There's a guy I work with...and he certainly fits the term "guitar virtuoso". He's done a few orchestral scores and I'd love to just read it and play it...just so I can enjoy it. As it is...I can readily chord them and sort of adjust the picking to what I hear will work...but it's not what he's written. Frustration abounds!
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
There's a guy I work with...and he certainly fits the term "guitar virtuoso". He's done a few orchestral scores and I'd love to just read it and play it...just so I can enjoy it. As it is...I can readily chord them and sort of adjust the picking to what I hear will work...but it's not what he's written. Frustration abounds!
So learn to read, man. That's a great reason to learn, right there. (Sorry to be a nagging wife on this... but I keep hearing this wistful edge in your posts, as if reading is somehow The Road Not Taken & is no longer available, and that is just not so. For anyone.)
Last week I heard about an opening in a band at a church my wife & I occasionally attend. They need a lead guitar player. As noted upthread, I hardly consider myself a guitar player at all -- but I'm hungry to play with other people, & the repertoire isn't too challenging from what I've heard, so why not? It will be a pleasant challenge & may make me a "better" player overall. It's not like, "Oh, I became a bassist 30 years ago, so the guitar's no longer an option." WTF?? Why not go for it? So I now have a great reason to plug in, pick up the flatpick (goes with the territory, I guess) & get my chops & my "guitar face" together. 8)
Same deal with reading. Your friend is writing stuff you want to read? Learn to read it.
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream." - Frank Zappa
There's a guy I work with...and he certainly fits the term "guitar virtuoso". He's done a few orchestral scores and I'd love to just read it and play it...just so I can enjoy it. As it is...I can readily chord them and sort of adjust the picking to what I hear will work...but it's not what he's written. Frustration abounds!
Cat
Maybe you could try something that worked for me Cat.
I got a cheap notation program - Finale Notepad (which I later upgraded) - and typed in the notes from bits of sheet music that I wanted to hear. The act of writing it all in helped me a lot with note recognition and the whole business of learning to read and write. I could then play it back using either the built in generic midi sounds, or whatever fancier sound library I had at the time. I could also use it to make individual backing tracks.
I used Finale, but apparently Sibelius is spruiked as being well integrated with Pro Tools, so maybe something from their range might suit your setup?
It's a slow process to begin with, but once it starts to stick it's very useful, not to mention satisfying.
Cheers,
Chris
Update on the student who plays from memory: lesson 3 this morning. There's no problem - she came to the conclusion on her own that she needed to be actually reading, and she's really worked at it. She played every piece perfectly from last week at first pass; her mother told me every time she has a spare minute, she's practicing. The mother also told me she's been trying to play from music I haven't given her, so she really is attacking her own weaknesses.
So I didn't have to reach into my bag of tricks at all, and I never caught her eyes away from the music today - she was really focused on it. We'll see how she does next week - this week she's playing eighth notes and accidentals. Key signatures are on deck to start next week's lesson.
I really love teaching students like this one - I get one roughly once every four years or so... someone who has both "the gift" and the inclination to work at developing it.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
So learn to read, man. That's a great reason to learn, right there. (Sorry to be a nagging wife on this... but I keep hearing this wistful edge in your posts, as if reading is somehow The Road Not Taken & is no longer available, and that is just not so. For anyone.) Same deal with reading. Your friend is writing stuff you want to read? Learn to read it.
Ha! 'The Road Not Taken' was written the very day I was born...funny, that.
Yeah, I dig what you are saying and you've sussed me out as far as wanting to enjoy a musical friendship more than I can do at present. I was sent the performance and "Cat...have fun with it!" by my long time friend of nearly 40 years. He knows I can't read...but knows my interpretation of it will be unfettered by HIS structuring of it. It's boiled down to stereo for PTools...
So I play along to it...listening...record...erase...record...erase, but keep some bits that "match"...erase...aaaaaahhh!
So...okay...I read already...but too bad it's Braille!!!! :lol:
Cat
PS: When yer right, yer right. I'm now scouring the dating sites lookin' for a Lover Who Won't Blow My Cover and can teach me to read...
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
