Comments on: Why Most Guitar Players Don’t Need to Read Music, Ever!

By: Stupid Things Guitar Teachers Do to Waste Your Time | Guitar Source

Stupid Things Guitar Teachers Do to Waste Your Time | Guitar Source — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:10:41 +0000

[...] In" from an ancient "Mel Bay" book. A fine song to be sure, but it can be frustrating if you're not interested in learning to read standard music notation, or you really just want to play the chords and songs that you're interested in. Quite frankly, I [...]

By: gatgirl

gatgirl — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:16:38 +0000

a lot of people seem to forget that you don't need to read music inorder to play music. for the lot of you who go on about how you can't become a professional musician without reading. Are you kidding? I play professionally and I don't read music, but i know my theory, Charts. and what about all those famous guitarists? yes you know who they are.. Hammet, Clapton, Tommy Emmanuel, Danny Gatton, Slash and anyway the list is completely exhausting so I'll stop there. The Muso's I know that read music, are almost completely hopeless without their notation, and tend to be very snobbish about those musicians that choose not to read notation. come on people keep up with the modern. I knew one guitarist who told me that he wished he could join our band, but he could only read notation, not feel it. and didn't know how to improvise or play just from chord charts.

By: Learn To Read Guitar Sheet Music Like A Pro – 8 Week Course. | money making blog

Wed, 26 May 2010 01:49:47 +0000

[...] Why Most Guitar Players Don't Need to Read Music, Ever! [...]

By: akolyte123

akolyte123 — Wed, 05 May 2010 08:02:39 +0000

people are lazy now a days. they treat the guitar like its guitar hero. they want to jump straight on it and be able to play songs without having to learn technique and such.they see standard notation and see how much works it is and get scared off.they all want to be rock gods without putting in the years.but if you really want to work as a musician you have to learn to read.what happens if you dont make it selling albums???you cant teach music you cant be a session youll be stuck being an itinerent teacher (no offence to tutors) for the rest of your lifejust because you couldnt be bothered learning music theory.stop being lazy and learn it.

By: Gorehound1313

Gorehound1313 — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:37:40 +0000

Wow, this always pisses people off. While I’m glad that I learned to read and it can make the difference between being a Guitar player or a Musician, I don’t think beginners should start off learning proper technique AND reading AND a bunch of boring pieces like the Etude in Dmin. Understanding the math behind music theory is much more useful to me than reading. Understanding Tonal Gravity, the circle of fourths/fifths and why Major and min scales sound different before you learn to read standard notation will make it much easier.
I’m coming from a Roots Rock(Blues, Country, Rockabilly) background, I’d say readers are a minority. If you play Classical, Jazz or Heavy Metal-Math Rock, reading will of course be much more important to you. http://www.jacmuse.com/artisticconcepts/newpage16.htm http://guitar.to/indexblack.htm http://www.twelvemonth.com/index.php?p=visualinear
Danny Gatton couldn’t read. If anyone can play better than him, I’d love to hear ya.

By: ovlet

ovlet — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:31:04 +0000

“For example standard notation has no provisions for notating slides, note bends, or artificial harmonics”

Yes, it does.

By: Michael Jae

Michael Jae — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 03:01:15 +0000

Hey Gear Mall,

Thanks for your comments! You also make a fantastic point: “One of the issues that I think often gets way overlooked, particularly by music teachers, is sound, tone & style.” I’ve had probably about 10 different music teachers of various backgrounds through the years, and I don’t remember one ever teaching me much if anything on those points! My teachers weren’t Juilliard quality by any means, so I hope other’s have had better experiences. But that’s a shame. I have had to discover so much of that myself. I’d love to know your thoughts on how to approach learning those things. Maybe you’d write a guest blog entry on the topic?

By: Michael Jae

Michael Jae — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 02:55:29 +0000

Lex, nice point thanks.

By: Michael Jae

Michael Jae — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 02:53:34 +0000

Hey Matt, thanks for your thoughts. You are a hardcore dude and you obviously are not like most people who play music for a hobby. You made some points which I agree with and are interesting though they aren’t really on topic. If someone wants to learn music theory, and get into more advanced soloing and scale composition without knowing standard notation you certainly could. Especially just by mimicking great guitarists and picking up tips and mechanics. But I would agree with anyone saying that you’ll get a deeper technical understanding of music composition by learning standard notation and the music theory behind it.

By: Michael Jae

Michael Jae — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 02:48:23 +0000

Hey Music Major,

Thanks for your comments. Just a few things I’d like to say in response.

Regarding your point #1: You can learn how to read music pretty quickly, but not read it quickly and proficiently. Even tablature takes some time to read quickly, but in my experience not as quick as tab.

Regarding your point #2: Well, I do believe it’s easier to translate tab to the location of a note than it is to translate standard notation. Again my point is it is harder with standard notation making tab more efficient.

Regarding your point #3: You’re right, and this is something mentioned by a few other folks. It goes to show you I don’t read much standard notation guitar music!

Regarding your point #4: I agree with you. If you want to play professionally you’ll probably need to learn standard notation in many cases, especially if you’re doing session work or orchestration. Yes.

Regarding your comment “those that know how to notate are usually better musicians by far, and can stand on their own throughout an extended period of time. If you want to become famous for being good at what you do, learn notation”. I don’t agree that knowing standard notation makes you a better musician, if you think about it that’s really a great matter of opinion, but still I do agree that knowing standard notation would help you become a better musician. I just don’t agree that standard notation is for everyone, or for most people. For most of us reading tab proficiently is really enough–that’s because tab does it’s job well! Most guitar players aren’t pros.