How many of us can read music?

[warfrat73]

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.

[koine2002]

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).

[Bluenose]

Originally Posted by Stratcat77

I agree 100%! I hope my post didn't sound otherwise. It very much impresses me to see someone who is proficient in sight reading! That's an impressive skill. Sort of a human midi machine. Feed me the information and out comes the music. Cool.

My point was that I have met people who can ONLY read music and if you take away the sheet music they are unable to play a song. If given the choice of ONLY being able to do one or the other, my choice would be to be able to only play by ear.

Of course, being able to do both (as some can) would be great!

I agree if you mean a beginner that can only play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star from sheet music but someone that has put in the time and effort to be able to play Bach and Scarlatti from sheet music convincingly could probably play something pretty amazing without sheet music. It just comes down to what you like and want to play.

[Cecil6243]

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!

[Mandobart]

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.

[BluesKing777]

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.

[cdkrugjr]

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.”

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by Stratcat77

As been pointed out, one who can only read music does not have the ability to improvise. I see that as a big handicap for live performance which is what I love doing.

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.

[columbia]

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.

[columbia]

Originally Posted by Bluenose

I agree if you mean a beginner that can only play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star from sheet music but someone that has put in the time and effort to be able to play Bach and Scarlatti from sheet music convincingly could probably play something pretty amazing without sheet music. It just comes down to what you like and want to play.

You would think so, but from some of the piano forums I've visited, apparently there are those who can play Rachmaninoff but would struggle with a playing a I-V-vi-IV progression to a pop song. People who have great skill in translating sheet music to music but little knowledge of the functional conventions of popular music.

[rllink]

I'm pretty sure knowing how to read music is not what's holding me back.

[cdkrugjr]

Originally Posted by columbia

You would think so, but from some of the piano forums I've visited, apparently there are those who can play Rachmaninoff but would struggle with a playing a I-V-vi-IV progression to a pop song. People who have great skill in translating sheet music to music but little knowledge of the functional conventions of popular music.

It’s not really a skill Concerti players cultivate, no . . .

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.

[Pickcity]

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.

[rllink]

Originally Posted by Pickcity

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.

I wanted to learn the fretboard so I set out playing sheet music on my guitar, plucking the notes, just learning where they were. Just random songs. It was during the holiday season a few years back and I would bring home the programs from church and pluck out the Christmas songs. It was fun for a while and worked, I learned the fretboard, up to about the seventh fret. I got bored with it eventually. But that's not what I do on guitar, I don't sit there plucking out melodies. I'm a flatpicker and I play chords. So it was a good exercise in learning, but I've not had a whole lot of use for it since. It is handy knowing where notes are though.

[Doug Young]

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.