Help me learn how to sight read

[Mobilemike]

I don’t think there’s any way to get better at sight reading except to practice it. There are no shortcuts.

Go as slow as you need to at first so that you can play the tune in the proper timing, and gradually pick up speed. The more you do it the better you will get.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Ralph124C41

I would like to learn how to read music ... nothing elaborate or detailed ... just enough for me to be able to look at some fiddle tunes and play them on the guitar.

I know the notes. I know the time element of the notes ... but I am sooooooo slow.

That's fine. If you know the pitches and you can understand the rhythms, then you know all you need to know. You just need to practice doing it to get faster!

That means you need to keep reading music you haven't played before. I.e., as soon as you have worked out one piece - you can play it all as written, however long it takes you to get to that point - then beyond there you are just learning it, not reading it.

So your resources could be any sheet music you can find, from anywhere.
Personally I would suggest (a) music you have heard before (so you have some idea of what the notes are supposed to sound like), and (b) music you actually like!

But don't bother with buying books (other than songbooks) or going to websites (other than to find sheet music). There are no short-cuts!

[Bob from Brooklyn]

I can sight read for guitar because that's the way it was taught when I was 11. I am now attempting to learn to sight read for singing and it's a whole 'nother can of worms.

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by Bob from Brooklyn

...I am now attempting to learn to sight read for singing and it's a whole 'nother can of worms.

I know how you feel. I was handed this one on Wednesday night (I'm a top tenor). Still trying to get my head around it - let alone the fact we are singing it in Welsh

[tbirdman]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

I know how you feel. I was handed this one on Wednesday night (I'm a top tenor). Still trying to get my head around it - let alone the fact we are singing it in Welsh

Every time a get new piano piece to learn, I'm in the pit of despair. Then after a few weeks, I'm on the edge of despair. Then I improve from there. I wish my golf game showed that much improvement when I practice. I also take singing lessons. I can read the notes, I just can't sing them! LOL

[The Bard Rocks]

Ralph, that's how I learn fiddle tunes, by the musical score. It's the easiest for me, and I have been doing this for a very long while, far longer than I have been playing by ear. I find playing by ear works better for me on songs, not fiddle tunes, so I've got a way to go on that yet. But, either way, the best is to have the score before me. I began with paper and still prefer that. Utube and on-line is not the best way for me to learn.

Now there's a caveat. The score does not automatically tell you where to put emphasis. If I have never heard the tune before I can play it perfectly as written and there are times when I get question mark looks from others when I play it. It dawns on them after a bit that, yes, I am playing the tune I announced, but it's not as they know it. So it helps to have heard it enough to get a feel for how it should go. A great example that lots of folks know is Fisher's Hornpipe. Most play it as a reel and I wish I could pull that off. I play it as it probably originally was, a hornpipe. The notes are exactly the same, but the feel is entirely different. It's good either way.

Learning stuff by score and never having heard it by anyone else can have an occasional payoff, especially with songs: you may come up with a new interpretation that really makes it "your own".

[The Bard Rocks]

Originally Posted by tbirdman

Every time a get new piano piece to learn, I'm in the pit of despair. Then after a few weeks, I'm on the edge of despair. Then I improve from there. I wish my golf game showed that much improvement when I practice. I also take singing lessons. I can read the notes, I just can't sing them! LOL

If you can play the notes, forget the chords for a while and play the notes as you sing, in unison. Try that for a while. You will have the exact note in your ear to match with your voice.

[Bluenose]

I learned quite a bit by transposing fingerpicking videos I found interesting on YouTube. I bought a Tabledit subscription but there is quite a bit of notational software available. Guitar Pro is also pretty popular. I write out the notes in tab which I'm very familiar with and Tabledit converts it to standard notation. Tabledit won't let you break the 'rules' so you know what you're writing out is rhythmically correct.

[mr. beaumont]

Sight reading is definitely a skill that simply takes a lot of practice...

