Reading Standard Notation

[HAMFIST]

SO I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN a tablature and ear guy. I have played 80s rock in the 1980s and then studied with a modal/chromatic blues genius dude in the late 90s. All of this was reliant on chord charts, tab, and the old ear holes.

But I just started studying bebop with a guy who hand writes everything in standard notation. I know the names of the notes, but translating them onto the fretboard ... well, when I try to do it, it is slow and sloppy. Fortunately my wife has a degree in music education, and I will have her play the notes when I get stuck, match the pitch on guitar and then transcribe the whole thing to tab.

I figure that this will help me make the transition from tab to notation. But so far it is mostly just annoying my wife.

Anyone got any killer tips for making the transition smoothly?

Thanks in advance for any and all tips.

[wrbriggs]

Reading standard notation is all about knowing the fretboard (I don't), and practice. The more you read, the easier it gets.

It's a little dry, but William Leavitt's "Reading Studies for Guitar" is pretty nice for learning to translate standard notation into fretboard work.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by HAMFIST

Anyone got any killer tips for making the transition smoothly?

Stick with standard tuning.

[MICHAEL MYERS]

Originally Posted by HAMFIST

SO I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN a tablature and ear guy. I have played 80s rock in the 1980s and then studied with a modal/chromatic blues genius dude in the late 90s. All of this was reliant on chord charts, tab, and the old ear holes.

But I just started studying bebop with a guy who hand writes everything in standard notation. I know the names of the notes, but translating them onto the fretboard ... well, when I try to do it, it is slow and sloppy. Fortunately my wife has a degree in music education, and I will have her play the notes when I get stuck, match the pitch on guitar and then transcribe the whole thing to tab.

I figure that this will help me make the transition from tab to notation. But so far it is mostly just annoying my wife.

Anyone got any killer tips for making the transition smoothly?

Thanks in advance for any and all tips.

Learn how to read music away from the guitar. Don't try to apply it to your guitar until you can read treble clef with ease. Practice with this http://www.musictheory.net/exercises/note

While you are holding your guitar:learn the names of all the notes on the fretboard. Learn one string at a time.

Once you can do both of these things, you will find the transition much easier.

[Bingoccc]

When I was a kid the lessons I took meant sight reading notation. The earliest lessons involved taking the music, with no tab, and writing the name of every note over it. I then had to play the piece, while looking at the music and naming every note out loud as I played it. See it, hear it and do it; all at once. It worked.

[HAMFIST]

Originally Posted by Bingoccc

When I was a kid the lessons I took meant sight reading notation. The earliest lessons involved taking the music, with no tab, and writing the name of every note over it. I then had to play the piece, while looking at the music and naming every note out loud as I played it. See it, hear it and do it; all at once. It worked.

Word, dude. Word.

I have gone through and tabbed out the standard notation from my teacher. I know the notes on the scale and the notes on the guitar. But marrying the two together is the trick. Particularly since there are more than one places to play many notes on the guitar.

[HHP]

If you need to learn notation, stop translating to tab. You can't learn French by translating it to English, you need to think in French.

[bayoubill]

HHP is right . STOP translating to tab. The major problem with reading on guitar is there are so many places to play one note. When I was in the USAF Band all the music was in flat keys. Really hard for guitar. A good solution to learn to read is to learn the open position notes in C. Then go to the 5th fret and learn where the notes are from the 5th fret. Take some manuscript paper and on one line write out a sequence of notes with no particular pattern. Take one note at a time note find it one the neck then move on to the next note. Over a few days you will be able to play without searching for the notes. Do this every day! I know what I'm talking about here cuz I had to do it the hard way. Here's an example

[mr. beaumont]

Sounds like the problem is not the notation, but the fact you don't really know the fretboard.

5 fret chunks, 1 every week...you can have it licked in a month...play 'em and say 'em.

[Jackknifegypsy]

Is it your wife you'd like to transition, or notation to tab?

Seriously listen to the man who says stop Tabbing. Better late than never.

It has been a real hindrance to me in my insane "I want to play it right now" approach to playing the guitar. Tabbing works up to a point, and then stops working when your mechanical skills which get better quickly, and improve year after year, your music education goes into reverse and finally you are where you are at now. Stuck. Use the "stuckness" to do what the man says.

It will be a permanent solution to playing anything you want, and learning thoroughly any time you want to.

It's an adjustment I admit, as I am going thru the same one right now and I still revert to TABS all too frequently but I am aided by this, which I have tattooed on the inside of my forehead and in the morning mirror:

"The slower you go, the faster you will get there" (attribution unknown).

[trion12]

This will do it.

