#46
|
||||
|
||||
I can read bass clef pretty fluently, as I was a tuba player growing up... and as a result I know where most of those notes are... at least on a BBb tuba.
I'm learning to read treble clef, because I'm taking mandolin lessons, and that's part of the system. But, I've not done much work learning where the notes are on the guitar fretboard. It's on my list, though.
__________________
"What have I learned but the proper use for several tools" -Gary Snyder Bourgeois DR-A / Bowerman "Working Man's" OM / Martin Custom D-18 (adi & flame) / Martin OM-21 / Northwood M70 MJ / 1970s Sigma DR-7 / Eastman E6D / Flatiron Signature A5 / Silverangel Econo A (Call me Dan) |
#47
|
|||
|
|||
Yes, I can read music. I was classically trained as a tubist. I can read each clef and the grand staff as a whole as a piano player. That said, I largely play guitar from lead sheets or TABS. But, I need the sheet music (especially the melody) in classical notation, if I’m singing while playing and haven’t internalised the song. If I’m playing melody on the guitar, I use/make tablature.
I do think learning to read classical notation is a valuable skill for any musician, and a strict method of synthesia will have significant limitations later on (just as a strict classical method often handicaps people when it comes to playing by ear/improvising).
__________________
2004 Simon & Patrick Folk (Cedar High Gloss Sunburst) Yamaha FS800 Takamine GC5CE Fender FA100 Yamaha LS16M |
#48
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
|
#49
|
|||
|
|||
I read music for guitar and do tab. For me both have their advantages and disadvantages. That said I read it but that doesn't mean I can just play right through it the first time. At least not yet, but working on it!
__________________
Martin Sc-13e 2020 |
#50
|
|||
|
|||
There have been a few posts that dance around one of the most popular (and least accurate) tropes present on every music related forum I've been on. It goes something like this:
Yeah those that can read music fluently sound pretty good but can't play without the music, or don't know how to improvise, or don't play with any soul, emotion, etc. yada yada yada...I've been reading music and playing multiple genres (classical, folk, jazz, rock, blues, bluegrass, country, swing, slack key, gypsy jazz and more) for decades. I've played with many other classically trained musicians who do the same, as well as self-taught musicians who choose not to learn to read music. Of the hundreds of people I've played with, those with formal training (and focused practice) are the ones who can play along with anyone, any song, without notation, charts or tab, even if they've never heard the tune before. I've known comparatively very few who are able to do this with no formal training, study or practice. They, like many of the well known musicians who can do this with no formal training or study are truly exceptions, not the norm. And as I frequently remind myself and others, we're not exceptional. The same people who can't get through a 3 chord I-IV-I-V cowboy chord song without a chord/lyric sheet, tab or tablet, can't play the melody (let alone improvise on it) are dissing those who read sheet music? SMH again.
__________________
"They say it takes all kinds to make this world - it don't but they're all here..." Steve Forbert - As We Live and Breathe |
#51
|
|||
|
|||
Many years back I had the fortune to play with a piano player - we started working off charts and lead sheets together - that really got us in the same universe....piano and guitar together can be tricky. We were like peas in a pod - but the other band members did NOT read.......except for the sax player! He heard us talking about lead sheets and started grinning - played a head standard and the sax guy went off! Ate that stuff for breakfast! Then he introduced us to some of his (reading) friends, including a guy who wrote charts for everyone and everybody (as well as play horns). He was the first phone call when a military band wanted charts for a new tune! Wow!
Communication! Plus! Some of those guys play/read the first few melody notes and they know the rest from years of experience. I mention all this because the charts are like a transfer point between playing off the page and into improvising and riff lines together! Magic! Learning any notation is ALWAYS a huge payoff musically! BluesKing777. |
#52
|
|||
|
|||
Yep. Standard notation on keys, vocals, percussion very well, recorder, whistle, and guitar not nearly as well.
Tablature for guitar fairly well, and I can sort out things like old Italian or Spanish tabs (upside-down) or French tabs, most often by transcibing them into modern staff plus tabs ala the “Guitar Recorded Versions” books. I can’t sight read at performance speed; that’s the province of the Broadway auditions pianist who gets to deal with music in multiple keys at multiple levels of quality every day. I haven’t noticed much correlation between “Ability to Improvise” vs “Ability to Read.” It’s a bog-standard skill for a good church organist—Bach and Mozart were famously good at improvising polyphonic music, Mozart in the styles of all his contemporaries, rather a higher bar than “Play a 16-bar solo.” |
#53
|
|||
|
|||
All the best improvisors I've ever met were also great readers. We're talking improvising over complex non-diatonic chord changes too, not fumbling around a blues box over a 3 chord tune.
|
#54
|
|||
|
|||
I can read treble clef pretty well (school band), bass okay. It comes in handy with fiddle tunes for me.
Re: ability to read and its relation to playing by ear, I've definitely experienced the classically-trained player who can't play by ear, but it's because their training never involved it and they haven't practiced doing it much. |
#55
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
|
#56
|
||||
|
||||
I'm pretty sure knowing how to read music is not what's holding me back.
__________________
Please don't take me too seriously, I don't. Taylor GS Mini Mahogany. Guild D-20 Gretsch Streamliner Morgan Monroe MNB-1w https://www.minnesotabluegrass.org/ |
#57
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
Itzak Perlman took up playing Klezmer music fairly late in life, and Yo Yo Ma has always been interested in Jazz, but people like Gunther Schuyler (sp) who swim on both ponds equally well are rare birds indeed. |
#58
|
||||
|
||||
I started reading music in 3rd grade. I was playing violin and had a wonderful music teacher. She really helped me and I learned pretty fast. I would play by sight reading the songs she presented before me, then I would go home and flip through my Mom’s old hymnals and play those. I became somewhat proficient and never forgot how to read music at a decent level.
I do not read music while playing guitar. I believe I should, but I do not. I may be wrong, but it seems more difficult to sight read guitar music than some of the other instruments, like violin. |
#59
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
__________________
Please don't take me too seriously, I don't. Taylor GS Mini Mahogany. Guild D-20 Gretsch Streamliner Morgan Monroe MNB-1w https://www.minnesotabluegrass.org/ |
#60
|
||||
|
||||
I played piano and saxophone before I took up guitar, so from the beginning, I knew how to read music, and just assumed everyone would learn the notes on any instrument they played, so I learned to read for the guitar right off, when I was 11 or 12.
__________________
Music: Spotify, Bandcamp Videos: You Tube Channel Books: Hymns for Fingerstyle Guitar (std tuning), Christmas Carols for Fingerstyle Guitar (std tuning), A DADGAD Christmas, Alternate Tunings book Online Course: Alternate Tunings for Fingerstyle Guitar |