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Reading music versus tabs

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(@wut_u_c_is_wut_u_get)
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Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 11
Topic starter  

Ok, i can read tabs and i have no problem with them...only that quite a few of them are wrong and its a little frustrating when you really want to learn a song and none of them are right. I understand that reading music iss going to be a WHOLE LOT better for me and a big help, but i dont know where to start. I have a simple begginer book that teaches you a few chords and a few notes on each string, but its awful to learn from and i dont know where else to go....any help?

"Its not about what showing people what you can do with a peice of wood with strings on it. Its about making music."~~~John Frusciante.


   
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(@clau20)
Reputable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 351
 

I'm starting to learn reading music too.

I started with the basic... Read every single notes.

I also have a beginner book, which help me. There are some little song to practice reading with 3-4 notes at a time.

But those songs were short and boring :roll:

So I found a Easy Classic Rock Song book where I have many classic rock song translated in note by note. It sounds like the song, but much easier than the original :wink:

Even if you know how to play a song like the original, it could help you to learn your notes because there are no tab, just notes and you have to read to be able to play it. And once you get it, play it again and again, always watching your notes

" First time I heard the music
I thought it was my own
I could feel it in my heartbeat
I could feel it in my bones
... Blame it on the love of Rock'n'Roll! "


   
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(@scrybe)
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Joined: 16 years ago
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agreed, learning to sight read keeps your eyes away from the fretboard - great help!

I am useless at sight reading, mainly because I haven't done it for years, but when I was learning my guitar tutor had me do classical music (which I quite enjoyed), starting with simple one-note solos, then working up to fingerstyle stuff getting more complicated in notation and technique as it went on. I only made it as far as grade 4 or 5 before education precluded further study, but I'm gonna go back through the tunes he gave me, then move from there.

I'd start with tunes in C major because there are no sharps/flats, then try to 'add' keys based on the key signature (e.g. start adding G major - one sharp, or F major - one flat, then two flats, three flats, and so on), and try to look for tunes with varying rhythms in them (e.g. you don't just want to be able to read tunes with four crochet-notes to a bar, because you'll be screwed if you have to read dotted rhythms later, try to vary it from piece to piece).

hope that helps - my tutor gave me stuff piece by piece (or a bunch at a time), so there aren't any books I can recommend. but you could try the grade school books (although the electric guitar ones have tab below the notation, but this shouldn't be a problem). or a mag like Guitarist should have a variety of pieces in each issue.

Ra Er Ga.

Ninjazz have SuperChops.

http://www.blipfoto.com/Scrybe


   
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(@georgejw22)
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Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 40
 

I'm working long distance with a tutor, more like a mentor, from the Registry of Guitar Tutors that has got me going in a book called Solo Guitar Playing by Frederick M. Noad. Studies mainly classical, which I wasn't interested in but it is growing on me. Anyway, it starts off as if you no nothing of reading music and works up to full sheet music. Also comes with a CD with the sheet music played for your comparison. Not a quick learn book but it is still really good. I recommend it to anyone that wants to learn to read notation.

All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff. ~ Frank Zappa
I've got blisters on my fingers. ~Ringo Starr
Music is spiritual. The music business is not. ~ Van Morrison


   
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(@drunkrock)
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Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 159
 

I have been teaching myself to read using David Oakes book, Music Reading for Guitar: The Complete Method. I have found it to be an excellent instruction, and it only took a few weeks for me to begin to read many melodies in simple key signatures. I can notate melody lines for my own songs now too.

I just wish more guitar music was available in standard, or chart notation, versus tab. Though a standard notation version of a Clash songbook might not be a big seller.


   
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(@alangreen)
Member
Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 5342
 

We talk about this quite a lot round here, and you're definitely doing the right thing by trying to get your head around reading standard notation. There are endless books which set out to teach you just that and they're probably as good as each other.

I learned by playing the recorder - I was six and lessons were compulsory. When I first picked up a guitar it was just a case of learning where the notes were on the neck. There's a lot to be said for learning to read music by playing a simple instrument which can only play one note at a time.

Best,

A :-)

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk


   
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 Mike
(@mike)
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Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 2892
 

You can start here -

Your Very Own Rosetta Stone - A Guide To Reading Musical Notation - Part One

Theory Without Tears

The Musical Genome Project

With-in these lessons are usually links to other lessons as well, check them out too. Let us know how you make out.


   
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(@scrybe)
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Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 2241
 

using any newly learned notation reading skills to try to notate your own riffs and melodies (or tunes you like from other artists) is also a great exercise - my only problem is my guitar playing far outstrips my notation abilities, lol, but its a great way to go over what you've learned and to work out what you don't know notation-wise.

Ra Er Ga.

Ninjazz have SuperChops.

http://www.blipfoto.com/Scrybe


   
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(@smcclure)
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Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 53
 

I'm working long distance with a tutor, more like a mentor, from the Registry of Guitar Tutors that has got me going in a book called Solo Guitar Playing by Frederick M. Noad. Studies mainly classical, which I wasn't interested in but it is growing on me. Anyway, it starts off as if you no nothing of reading music and works up to full sheet music. Also comes with a CD with the sheet music played for your comparison. Not a quick learn book but it is still really good. I recommend it to anyone that wants to learn to read notation.

That's what I've been studying from, also with a Charles Duncan text, for the past 1.5 years. Good book, nice arrangements of good beginner to intermediate pieces. I've really enjoyed the book, well worth the money. The CD only includes the pieces, however, two CDs of the exercises are available from the Noad website. If I didn't have a local teacher, I would definitely get those CDs as well.

I've also picked up a couple of "easy classical guitar" books that have both tab and standard notation. I tend "cheat" and look at the tab so I have to be diligent about keeping my eyes on the staff. I say cheat because I want to be able to play from standard notation. However, a book including both tab and standard notation might be a good choice for learning.

____
Steve


   
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(@rahul)
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Posts: 2736
 

All I know about 'tabs' is that they are a key on my keyboard. Very useful indeed.

For music, it should be standard notation.


   
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