I want to learn to read and write music. I am equipped with what I learned from a guitar class and some of what I remember from Music 101 in college. I want to understand the notation more than knowing what notes are where on the staff.
I have not found much on guitarnoise.com for this? Can someone help lead the blind? Are there any good internet sites for learning to read and write music?
If I have to settle for something I have to pay for (i.e. a book) and you know of ones you think are helpful, I would certainly take those into consideration as well.
Thanks friends... rock on
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"Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself,
When you're old enough to repay, but young enough to sell?"
~ Neil Young
there's Ricci Adams' http://www.musictheory.net , that has loads of music comprehension and theory in it
I'm guessing you've already started, but practicing sight reading helps a lot, it makes things more familiar, and you start to see patterns that you can't really get by being taught
but it sounds like you have a pretty good foundation with a music and gutar class
I don't follow my dreams, I just ask em' where they're going and catch up with them later.
-Mitch Hedburg
Did you see that!
I'm afraid I'm not clear on whether you just want to be able to set your own melodies down in standard notation, and pick out melodies on a guitar from music.... or if you want to be able to sight read.
For the first, I'd pick up a general book on reading music - there are a few out there, and a quick trip to a Borders or Barnes & Noble will allow you to browse through 2-3 different ones to find one that's friendly for you.
For the basics of reading on guitar, get a method book - Mel Bay's Modern Guitar, the Berklee Method, Bill Bay's Mastering Guitar, or similar - any of these will teach you the open position fairly quickly. The Berklee method has less instructive text and illustrations than the others, but more musical examples.
On the other hand, if you want to sight read, you'll probably end up getting all those books, and then some. Developing the ability to read at sight takes daily practice, and means practicing on pieces you haven't seen before... so you're gonna chew your way through a lot of music getting proficient at it. Don't limit yourself to guitar music for practice - if you can get any sort of music in treble clef inexpensively, you can read from it.
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You guys rock. The musictheory.net website is very nice. Also, I never thought to break down music notation into understanding vs relation to guitar vs sight reading. That will help me structure my learning.
Thanks a ton!
... will check back for any other suggestions from anybody.
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"Is it hard to make arrangements with yourself,
When you're old enough to repay, but young enough to sell?"
~ Neil Young
It's also worth remembering that music, specifically for guitar, is written one octave higher than standard. The middle C is shown, in "true" standard notation as being on the 1st ledger line below the F clef - the bridge between the F and G clefs. Guitar music always shows it as being the note on the space between the middle line and second line from the top of the staff.
That's true about the guitar being a transposing instrument - although orchestral music using jazz guitar is sometimes written in true pitch on the grand staff. At any rate, you can play anything in the clef on guitar, even if it isn't 'right', if you're playing alone - i.e., getting sight reading practice. Yesterday I was reading some of my son's French horn music for a bit. Nobody would know that it should be in Eb instead of Bb (for true pitch) to just hear the guitar alone - I'd only need to transpose to play with him, or other musicians who had parts in true pitch.
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