how i learned to sightread

[Childbride]

i decided after a year or two of playing that i wanted to move further, to sight read music on the guitar.

i am nobody, i am a woman in texas. but if i help one person who is banging their head against the wall like i did for a year until i got it, then i did good. this worked for me, it may not work for anyone else. i'm just trying to help.

learn a couple of scales, they give you early reference.

then take out your circle of fifths, call out the notes to yourself one string at a time, and get to where you can automagically go to them.

then get some bach counterpoint or eighth note exercises where if you look at your hands, you will totally get lost b/c you can't look back and forth from the sheet music, so you have to depend upon your ear and your knowledge.

it will take off for you... just sayin'...

[tjcurtin1]

Hey, Childbride - So, how would you say this has served your guitar playing? I can read standard notation for wind instruments already, and have debated 'learning' myself to read for guitar, but I always find myself asking if the time would not be better spent learning other, more immediately applicable, guitar skills. I wonder when I'll ever really need/use sightreading in my guitar playing. What do you (or other Fretters) say?

[Childbride]

It's been invaluable on how I learn. Everyone learns differently. But for me personally, I feel like I'm finally playing on varsity. My teacher gives me music and tells me what fret to start on. I worry it like a bone until I figure it out. Then he tells me how to do it smarter, cleaner, faster.

[Monkus]

i can sight read anything if I have a few hours with it !!! Srsly tho' my main challenge is the timing of sight reading without a reference. Especially if its in a funky time sig like 11/8. Example:

[marnold***]

Well played, CB! I can sight read somewhat for vocals and for piano with some effort. I know some things for guitar but I'm a long way away from being able to play straight from standard notation.

[sunvalleylaw]

I think it sounds like a grand idea. Unless I am missing something, notation is notation is notation, and the notes are the notes, whether they are being on tuba or shred guitar. So really, it is another tool to make one learn where the notes are on the fretboard, after being able to identify the notes immediately and on the fly from notation, without having to count lines from G on the treble cleft, etc. The exercise builds fluidity, and mastery of our instrument.

I learned on piano, and locating notes on a piano is a whole lot easier for me (and I would suspect for most) because they are laid out the same way, in black and white. I still was not great at playing straight from sheet music, even at the end of my piano playing, because I still had to cipher out the notes in between the clefts and could not just know it was a C or D etc.

It would be a great exercise to be able to do. And you are right on also CB, that learning your shapes on the fretboard is a key complementary skill. For me, starting with the pentatonic up and down the whole board is the starting place, as it is easiest. I can add in the missing full scale notes from there. So once I know what key I am in, it is easier to locate my notes on the fretboard and get to where I can "automagically" find them without looking at the board. Very much like I am doing now as I type this on the keyboard.

[Katastrophe]

Way to go, CB!

I'm learning how to read standard notation this semester at school, as a "fun" course. The circle of fifths (along with the order of sharps and flats) opens up a lot... Everything in class is oriented to piano, so I have to apply everything to the guitar, but it's all making sense so far.

Now, where did I put that Bach fugue???

[Childbride]

i learned another trick this past week that helps. my teacher likes teaching the blues... if you pick up some pretty basic sight reading like wes montgomery's 'd natural blues', learn to play it in octaves.

[progrmr]

Biggest issue I have is figuring out position - I can read music, but figuring out where to play on the neck is trouble.

[Childbride]

i do, too.

[Childbride]

Try and play a song around the top, middle, and the octave. Where you can play it cleanest, most economically is where it should be

[Childbride]

you're welcome. today, i sat down and figured out all of the runs to 'born under a bad sign'... things are opening up for me, now, b/c i can just 'see' it. the ear follows.