The Dark Wolf
Contributor
Stay on topic, please. This is a stickied thread in a non off-topic forum.
I respectfully disagree with Durero, as I've been told this is a helpful technique by Amy Bruksch, Dr. Lee Heritage, and Paul Galbraith himself. And I will tell you, when you begin classical instruction on the college level, it's sink or swim, so what really works quickly becomes your best friend. My playing skills were above average, but my sight reading skills were sub-par. I was reading as well as all the other students after only 2 months or so (although I'm horrible anymore. Lack of practice )
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Hey. I'm not sure how many people here read music, but I'm having a bitch of a time improving my sight reading. I can read music, of course, but just doing it quickly is really difficult. I have to sit and figure it out, then play it... I can't just do it as I play. Any advice? Thanks.
Advice I received while studying classical guitar at college.
1. Write down note names on the score. It helps for faster identification. You'll quickly begin to associate note names with the marks on the staff.
2. Write down chord names above chords/arpeggios. It helps for finger positioning. You'll be thinking, "Ah, ok! An inversion of A minor here!" instead of, "Hmm, ok... C... E...A..."
3. Make little diagrams above the notes and patterns in the score. Again, like above, helps with finger positioning. You can write a triangle, for a triangle shaped chord (like D major), or little tab-like notes.
Basically, mark the fuck out of your score. Write all over it, and then just keep at it. It's a helluva a way to pick up sight reading relatively fast.
Hope this helps you.
try reading TABS
heres an example
1
2
3
4
5
6 036548
the six is an string number and the numbers after the six is an FRET
A method book can be very helpful for this.
I'd recommend Music Reading for Guitar
Music Reading for Guitar Musicians Institute Press Series from Music 44
Yep, I didn't know that. But now that I think about at.........Many guitarists don't know that guitar and bass notation isn't read as written, but played an octave lower. The top space E is actually the 12th fret high E string, but guitar plays that note as your open high E string.