Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

Learning to read (and write) music makes it much faster and easier to learn new music, and communicate musical and rhythmic ideas to other players. It is a tool with no downside. All written music is interpreted by the player to add emotional content. For me, I listen to a song with the music in front of me to get the right inflections and nuances, and the learning process is greatly accelerated.

Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

Great article. I never learned to read music. After years of playing by ear, I took 2 lessons and the instructor told me that learning to read would only mess me up. I love the act and challenge of sitting down and picking out a song by ear.

reading music on the guitar

Oy McVay, reading music is analogous to reading words. Sure many people who couldn't read words changed the course of history. Yet, reading words enhances learning, improves memorization skills, facilitates communication, opens the mind to new ideas and is entertaining. I think I understated it. Maybe you can get by without reading words, but not well. Do the same considerations apply to reading music? Of course they do, just not to the same extent.

Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

Sorry Jimmy, only people who can read notation can understand the RHYTHM of a piece. I have taught for years and my students who don't read notation think that TIME is a magazine. Tab only gives you the list of ingredients for a recipe, notation tells you HOW to cook it. In regards to getting a FEEL for the piece, after you have committed the piece to memory or even partially, then you decide which string and which position to play the piece for emotion, stretching, accessibility, etc. But until you understand the timing of a sequence of notes, you are just shredding gibberish. Learn to play and read flute music. It's the same range of a guitar. There's really is no easy way out of this. Yes there are fantastic players who can't read, but I bet they were never hired for a orchestral date, awards show or a jingle session.

Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

Way to continue the rank of 2nd-class musical citizenship of guitar-holders. I suppose one can be a guitar-owner, or one can be a musician. Let me address a couple of your points: reading distracts you from the emotional aspects of playing music. That's only true of you suck at reading. As if every symphony orchestra in the world sounds cold and lifeless. A very silly conclusion, disproven thousands of times over hundreds of years. Another one: alternate tunings, another ridiculous argument that only applies to a tiny percentage of players.132 South Street, Plymouth, MA 02360
What is true is that not learning to read will limit your ability to get good gigs, and will leave you outside the musical fraternity. How many musical illiterates play in the orchestras you conduct?

This is a lazy and shortsighted position you have taken. Your long list of world-class guitarists who don't read would be interesting to see. But, hey, let's keep the guitar a simple-minded rock and folk instrument, instead of joining the fraternity of real musicians who understand the language.

Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

Great article and said as succinctly as I have ever heard it. I have played with great musicians. Some who read and some who did not! The thing that makes the great ones great is their ability to connect with the music they play! I have played with some self-proclaimed virtuosos who knew all the notes and had all the techniques who left me and their audiences cold. No one could ever deny their skills, but it was a learned discipline, not one founded in the love of music!!!

Thanks,

Robert

Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

Guitar players should learn how to read because that is a common way to communicate with other musicians(especially other instruments) what we are going to play. I can play with a sax player and play a tune in 5/4 with a syncopated melody and hard chord changes and I can sight read it and then we can talk about concepts if we are rehearsing or just play it if we are on a gig. I have trouble sending guitar players to sub for gigs because they generally can't cover the sight reading(which is usually very easy ---just jazz standards).Also---the part about feeling the music when reading is something you can practice---try playing a simple melody like "All the things you are" and practice putting feeling into it and interpreting it. While I agree that the ear is the most important musical tool---it's not the only one.
Also---I think trying to use a half brain approach is limiting---let's use all of our resources when learning something. Just my opinion

Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

Guitar players should learn how to read because that is a common way to communicate with other musicians(especially other instruments) what we are going to play. I can play with a sax player and play a tune in 5/4 with a syncopated melody and hard chord changes and I can sight read it and then we can talk about concepts if we are rehearsing or just play it if we are on a gig. I have trouble sending guitar players to sub for gigs because they generally can't cover the sight reading(which is usually very easy ---just jazz standards).Also---the part about feeling the music when reading is something you can practice---try playing a simple melody like "All the things you are" and practice putting feeling into it and interpreting it. While I agree that the ear is the most important musical tool---it's not the only one.
Also---I think trying to use a half brain approach is limiting---let's use all of our resources when learning something. Just my opinion

Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

There is another reason why reading traditional scores is problematic for guitarists. Music written in treble clef for the guitar is written an octave higher than the actual pitch of the note. (Or, the actual pitches of the notes you are playing are an octave lower than where they are written.) On the piano, middle C resides midpoint between the bass and treble clefs. On the guitar it is located in the third space from the bottom of the treble clef and played on the 1st fret of the second (B) string.

Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

James, Very good article. Traditional music notation is just one way of Documenting music. And as music afficianddos, we who love all things guitar (& music) should know trad. music notation to some degree. It certianly goes along way to understanding music theory. Guitar Tab by itself does not imply sufficient rythmic and beat/timing, and other information - while the two together do make for a good overall way to document a guitar piece and its' intended way of being played. Very well said on how overly regimented music played without "feel" and emotion is usually devoid of passion. Most larger city Orchestras show that pro musicians at that level can & do sight read with passion. So, it is up to us guitarists to pull from all sources to get the most out of ourselves and play the best music we can!

Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

You raise some good points. I wish I'd had a copy of this article to show my dad when I was a fledgeling guitarist back in the early '60's. He used to tell me that I'd never be a real musician until I could read. My dad wasn't a musician, but he was an academic, so he placed a high premium on education. All very well and good, but my guitar teacher was a folk player who taught chords, strumming and a little fingerpicking--no reading, no theory, no idea of how it all fits together--I had to figure all of that out for myself--luckily, I always had a good ear; most of my learning theory was learning the correct names for stuff I was already able to hear. As a professional musician and teacher, I feel that I have an obligation to my students to teach them at least the basics of reading--if I'd had that from my teacher, I'd have had an easier time trying to learn to read for real. I've had to turn down gigs because I couldn't cut the reading--I've played for some shows with pretty straightforward books--"Little Shop of Horrors", "Always, Patsy Cline", and done OK, but "West Side Story"? It doesn't matter how much it pays; I'd have to turn that one down, and I don't want any of my students to get stuck in that situation. When I started playing professionally, I didn't have to worry about reading--I could always get a club gig and get paid, but those gigs are mostly gone, and I wasn't one of the lucky one-in-a-billion guys who made it big, so here I am at 60 and can't find a gig. Of course, if I'd become a great sight-reader, I might still be in exactly the same situation, so I try not to worry about it too much--but I feel that reading is a good skill to have (especially as I'm not real good at it) and I'd be remiss if I didn't make sure my students had some basic knowledge of it. You can never have too much knowledge, only too little, and the time to learn to read is in the beginning, when you're struggling with basic technique anyway, instead of trying to read after you've already got some chops and experience, like I did--at least, it was a struggle for me.

Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

A dissenting view: I think reading music is an extremely useful skill for any musician, including guitarists. Sight reading on guitar is not as complicated as you make it sound. With experience you learn to scope out the range of the piece and start at a workable position. One obvious benefit I've seen from it is much better knowledge of the entire fretboard.

Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

Hi James
What a great article.
I play in a couple of big bands as well as a jazz, rock, and country group. I am pretty busy and loving it.
I've got a very good ear for music, thanks to my dad who was a fine guitar player.
I can read music, but I can't site read the dots. I can site read the chords. When I was a kid I had difficulty hitting a ball with a bat. It has carried over to golf also.
I have debated in my mind whether I should take some music lessons to try and learn how site read.
Your comment comparing the piano keyboard to the guitar fretboard is right on. Your other comment " reading notation distracts you from the emmotional aspects of playing music", is so true.
Chet Atkins was asked if he played music. His reply "only enough so it doesn't interfer with my playing". I read also the Les Paul couldn't site read.
I feel better already. A great article.

Tom.

Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

I don't accept the claim that reading makes a performance sterile. More likely it's unfamiliarity with the piece that makes a performance lifeless. Or sometimes, the lead sheet and charts are just inaccurate or the arrangement is bad. However, after I've read through a piece a few times, I get a sense of the structure of the song and understand how the chords move. I start to develop a feel for the song, and it becomes more natural and spontaneous and "emotional."

Re: James McVay: To Read or Not to Read?

Reading standard notation sheet music for electric guitar.

Most importantly, keep your hand in one position on the fretboard all of the time, either in the twelfth position for “concert pitch” notes, or in the fifth position for notes one octave lower, “guitar pitch” notes.
Using the "one finger per fret" method, learn the names of the notes in the fifth position and in the twelfth position on the fretboard.
In the fifth position, the notes will sound in "guitar pitch", which is one octave below "concert pitch", whereas in the twelfth position, the notes will sound in "concert pitch" or "piano pitch".
In these positions a middle G note is always fingered with the first finger, and a middle A note is always fingered with the third finger, and so on.
Occasionally shift the first finger one fret down the fretboard, or stretch the fourth finger up one fret on the fretboard, to play certain notes.
With sufficient practise, reading single-line notation in either the fifth or the twelfth position on the guitar fingerboard becomes second-nature and makes it possible to sight-read almost any tune immediately from the sheet music.
Practise all twelve major scales in both the fifth and the twelfth positions, only moving the hand slightly out of these positions to stretch the fourth finger upwards one fret or to slide the first finger downwards one fret, to play some of the notes.