Mental Block

[Tracerbullet]

I am trying to learn how to read music and am looking for some advice. I played brass for many years in my younger (much) life. And the scale is different.

As I learn the notes on the individual strings I have no issues but when. I get to the point where the are a multitude of different notes on the scale I will look up at the page and everything looks like gobbledygook and I have to stop playing and “think” about what note it is.
I practice everyday and have hit this roadblock. It is quite frustrating. I am trying flash cards, writing notes on the scale as well as just continuously looking at the scaled notes.
I’m sure it is just time needed but being a new player I just want to make sure there is not something I am missing.

Caveat: I started this journey to learn to play about 1.5 months ago

Thanks

[hubcapsc]

Hi there tracerbullet...

I used to play with a guy who had a lot of brass band
experience. He was real good at reading music right
off a sheet and playing the notes on his guitar. You're
probably on the right track.

If I understand that you're new to the guitar, it might
help you to make sure you know the five pentatonic
scale shapes relative to each other. Each scale shape
has one of the "cowboy" cord shapes associated with it,
and there's usually three root notes for the chord shape
in the scale shape.

I only suggest this because you say: As I learn the notes
on the individual strings I have no issues...

-Mike

[Bob from Brooklyn]

I started teaching bass guitar a few years ago and taught myself to read bass clef. It was very unintuitive at first but I gradually came around.

There are no shortcuts. Be patient with yourself but be persistent. Go at it a few minutes every day until your head starts to hurt a little. You'll get there.

P.S. Congrats on your new journey.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Tracerbullet

I am trying to learn how to read music and am looking for some advice. I played brass for many years in my younger (much) life. And the scale is different.

As I learn the notes on the individual strings I have no issues but when. I get to the point where the are a multitude of different notes on the scale I will look up at the page and everything looks like gobbledygook and I have to stop playing and “think” about what note it is.
I practice everyday and have hit this roadblock. It is quite frustrating. I am trying flash cards, writing notes on the scale as well as just continuously looking at the scaled notes.
I’m sure it is just time needed but being a new player I just want to make sure there is not something I am missing.

Caveat: I started this journey to learn to play about 1.5 months ago

Thanks

If you really need to learn what you said above, look up a keyboard simulator on the internet and learn the chromatic scale and the C major scale and then learn it on the guitar. The keyboard will give you a better visualization of the scale and the notes at first.

If I were you, I'd learn to play chords and learn a few songs first. I write a few of my own tunes and I don't think in scales nor do I think about the names of the notes. I think in tones, relationships, timing, expression and at the right moment, silence. If I were a music theory genius would it help? Probably as I would have more tools to draw from, but it isn't necessary to get yourself started playing the guitar. Like I said before, learn to play first.

[musicman1951]

I'm not sure why the scale is different (unless you played a bass clef instrument), but it sounds like you're on the right track.

You probably did the same thing learning how to read. You had to stop and figure out those groups of letters to read the word. Eventually you saw the patterns and it all fell into place.

Reading chords after such a short time is pretty advanced stuff, but you can certainly do it if you like. I think you're doing it just right - stop and figure out the individual notes and how you're going to finger what I really hope are chords (or pieces of chords).

If they don't repeat with some regularity (i.e., if you have 15 different chords/groups of notes in one song) I'm going to suggest you stick with some easier music for a while.

It might help to know what it is you're playing. From an instruction book? Reading music is like a lot of things: you just stick with it and it gets easier. You shouldn't need to stress this much. As long as you're playing music at an appropriate level you just hang in for a time and it will happen.

Two things:
1. Improvement in reading (and most of music) happens in spurts. It would be lovely if it got a little easier every day, but it just doesn't work that way.

2. Mistakes are how we learn. You have to play most things wrong a certain number of times before it gets easy. Every time you play it wrong you could be happy that you're one closer to having it under your fingers. Unfortunately, we have no idea what the actual number is until we get there.

I suspect you're doing really well if this is your concern after only 6 weeks. Hang in there and cut yourself some slack.

