Can you read music?

Stevepage

I tried when I was studying music at college but I gave up too easily. I found it much easier when playing keyboard

Roland

DaevidJ said:

Heh, noticed a few of you played recorder at school... I too partook of said instrument I wonder how common this is... 

At one time it was common practice to use descant recorder to teach children about the basic elements of music. It was a lot cheaper than any tuneful other instrument, which made it more accessible 

lasermonkey

No and no.

MatthewShreddery

Learning to read can only benefit you as a musician so why not learn to read?
It's really not that difficult once you put in some time, though the guitar specifically is a tricky instrument to read for.

If you have any intentions of playing in pit orchestras, cruise ships, depping in function bands, session work etc etc then you'd be best off developing a decent level of reading.

You won't always need it, but it's good to have.

In my experience, many arrangers are quite bad at writing parts for guitar so a big part of the skill in reading guitar music is working out what is the most 'guitaristic' way of playing what it is they've scored.

You often get given parts that are copy/pasted from keyboards so you get close voiced chords, or just impossibly voiced chords etc so you have to work out a way round it.

jellyroll

Interesting, thanks all. I'm a home player, so for me it's really about being able to read some of the stuff I'm interested in learning which is only available in notation.

And I know I should just transcribe it from the audio but whilst I can transcribe single lines, I'm a million miles from being able to transcribe chords.

Rather than treating tab as dot-to-dot instructions, I've always instinctively translated it into note names in my head whilst playing anyway so reading the notes off the stave hopefully shouldn't be too much of a stretch, at least for simpler pieces.

kossofffan

read music?, absolutely not a clue

Voxman

No and no

CHRISB50

No. Unfortunately not.

ewal

I read music when playing trombone, but not guitar.

jellyroll

ewal said:

I read music when playing trombone, but not guitar.

That's interesting @ewal. Why do you think that is?

Bridgehouse

Yes, but I don't think it's essential. It's useful. 

ewal

Just the context and the way I learnt either instrument. I play trombone in ensembles which are totally dependent on reading music, but I play guitar in groups where everything is done by ear.

It goes further than that though, my brain does not link notes on a sheet of music with the fretboard, whereas I subconsciously relate notes to trombone positions, pitches, dynamics etc.

Blueingreen

I can read most stuff, although I'd struggle with some weirder time signatures etc.  I've never learned to sight-read, which I regard as a different skill. 

Is it important?  Obviously you don't need to read to be a good player, as many great players who don't read prove.   But as someone who taught himself to read after many years of being a non-reader  all I can say is that I regard it as the most useful thing I've ever done in becoming a better player and I very much regret that I didn't do it earlier. 

Sporky

I can, but not very quickly, and I'm not great at reading rhythm nor mapping the key signature to all the relevant notes.

cruxiform

No. I'm happy in my ignorance.

EricTheWeary

No. I understand some basic stuff and I've used sheet music for things like sax parts to learn on guitar (nothing complex, no Giant Steps here...) but I would still need to reference them against the original recording. It's a long, long way from sight reading but it's useful. In reality very little of anything I've ever wanted to learn on guitar would be available as sheet music: although I realise if I could read music I might take an interest in playing other things. 

robgilmo

Music has writing?

mellowsun

I can to an extent - not to sight read, but enough to, for example, transcribe a piano score to guitar

digitalscream

I learned and used standard notation at the same time as learning guitar, from when I was 7 up to GCSE. I haven't used it in the last 25-ish years, and I don't feel it's hampered me at all as a player or as a musician; in fact, I can honestly say that it never really helped me either. The way I play, learn and write simply doesn't lend itself to written music being a useful tool.

In fact, one of my favourite approaches to writing is to record a riff and then come back to it months later (when I've forgotten how to play it). In attempting to re-learn it by ear, I'll often find more interesting things to do with it. Written down, it's unlikely I'd do that.

That's not to say that others wouldn't find it useful; it just doesn't work for me.

fandango

Want to read music, eh?

Was speaking with a guy who teaches guitar a few months back (and is also a pro/semi-pro), and he mentioned it can take 5 years to learn properly.

So it depends how much time you have and what you intend doing with that new-found ability.

If you're of the older generation, I'd say don't bother. Just concentrate on playing the guitar. If you are young, in teens/twenties, then it might be worth it.

If you want to go pro or semi-pro, go down the session route, playing deps or shows then I suggest the ability to read music (and tabs) is essential, but you have to be able to play as well. Great theory and no chops = no work as a session muso. Great chops but no theory and you'll get found out very quickly. There's also the issue of having 'the ear'. If, like Clapton, you can play something after just hearing it once, then that's a real real bonus. That'll get you a very long way.

You need to put a lot of work into both playing and theory (reading music). If you have a demanding girlfriend, or a job with long hours, or are a wanna-be olympic sportsman, then you be prepared to make a lot of compromises. I mean, a lot.