Want to learn how to sight read. Where to start.

[carvinx]

I have been playing guitar for 4 years and have spent time with music theory but never reading music other than tabs. I managed to read/learn a little jazz piece, but can't really sight read quickly. I mostly play heavy music, but am versatile overall with my playing. Any good sources to pick up on my sight reading? Also am looking to get some lessons in the not to distant future. Looking for some god advice.

 

[Mr. Big Noodles]

In order to sight read (I assume standard notation), you have to be fluent in standard notation in the first place. To learn standard notation, you have to use it. This means reading and writing it. Transcribe some of your tabs into standard notation. Write new melodies in standard. Go on IMSLP, grab some random sheet music, and read it down. Do that a little bit every day, and you'll get there.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

After learning the notes of the fretboard, start with the easy and obvious like twinkle twinkle little star, Mary had a little lamb, then just try arpegiating easy chords, just to get your brain accustomed to it

 

[wespaul]

You have to force yourself to do it every day. Like you learned how to read in school, they made you do it every day. Start with the simple things, but also challenge yourself as you go along so you can progress as fast as your discipline will allow you to. If you can get into an ensemble (either jazz or classical guitar), you'll develop the skill even faster.

There's really no shortcut to it. You have to put in the work and stick with it.

EDIT -- A good source for learning to read: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0825636795

 

[viesczy]

Learning to sight read is a combination of note recognition and instrument position application.

Are you looking to have the ability to just "see" the piece and RIP through it w/o having ever rehearsed it or just know that where the notes are on the neck as compared to the notes on the sheet?

Derek

 

[jack_cat]

Looking for some god advice.

God is busy. Let me put in my two cents worth while we're waiting for him to show.

A little-mentioned, often ignored, aspect of sight reading - of reading staff notation in general, never mind at sight - is that it is extremely useful to already know the major scale, the harmonic minor and melodic minor scales in all keys, and beyond that to know all diatonic arpeggio and chord patterns that might be derived from the scale (also in all keys).

Whatever the key signature is, it dictates the primary use of a particular major scale. ALL "accidentals" (wierd classical technical name for what I prefer to call "inflections", i.e., sharps and flats) indicate the temporary use of some other scale pattern, type or key, but generally (leaving atonal music and extreme "outside" harmonic passages out of the picture) any sharp or flat will fall neatly into some other identifiable scale, unless it is merely a chromatic passing tone between two scale tones.

Therefore, to look at the key signature is to immediately know the range of likely positions to be found, provided you have done your fingerboard harmony study. For instance, we see three flats: OK the primary scale is Eb Major. A quick glance through the score shows perhaps a few B-naturals: this means the C minor scale is kicking in. Or a Db: we move to the Ab major scale.

In this place, all melodic movement is just scale steps up and down the scale of the key given in the key signature. It is possible to forget the key signature entirely and just read the intervals, using the scale and chord positions that you already know, and this is far faster in practice than thought processes that have to go through translations.

Now, to practice sight reading: About a half an hour a day is all that I could ever do, because it's hard work and I go brain dead. But this is the practice: Whatever the material - and it doesn't matter whether it is hard or easy - take your pencil and make tic marks every four or eight bars (every two bars if the material is very tough). Play each section slowly and carefully five times. By the fifth time you should have it memorized; if not, you are taking too big a section. Then forget it and go on to the next section.

If you sight read the whole six pages or whatever straight through direct, there is no benefit, because you do no problem solving. Whatever problem solving you do is forgotten immediately. By the 5x repetition method I present here, you are practicing solving sight reading problems on the fly. The first rep just plays the notes. The second and third reps solve the fingering problems. The fourth is a good college try at playing it right. The fifth rep is as close to good as you're going to get today, and go on to the next section, no use running one problem into the ground, we're practicing sight reading, not doing guitar technique work.

