How do you make a guitarist turn down his amp?

Just put a chart in front of him....

We have the (justified)reputation, fellow guitarists, that we suck at sight reading. Let's start a debate. Is it worth it? Do YOU sight read? Do you think it kills creativity?
Do you wish you could sight read? Do you care? Your turn...

Nope -can't sight read.I'm a tab man through and through. Know my way around the neck though. It would be nice but don't really think it would help me that much- I'd rather improve my knowledge of scales,chord progressions and songwriting/arrangement skills. My mum would be real impressed if I could sight read though. (that probably says it all)
Mostly I wish I had a better 'ear' as I'm not that hot at figuring stuff out from listening to it. I'm hoping this is going to improve.

Reading seems to be a skill that really isn't essential for most guitarists, classical or big band, sessions, yeah you better know how to read well, but average joe guitar player probaly will never learn or have a need to. It is a skill though and like all skills it's use it or lose it, I learned to read, I don't use it alot, but!, it does come in handy occasionaly, especially if you have any dealings with keyboard players, I don't regret learning to read, I don't think learning to read could possibly hurt anyone's creativity, it might even boost it, I do think the easy availability of recorded music is the reason most guitar players will never learn, they just don't need to.

I think learning to read is important.
Tab is a very mathmatical way of reading and looking at music, it's not very musical at all. Music is not about numbers and frets, its about pitches. Plus, music notation is universal, and thats pretty cool, its the only form of communication that I know of that is practiced all over the planet.
Anybody who reads music will tell you that in the long run its a lot easier then reading tab, plus you don't have to know the song to play it. I have discovered many great pieces of music by picking up violin books and playing through them.

i would love to learn how to read music - actually, i can read some of it; my problem is where the hell the notes are on the guitar! i haven't a clue. i think it would be useful to know this...
-Daniel

I do know how to read music, because i had learned clasical guitar for year, before i went electric.
I think that it is important to know how to read music, as much as it is important to learn scales and chords.
Does it kill the creativity?
I dont know.... When im playing lead in my band i never ever use written things, i improvise every thing i can, because im too lazy to write things, and as a "blues player" i think its more "cool" to improvise.
However there are things which cannot be improvised, like clasical pieces and jazz standarts. Those things should be played from the charts, and thus if you play either jazz or clasical music you must learn sight reading.

I can read music, because I started in 4 grade. I'm just a little slow at looking at it then the guitar. See I've played the saxophone then switching to the guitar in 7th grade. I can read music and I'm working on it, because if you really want to rely on music for a career you should know how to read it. Being in a rock band doesn't require it, but you know want i mean.

Originally posted by burnfire9
... Being in a rock band doesn't require it...

If you ever hope to make a living as a musician, you will have to learn to read. The odds of 'making it' as a solo artist, or as a member of a band, are roughly equivalent to the odds of getting signed as a pro hockey player.

Most pros work as teachers, contract musicians, or as studio 'session' players. [u]All[/u] of these jobs require sight-reading charts, so that someone else's music can be reproduced accurately.

And it should go without saying, that writing music means writing it!

No, I don't read well. I was studying trumpet in school many years ago, but I never made the effort to carry that skill over to guitar. I haven't used it, so I lost it.

A musician should know how to read music. If you know how to read tab, you know how to play a piece of music on one particular place on the guitar neck, in the exact same way another musician envisioned it. If you can read music, you know how to play that piece of music in several places on the guitar neck. Plus, you have very little credibility with other musicians, (horn players, piano players, etc...) who know how to read music.

A guitar player saying that he or she doesn't want to learn how to read music is like a guitar player saying "I don't want to fret notes with my pinky finger." Tecnically, the guitar can still be played, but why limit yourself to such an extent?

Yes i can sight read but very slow .
As far as killing creativity it could if you sound like,
your playing from the paper with know feeling.
I do care because if you can read music you can learn,
songs or tunes without hearing the music plus learn the,
correct timeings of the songs plus the melody.
If you use Tabs you will need to listen to the song on a cd ect to find out what the timeing plus what the melody is supposed to sound like plus the notes.
In answer to can you improvise on jazz standards yes,
you can improvise on jazz standards if you can't improvise,
on a jazz standard then your what i call a paper player.
Which means you can't play by ear or play with a feel.
Learning to read music is a must for writing songs ect.
If your going to go the self taught way like i did,
learn your theory plus how to read music later its,
a lot harder.(Below self taught way below)