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-...hod+for+guitar

Its the standard for learning to read on guitar.

Aaron

[Davis Webb]

What he is asking, is how to instantly turn a symbol onto a page into a motor response. This is overlooked in all course work, and often limits or ends a mature player's progress. It has not been dealt with in the teaching game for music. The problem isnt knowing where middle C is on the fretboard. Its how to associate a symbol on a page, with pressing that note. Add sharps and flats and its mind bogglingly difficult to learn. The response is usually, tough it out. But for a person over 30, that can be a 2 year process with small changes.

I dont have the answer. I site read as kid an teen in an orchestra. When I went back at 25, to take jazz lessons, i had to learn it again. It took months to get to where I was before. Then I stopped and went back in my 40s. Now it was close to impossible, I was managing twinkle twinkle after a month or 2. There are learning disabilities, not diagnosable ones, but blocks some of us have. Mine is to math and things like site reading. No amount of admonishment helps someone without a crutch who has one leg run a race. Its something we have to work around.

Many folks have this problem and any games, tips, exercises, memory aids you folks have to help someone learn to site read are sincerely appreciated.

[HAMFIST]

Originally Posted by Jackknifegypsy

Is it your wife you'd like to transition, or notation to tab?

Seriously listen to the man who says stop Tabbing. Better late than never.

It has been a real hindrance to me in my insane "I want to play it right now" approach to playing the guitar. Tabbing works up to a point, and then stops working when your mechanical skills which get better quickly, and improve year after year, your music education goes into reverse and finally you are where you are at now. Stuck. Use the "stuckness" to do what the man says.

It will be a permanent solution to playing anything you want, and learning thoroughly any time you want to.

It's an adjustment I admit, as I am going thru the same one right now and I still revert to TABS all too frequently but I am aided by this, which I have tattooed on the inside of my forehead and in the morning mirror:

"The slower you go, the faster you will get there" (attribution unknown).

So right now I have tabbed the first few pieces off and memorized them, but am back at the standard notation trying, as it were, to "connect the dots" in my brain. I am kind of at this place where I need to quickly learn some demanding stuff for each subsequent lesson and get it into my hands. At the same time, I want to take this opportunity of learning not necessarily to sight read as effectively learn new pieces of music. Historically, I would use tab for the left hand and look to the accompanying standard notation for time value, etc. Not that I know where the note is on the neck, playing them looking at the G clef ... we'll see if that helps me associate one with the other.

Keep chastising me for my lack of reading ability though ... it will only help motivate me!

And if there is a specific book titled "So you are 47 and Want To Do A Better Job with Standard Notation For Guitar," definitely send that link along!

[HAMFIST]

Originally Posted by bayoubill

HHP is right . STOP translating to tab. The major problem with reading on guitar is there are so many places to play one note. When I was in the USAF Band all the music was in flat keys. Really hard for guitar. A good solution to learn to read is to learn the open position notes in C. Then go to the 5th fret and learn where the notes are from the 5th fret. Take some manuscript paper and on one line write out a sequence of notes with no particular pattern. Take one note at a time note find it one the neck then move on to the next note. Over a few days you will be able to play without searching for the notes. Do this every day! I know what I'm talking about here cuz I had to do it the hard way. Here's an example

I nominate this for "Cool Post of the Thread."

I'll print this off and laminate it.

Originally Posted by Davis Webb

What he is asking, is how to instantly turn a symbol onto a page into a motor response. This is overlooked in all course work, and often limits or ends a mature player's progress. It has not been dealt with in the teaching game for music. The problem isnt knowing where middle C is on the fretboard. Its how to associate a symbol on a page, with pressing that note. Add sharps and flats and its mind bogglingly difficult to learn. The response is usually, tough it out. But for a person over 30, that can be a 2 year process with small changes.

I dont have the answer. I site read as kid an teen in an orchestra. When I went back at 25, to take jazz lessons, i had to learn it again. It took months to get to where I was before. Then I stopped and went back in my 40s. Now it was close to impossible, I was managing twinkle twinkle after a month or 2. There are learning disabilities, not diagnosable ones, but blocks some of us have. Mine is to math and things like site reading. No amount of admonishment helps someone without a crutch who has one leg run a race. Its something we have to work around.

Many folks have this problem and any games, tips, exercises, memory aids you folks have to help someone learn to site read are sincerely appreciated.

Arguably the most intelligent post I've read in months. We learn differently at different ages. The way you teach something to an 8-year-old is completely different from the way you teach it to a 50-year-old. Most books are written for young people, and very little thought is given to how to teach the same techniques to someone who is older. We know the learning process is different, but we don't apply that knowledge in useful ways.