[Tracerbullet]

I’m taking lessons and my instructor is working with the Mel Bey book; Guitar Method Grade 1

[Sonics]

Originally Posted by Tracerbullet

I’m taking lessons and my instructor is working with the Mel Bey book; Guitar Method Grade 1

+1 on this. I believe the Mel Bey book was first published in the late 1940's and has sold over 7 million copies. The Al Di Meola book (...actually it's closer to a pamphlet, is written by Al's first guitar teacher) covers the same ground. It's not magic, it's rote learning.
https://www.amazon.com/DiMeola-Prese...979015&sr=8-10

The method is simple, you don't have to really think about note names while you play. You associate the note position on the music staff with a position on the fretboard. The included exercises will drill in and cement those relationships. It starts with learning the notes in first position on each string.
So you begin with the high E string, which has the notes E, F and G in first position. Then there's some notated exercises and tunes with just those notes which you sight read (...rhythm is also introduced at this stage). It's not hard it's just three notes.
When you've mastered the E string, then you move to the B string. Learn one string a day, and you'll be able to sight read a simple piece in first position in 6 days, or less.

The complete full-fat Mel Bay books (vol 1 - 7) are also available in a single edition.
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Meth...9980910&sr=8-1

[DesertTwang]

I wasn't sure whether I understood the question correctly. I played clarinet in my youth, so I can relate. Were you referring to the clusters of notes that make upa chord? Although I'm pretty used to music notation, that throws me, too, since we former wind instrument players obviously never encountered more than one note at a time on our notation. I'm not sure how to tackle this, other than painstakingly tease the note clusters apart and hoping that over time, I'll learn to recognize them more easily.

[MThomson]

I had a similar experience when I started learning the piano after playing classical guitar for 20 years. It took me months to get used to the bass clef notes. In fact even after a year I was still consciously thinking about orienting myself. If you add in chords for someone only used to a single note line that increases the complexity much further.

I reckon that after a 1.5 months you're doing just fine. Stick with it, it will get easier

[DukeX]

It would help if the OP posted a visual example of what is being referenced because scales do not change by instrument, and "multitude of different notes on the scale" doesn't describe anything.

If they are stacked notes in the treble clef then they are chords. Chords are very easy to understand with a couple of simple charts, one showing the notes in each scale (A, B, C, etc.), and another showing which notes in any particular scale (1-3-5, e.g.) form which chords (major, minor, etc.).

[musicman1951]

Originally Posted by Tracerbullet

I’m taking lessons and my instructor is working with the Mel Bey book; Guitar Method Grade 1

If memory serves these note clusters are all chords and there are only a few in each song. I believe you will find that after a relatively short time you will both memorize the chords and be able to identify them fairly quickly.

Frankly, this was a part of the book I didn't usually bother with, but that's neither here nor there. It won't hurt to learn a handful of chords on sight. I usually switched to the Aaron Shearer classical book at that point.

Nothing to stress about. It will get easy.

[Su_H.]

I might be wrong and forgive me if I am but I think you just need more time knowing the notes on the layout of the guitar. Over time, you'll get it. Secondly, the guitar poses a new obstacle which you didn't encounter as a brass player. In brass and with many other instruments, you'll be moving a finger, or fingers, and or other body parts to play a note and these body parts move coherently in a logical manner. Often times, in guitar, the right and left hand - despite trying to achieve the same goal (note), they will move independently.

In short: Often times in guitar, the brain has to do two different tasks to achieve a goal. With practice, those mental blocks can be overcome.

[3notes]

Originally Posted by Su_H.

I might be wrong and forgive me if I am but I think you just need more time knowing the notes on the layout of the guitar. Over time, you'll get it. Secondly, the guitar poses a new obstacle which you didn't encounter as a brass player. In brass and with many other instruments, you'll be moving a finger, or fingers, and or other body parts to play a note and these body parts move coherently in a logical manner. Often times, in guitar, the right and left hand - despite trying to achieve the same goal (note), they will move independently.

In short: Often times in guitar, the brain has to do two different tasks to achieve a goal. With practice, those mental blocks can be overcome.

Excellent thought right here.^^^^^^^^^^^

I have come to understand that the right hand, the pick hand, calls for A LOT of control. We miss this because we are trying to control, and direct our fretting hand over all those notes to choose from. Chord patterns will distract the pick hand. Timing will distract the fret hand, or slow it down.

Overall, timing is a challenge to me. Listening, as a player, the timing sounds right. Until I record it and play it back and count it out.

I've been using a loop pedal for the past month. It don't lie.