1.Learn the finger-board like you know your name,
backwards and forward.
2.Develope your ear playing.
3.Learn about a 1000 songs then memorize them plus,
make sure you learn more than one style of music.
4.Learn all the notes on the guitar,plus basic and
Advanced chords mabee 1000 or 2000 of them.
5.Then get around the best guitarists you can and steel,
every thing you can from them.
6.Then at last learn some theory plus how to read sheet music plus how to read tab then never stop learning.
Note:I will share one thing with you about one guitarist,
i met in nashville tenn.
His name is Jerry Reed and he will not hire a sheet music,
guitarist not unless you can play or learn your parts in his band by ear.(This a true story)

P:S I recemend learning to read music plus developing,
your ear plus alot of praticing to be a good guitarist!
Its hard but its worth it if you love music.
Mark
Peace

[Edited by skee1 on 01-18-2002 at 01:49 AM]

Originally posted by trebledamage
A musician should know how to read music . . .

This is the crux of the problem. Most guitarist aren't musicians (in the strict sense of the word). If you were to ask 100 guitarists if they considered themselves musicians, 95 would probably say - "Hell no, I'm a guitarist."

I can't site read, but if you give me a sheet of music I can sit down and figure out how it's supposed to go. The importance of site reading depends on your musical goals. If you just plan to play in a rock or blues band, then learning to read music would be pointless. If you want to get into jazz or classical, then it would be a good idea to learn. You can get by on tabs for a while, but you'll need the music eventually.

Tab is so popular because it's an intuitive system for the guitar. If you take a piece of sheet music for guitar, you have to spend a lot of time working out all the fingerings and note placement (because there are many different iterations of each note on the guitar). With tab, you know right away what the fingerings are and which position you're playing in.

So there's a trade-off. Tab tells you exactly where to put your fingers, but doesn't tell you anything about rhythm. And vice-versa for sheet music. Sheet music was created by the order of the Pope sometime in the early middle ages, before the guitar even existed as an instrument, as a means of recording music for future generations.

It all depends on your goals as a "musician".

I agree 100% Christoph


Mark

Good topic.

I play classical as well as other genres, and obviously if you're pursuing the fine art of classical guitar sight reading is a necessity. I think that it's use kind of ends there however. Though I bet some of those jazzers also like to sight read. It seems to be irrelevant when it comes to rock and other styles of music.

Does it stifle creativity? Of course not... how could learning more ways to communicate with music stifle you?

I don't read quickly...I can read standard notation, but slowly. I personally think ANYTHING you can learn, whether it be a new style, technique, whatever...only broadens your horizons. Does it kill creativity? I think it can if you let it...but if you do it right, learn with an open mind, nothing can get in your way.

I don't understand how reading music can kill creativity?
Can someone please explain?
I think if anything it's gonna teach you to know your fretboard, give you the knowledge to communicate w/ other musicians regardless of instrument, and give you the ability to pick up song/method books & learn different styles and techniques of music that you may not have been exposed to before.
By the way, I think learning how to read and write english has dampened my ability to speak eloquently.

I have seen pianists who could not improvise because they had to follow their charts. But maybe it's just the way we teach music over here.

But could the pianist improvise even if he didn't have a chart in front of him?
I think improvising and reading are two different skills.
An if he can, well I'd say he just wasn't comfortable enough w/the chord changes.

Knowing how to read music will make you a drastically better guitar player no matter what kind of music you are into. How many of you spend hour after hour working on your speed? If you spent at least half of that time working on getting really good at reading music for guitar and learning the various relationships that exist between notes, you would learn the fret board in an extremely practical way that would improve your playing in every area, including speed.

The problem (as with everything for the guitar) is that there are very few books that adequately teach someone how to read music for guitar and there are even fewer guitar teachers that can sit down and read a chart. With other instruments, its a given that you learn how to read music. Most trumpet, horn, or piano players wouldn't be considered true musicians if they couldn't read music.

The point is that if you are still a kid and you are just learning how to play the guitar, learn how to read music. You have the time to do it. It will make you a far better player in the long run. I only wish that I would have realized that sooner. I would be an infinitely better guitar player than I am today.

Originally posted by trebledamage
The point is that if you are still a kid and you are just learning how to play the guitar, learn how to read music. You have the time to do it. It will make you a far better player in the long run. I only wish that I would have realized that sooner. I would be an infinitely better guitar player than I am today.

Same with me. We both sound like old farts, don't we?

I know. It's kind of sad isn't it?