Guitarists CAN'T read music! Here's how to fix it...

Why guitarists can't read music, and how you can fix it!

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Reading
01:43 Sight Reading Problem 1
02:40 Sight Reading Problem 2
04:01 Sight Reading Problem 3
05:20 Sight Reading Solution 1
06:29 Sight Reading Solution 2
08:02 Sight Reading Solution 3
08:41 Do Guitarists Need To Read Music At All?
09:53 Final Thoughts

[DotyString]

#2 is it. I learned to read on sax a as kid you're constantly reminded of 1 thing to do when you see a note. on a guitar its insane, you can play stuff anywhere. and the notes are all over the place. I can read really well on sax. on my guitar it takes forever.

[Theldboy]

The guitar is an instrument that when you confront it with musical notation, what it returns to you instantly is not precise information as in the case of the piano, but rather it presents you with a paradox of choice and that can reach the human mind to be really uncomfortable when what you expect clarity.

[DrStabkill]

The big question to ask before tackling reading is why you want to be able to do it. If you want to play classical it’s absolutely necessary and also as a tool for helping understand theory and the guitar in general or when playing high level jazz it can be very helpful. But outside of absolute necessity I wouldn’t recommend it for most. It can be extremely frusstrating and that time could be better spent on skills more tied directly to ones goals. Classical guitarist here - can read pretty much anything put in front of me, but when learning music in the popular vein i very rarely ever use it. So to summarize it’s definitely a helpful skill but it will take pretty considerable commitment so not recommended unless necessary for your goals.

[SorooshMhs]

The problem with guitar is not only that it has 6 strings (each being able to produce 20-24 pitches, with lots of overlap), but also the fact that guitar is a polyphonic instrument, played polyphonically a lot of the time. Figuring out single note lines from sheet music on guitar might not be too difficult, but doing that for 6 strings at the same time (playing polyphonic lines, that is) is what turns into a nightmare.

Many instruments don’t have this issue. If we take something like the clarinet or the human voice, for example, it can only play monophonically, one note at a time. That makes it fairly easy to sight read if you’re practiced enough. I believe orchestral strings don’t have this issue either. They can play chords but most of the time they don’t. And on instruments like piano/keyboards or harp, they are played polyphonically a lot of the time, but unlike the guitar, every pitch can br played in exactly one place.

Also, there’s the whole world of alternative guitar tunings. Where basically all of your sheet music knowledge goes out the window. The instruments i mentioned above obviously don’t have this issue

[ox]

Classical guitarists entered the chat...

[DlmlZ]

Great advices! Thanks for that! Another thing to mention: As a guitarist -> simply learn to play songs!!! Instead of noodling around all the time and focussing on techniques only!!! Why do we play an instrument? Because we should have the drive and wish to perform live infront of an audience and not in the basement only! However, people don't like to listen to technical excercises, they want to hear songs they know or at least they can remember after a concert. I think it is highly important to build up your repertoire rather than becoming the fastest and trickiest guitarist of all time. Anyway, I really love your content. You are for sure a great tutor and there are many things we guitarists can learn from you! Thanks for sharing! Cheers DimiZ

[gitarmats]

I think the big underlying reason is that it's just not how guitarists are usually taught to play in the beginning, unless you are specifically learning classical. A lot of us find ourselves wanting to work on reading when we get to music school after already having played (and learned) a certain way for many years. So we end up starting a new skill from scratch, in addition to also having to balance it with our other practice topics.

It's rare that I need to sight read something on the spot, but is very often beneficial to have at least some ability in this area so you can understand what is happening on the page. I still have a lot of improvement to do on my reading though!

[andreasjonsson]

Great discussion! I have often found tab to be harder for me to read than regular notation!

[mattb]

one thing not mentioned here is how there's many thing you can do on guitar that don't really fit well on a staff, like bends and micro tonality, pick scrapes and muted notes, issues of phrasing like hammer ons pulloffs and upstroke downstroke stuff. I think the way the notation system has evolved (ie western classical) is great for communicating that style, but not blues (which a lot of electric guitar is rooted in) . TAB has been around for hundreds of years and was used for lute music back in the day, but it is very counterintuitive, its very hard to sight sing a melody written in TAB! So its no better really. Other musicians just have to be a little patient with guitarists thats all. On the other hand give a guitar player a chord sheet and most will strum through it fine, while a lot of classical players will struggle to name the notes of an Ab7#11😁

[kenzuercher]

Good descriptions, Ben. I meet with a friend each week and read classical guitar duets. That has helped my reading immensely. It's also gotten me out of the first position reading issue which is taking lessons, and reading from the first two Mel Bay books and then stopping without reading in the upper positions. Learning the fingerings from the five CAGED positions also helped a lot as I find many guitarists really don't know the entire fingerboard.

