Sudden urge to buy a classical and learn to read music

Supportact

Col_Decker said:

Well first lesson done and I didn't die so that was good. Starting right at the beginning of reading music of course so it's single note runs and simple rhythms. So much to take in, but enjoyable. 

Well done! I'm sure you'll find it very rewarding. 

Col_Decker

3 months in and enjoying it so far, so much so that last week was time for a birthday guitar upgrade to an Alhambra 4P for £500. Lovely guitar. I came very close to spaffing £1000 on a Kremona but decided to wind my neck in a bit as the 4P is plenty good enough for me.

Got to say though that reading music is hard! So much information contained in those dots.

digitalkettle

Col_Decker said:

3 months in and enjoying it so far, so much so that last week was time for a birthday guitar upgrade to an Alhambra 4P for £500. Lovely guitar. I came very close to spaffing £1000 on a Kremona but decided to wind my neck in a bit as the 4P is plenty good enough for me.

Got to say though that reading music is hard! So much information contained in those dots.

Good stuff...what are you working on?

Col_Decker

Just working my way through the Guitarist's Way books with my tutor. On book 3 of 4 atm so playing in position 2,3 and 5. 

digitalkettle

Col_Decker said:

Just working my way through the Guitarist's Way books with my tutor. On book 3 of 4 atm so playing in position 2,3 and 5. 

Ah yes...I've seen them...awesome feeling to lift dots off the page into a tune you've never heard before

WafflesOnHorseback

Col_Decker said:

Just working my way through the Guitarist's Way books with my tutor. On book 3 of 4 atm so playing in position 2,3 and 5. 

I remember them! Some tricky tunes in 3&4. You've done well! 

Key thing when starting classical is to get the LH thumb down behind the neck and not over the top like steel string players and to arch the RH wrist. Thereby the thumb and fingers can combine freely.

BTW...I should add that you can also gain alot by playing with other beginners. You can't beat it for improving musicianship. If there's no fellow guitarists available, get your iPhone recording app turned on and count in and play London's Burning from GW. Then play it back and try and play along with it as a 2 part canon. Great pratice for rhythm and listerning!

Supportact

Col_Decker said:

3 months in and enjoying it so far, so much so that last week was time for a birthday guitar upgrade to an Alhambra 4P for £500. Lovely guitar. I came very close to spaffing £1000 on a Kremona but decided to wind my neck in a bit as the 4P is plenty good enough for me.

Got to say though that reading music is hard! So much information contained in those dots.

Nice one, sounds like you're getting on well. 

Reading music is hard at first but I find it a lot easier to process than tab now.  It makes more sense in a way because tab is just a diagram showing you what to do, where notation is more like learning a new language. 

Shadow

Tab is great for showing where to fret the notes but it doesn't give any idea of timing so being able to read music is useful for that if nothing else 

sev112

thing i didnt learn about reading music for guitar (id been playing trumpet for years) was that conventional chords are made up of the 1 3 5 (eg C E G, or F A C)
When these typical chords are on the music stave they are typically often in the 4 gaps (like FAC)or on the lines (GBD)

knowing that simple thing saves a load of time in trying to read and work out what are all the stacked notes in a chord which is still a hard thing to do, especially when the notes are off the top or bottom of the stave.
This means you can just determine the lower note of the 3 or 4 stacked notes and if they are all in the gaps or on the lines, then they are usually/often the notes in the chord from the lower note.  

(of course there is knowing the key and flats/sharps etc, and minor or major chords) 

And then sometimes the melody is just fingering notes around that chord shape until they give you another chord

Good luck, glad you are enjoying it 

pacodelucia13

sudden urge to move my alhambra 10fp to you   as I have two more classical/flamenco guitars

More on the subject, reading like learning the correspondence of notes from guitar neck onto the staff is not hard.
Pick something that has a repetitive rhythm, like some Bach preludes that are all 16th notes so you dont need to figure out also the rhythm while deciphering where is that note. Actually reading rhythm, well that's something I dont do that well ...and find it more difficult, usually I just cheat my way by hearing the actual piece played by someone