Larry says, there is nothing I have any desire to play that requires, or is even printed in traditional music notation. We have had several music readers comment that standard notation does not correspond to the guitar very well.

I am impressed with your daughter's ability to look at standard notation and quickly transfer it to the guitar. I have 3 palying buddies who read music very well, but, can barely apply it to the guitar. In fact, I bought a book of Paul Simon songs that was supposedly note for note from his recordings in both standard notation and guitar notation. When my music reading buddies tried to decipher it, they had to fall back on to the guitar notation.

So, if you want to read standard notation better, coolio, go for it. But, if you are asking if not being able to read it well is going to be limiting to your guitar playing, it would seem that it will not hinder your full enjoyment of the guitar in the least.

LC

[Glennwillow]

I'm afraid my experience reading music is much like yours. I can do it, but I'm slow. I can sight read a melody line to sing fairly accurately, but for the guitar, I'm pretty slow.

Regards, Glenn

[Jim_O'F]

I can, but like you, ever so slow.

Back when I was taking lessons with my daughter, I took theory mainly to know what made a minor chord what it was and why a 7th sounded like it did, and so on.

I have fond memories of my daughter and I transposing an accordion piece to her flute. It was fun.

[rforman15]

Q: Do I read music?

A: Yes.

[min7b5]

Yup, I read

[Michael T]

I, like many others I'm sure, was blessed with parents who encouraged and supported my participation in music in school. I can't thank them enough and carried that on to my own kids. I am pretty comfortable with treble cleff, struggle with bass cleff, and tab takes me forever (do not like it at all but many of todays popular guitar tunes are tough to find in score.)

The structure of working off sheet music is great in large groups, and in capturing the original phrasing etc. Honestly, with the availabilty of free tabs and limited availability as well as the price of scores (almost impossible to find free current ones), I believe it is a shame to loose such a valuable discipline for the upcoming generations. Teaches math, logic, encourages exposure to genres that likey won't get explored and fosters cooperation and exploration into other instruments too. Part of the artisanship.

Oh well, at least we have tabs, and maybe that does encourage more people to explore than not having them, and it certainly challenges and encourages creativity.

[RonS]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi Ron...
I hold a degree in music, and have had lessons since 3rd grade - I'm 60 years old. I can read music, but have very little call for it.

They don't print scores of what I play, and my song arrangements are the ones I originate, so I'd have to score them myself to even make them available.

I think note reading is a bit overrated for the average player who just wants to play a few tunes and have some fun with his/her guitar.

Is there some area of music you are feeling drawn to where note reading would be helpful to you, or of use?

Hey Larry
Lately I've been drawn to working arrangements of some old songs where I can play a base and a melody. In the past I could always find the notes I needed within the chords. But lately I'm working on more complex arrangements. Two that I'm working on are Sandman by the Chordettes and Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland. I'm finding that I'm missing important notes so I've been looking into the sheet music to help me. Also, as I mentioned before I needed a bit more help with Tchaikowsky's March

Originally Posted by El Conquistador

This is an issue that has proven to be very sensitive in the past, so, I am glad that Larry, who does read music, chimed in with what I think is very true.

I seem to have a bad habit in doing that, I assure you my intensions are not to cause problems.

[random works]

I took some lessons as a teenager and learned enough to play basic stuff and was feeling good about it until I realized it would take me way too long to read what I would consider basic finger-style material. The time/work input was not going to equal the output enough. I used to wish I had finished the course with these lessons, but reading these posts ( and a few earlier posts on this topic) makes me happier. I used to think you had to read music to learn music theory but that's not all the way true ( thankfully). If I had just tons of extra time and [U]wanted[U]to play note for note like the classical guys, I might reconsider; but no to both of these.

[Lou777]

I plan to start lessons with a teacher who insists I learn to read .