[JonFrumTheFirst]

Sight reading divides into two challenges - reading rhythms and reading pitches. Both rhythms and pitches come in constantly changing sequences, so just like when you read words in a book, you read measure by measure, not note by note. Both rhythm and pitch comes in phrases, so you need to be able to see a measure's worth of notes and play them as a group, just like you read a few words at a time on a page. You can always sing rhythms on one note, so you don't need your guiltar for that.

[jrpipik]

The biggest reason is: guitarists usually don't have to be able to read music. For the most part, a musician in a pop-rock band can get away with being able to follow a chord chart, and many don't even need that. Session musicians may need to read music, but a more valuable skill is being able to come up with a part on your own (as well as developing a good tone). Jazz and classical musicians on any instrument need to be able to read music, of course. But for your general folk, pop, or rock musician, reading music is mostly unnecessary.

[AlanShoesmith]

Personally, as a guitarist and composer, I have found that learning how to work with standard notation has become an essential skill to help me get to certain creative places.

[gscgold]

As a teen I studied classic from the guitar instructor at a University here on the west coast after his day he taught private lessons..I studied under him for 3 years in that time I became almost fluent in sight reading.. I was dedicated to that more than anything in my life.
It is the one skill that I lost after life took me a different direction that I have always regretted the most. It takes a lot of work to be able to sit down and sight read and play it as it's written like you have played it before, at least on classical guitar.

[MarkJKLawrence]

#2 is tricky. Also, not only can we play in position across different strings, but we can also play the same line up a single string.
Also, the inconsistency in tuning does make the logic of the fretboard (and building ones relationship with seeing intervals) difficult to master.

[manguitarletsgo]

I play by ear, and am essentially self-taught. I read the fretboard, visualising shapes and patterns. While this is great for being able to jam in virtually any musical situation, my inability to read either sheet music or tab means that I could never work with a band where these were required. My usual method of learning and playing songs is to have lyric and chord sheets in front of me, reading them as I go. In a live situation, this can look quite convincing, so some people might think I'm actually reading sheet music! If I could have my time again, I'd learn to read music, because I'm pretty sure this would have made me a better player, and opened up more opportunities.

[boddumblues]

I've never got past simple etudes but I still practice reading for the challenge and satisfaction, persistence pays off...

[adriandennis]

Hi Ben, thanks for the beautiful video on sight reading. I made a new years resolution in 2023 to work on my reading every day again. For this i like to use the Charlie Parker Omni book. Thanks again, be well and happy reading!

[Slarti]

I've been trying to learn to read music for four decades. I've had piano lessons, guitar lessons, bass lessons. I never developed any speed in reading music. Tab is different. I can play something almost straight away. As you say I just need to work out the finger positions and I've got it. Having a good music ear helps. I think I may have a dyslexic eye problem with sight reading sheet music. I'm never going to get it and I've tried for so many years. Tab is the only answer for me.

[CJMarsicanoPA]

The whole issue of middle C being in five places on the guitar neck is something I usually point out when people think guitar is an easy instrument, not to mention the issue with sight reading.

Also, since guitar is such a malleable instrument, capable of being tuned in several different ways, that’s another reason why tab is useful.

When I was buying Guitar World on the regular, I used to take their guitar tabs and re-transcribe them because I was used to seeing the standard notation above the tab in my other tab books. I’m not the greatest sight reader at all, but I’m used to seeing standard notation. But growing up in the early punk rock 80s, I found myself having to learn certain bands’ songs by ear because there was no sheet music for Black Flag or Dead Kennedys, and later found myself having to learn songs for cover bands completely by ear (well, writing out chord sheets) for a combination of reasons.

If a guitarist doesn’t sight read, that’s not a dealbreaker for me. A deal breaker is when a musician doesn’t even know the names of the fucking chords he’s playing. I’ve seen this more often than not in recent years.