It's probably best to hone in on what's tripping you up...if it's everything, slow down and focus on becoming a decent reader before you worry about sight reading.

The other thing is, you get good at reading what you practice reading. So, using myself as an example, a single melody line lead sheet with chords above? I can get through those pretty readily (assuming it's not like a bebop head or something very fast/notey)

Throw something with a bunch of chords on the staff at me and I'm toast, because I just haven't practiced it.

So make sure you're practicing what it is you want to be able to do.

The other thing I find is once you get past identifying the "dots," the real challenge comes with rhythms, because there's infinite possibilities...that said, you CAN train yourself to recognize rhythms common to the music you play. Eventually you can "read ahead," seeing the rhythm of a whole chunk of music ahead of time instead of going bar by bar...then it's just dropping the pitches in place (yeah, just...lol, it can take a lifetime to do it well!)

Hope this is somewhat helpful. I'm a decent reader...I think I'm a terrible sight-reader.

[Ralph124C41]

Thanks folks for all of your comments and suggestions. I know, as I said with my admittedly poor example of about learning how to type, is that I would need to practice ... and practice more ... and then, practice just a little bit more.

And in fact I think my major problem is not deciphering those chicken scratches on the music sheet to playing them on my guitar is to learn the timing. I admit I have "learned" some songs in the past but my timing was off ... too fast, too slow, etc.

And there seems to be hundreds of courses available, many free, but I'd like to find if there are "definitive" series you can recommend, free (if possible) or paid.

[mr. beaumont]

Again though, are you looking to learn how to read or sight read?

[Ralph124C41]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Again though, are you looking to learn how to read or sight read?

Sight read I think would be the answer. That is I would like to be able to be handed a music sheet for some song I know nothing about (but a simpler one such as old-time music) and be able to play it ... without somebody throwing a brick at me.

What exactly would be the difference between sight reading and standard reading? Is standard reading where I can take a familiar song and "translate" it into playing on the guitar ... because that I can do more or less but it takes me some time.

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by Ralph124C41

What exactly would be the difference between sight reading and standard reading? Is standard reading where I can take a familiar song and "translate" it into playing on the guitar ... because that I can do more or less but it takes me some time.

Exactly-- yeah, when you said "make sense of the scribbles" I was thinking you couldn't read at all. Ok, so you're looking to get faster and eventually get to the point of where you could play something "cold."

Ok, so now before recommending an actual course of action, what will you be trying to read--mostly?

[Ralph124C41]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Exactly-- yeah, when you said "make sense of the scribbles" I was thinking you couldn't read at all. Ok, so you're looking to get faster and eventually get to the point of where you could play something "cold."

Ok, so now before recommending an actual course of action, what will you be trying to read--mostly?

I think I said this before but generally fiddle, Celtic or old-time tunes, such as the ones over at Thesession.org. Nothing too elaborate.

[mr. beaumont]

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear in my question--

Not genre, but are you going to be looking at single note melodies, solo guitar pieces with chords, etc...

Ok, took a look at that website-- so single note stuff. Cool.

So honestly, there's not really a method book I'd recommend since you can already read. Now it would be a matter of figuring out what's tripping you up more--pitches or rhythms.

I'm a big fan of just sitting with a piece and trying to sing the rhythms. Pitch unimportant, just "scat sing."

Print out a bunch of tunes you'd be interested in...write out the counting at the tricky parts.

Then go back and try dropping pitches in. Figure out what position the tune sits in best (there may be some shifts) and start slow...sight reading of course means you aren't looking at the guitar, you're looking at the music only. But doing this with actual stuff you like will be more fun to practice.

If you find you're really struggling, going back to say, Mel Bay volume 1 even can be an easy jumpstart.

You might also try learning common scales in first position (I'd imagine you'll play a lot in G, C and D?) and say the names of the notes as you play them. The more ingrained the fretboard is the easier sight reading is. Part of it is just getting rid of the disconnect from "D" to "what finger where is that?"