(If you do more than 5x, then you are no longer practicing sight reading - you are learning the tune. In that case lots and lots of repetitions are in order, because 5x is a drop in the bucket. We're talking hundreds or thousands of reps. )

good luck!
- jack

 

[meteor685]

F A C E (for the spaces)

E G B D F (for the lines)

In treble clef. All you need pretty much. I don't read a lot though, Im more of transcribing guy. Even though Frank Gambale and Steve vai say its great to learn how to read music.

 

[CapnForsaggio]

Does anybody know the way to Carnegie Hall?

 

[Santuzzo]

Try to get your hands on simple melodies, maybe children's songs and practice finding them on different locations on the fretboard.
Next step could be playing through themes out of the Real Book (a compilation of jazz-lead-sheets consisting of melodies/themes and chord symbols to jazz standards).

 

[Thrashman]

There is no fun answers or solutions sadly.

Start by learning the notes on the neck - all of them - and then incorporate that knowledge into your scales, that way you will find reading easier to learn and you will have no problems with it. Key word is PATIENCE.

 

[Jiri Dolezal]

A good book for learning sight-reading is Leon White`s From Sight to Sound. It may out of print though, not sure...

 

[JeremyRodriguez5544998]

I only am good at reading music on saxophone lol. But perhaps some of those strategies I learned there can apply with guitar.

Really the biggest thing is being able to look at a group of notes as a whole and being able to read ahead, kind of how we read words. You just got to get familiar with your scalar and chord shapes and how they look on paper, so that when you see a D minor 7 arpeggio you don't have to read every single note, but rather you look at it as a whole.

Kind of hard to explain sightreading really, but this little trick helped me get through so many gigs when they pulled a song out of nowhere I had never even seen.

 

[Rachmaninoff]

You have to force yourself to do it every day. Like you learned how to read in school, they made you do it every day.

Precisely this.

 

[OmegaSlayer]

Learn how chords are visually shaped on the pentagram.
That's the best suggestion I can give to you to make things just a tiny little bit easier.

 

[jack_cat]

perhaps some of those strategies I learned there can apply...

Really the biggest thing is being able to look at a group of notes as a whole and being able to read ahead, kind of how we read words. You just got to get familiar with your scalar and chord shapes and how they look on paper, so that when you see a D minor 7 arpeggio you don't have to read every single note, but rather you look at it as a whole.

Kind of hard to explain sightreading really, but this little trick helped me get through so many gigs when they pulled a song out of nowhere I had never even seen.

A pro speaks about strategies... because that's where the rubber meets the road with sight-reading - when you get to some gig with a folder full of tunes the band-leader gave you two weeks ago, all practiced up, and he says, Oh! We're not doing THOSE tunes today, we're doing THESE tunes and hands you a new folder...

And this thing about shifting gears and reading in "paragraphs" is exactly right on: you have to learn to translate these visual shapes into musical shapes on the fly, and this works way better when the musical shapes fall into conventional harmonic patterns that you already know. Then there are two other aspects: (1) is this music idiomatic for the instrument you are playing? Music that is especially for some other instrument may well use chord forms you can't get at easily (those Bach unaccompanied violin sonatas for instance), and it is unreasonable to expect anyone to sight read under those conditions; (2) do you know the style so that you can intuitively anticipate what's coming up? this helps a whole lot with sight reading. And also: was this music even meant for sight-reading? A composer or arranger who is expecting you to come in and sight read his stuff had better not be piling up funny chord changes four to the measure. Some stuff just has to be studied and practiced.

There is a funny old, possibly apocryphal story about a piece of music by Arnold Schoenberg (was it?), the great atonalist, a piece for orchestra which included a guitar part. The orchestra called up classical guitarist Jose Rey de la Torre, he looked at the part, and said "I'll need til May to practice." Well, they needed it right now, not next May, so they called up jazz guitarist Johnny Smith, who showed up for the rehearsal hung over and read the part at sight, no problem.... there is however a subtext to this story, which is that with Schoenberg's music nobody except possibly the conductor would even notice if the guitarist happened to play a wrong note, and Johnny Smith (if it was he) probably assessed this situation faster than he read the part, and probably immediately figured that if he threw some well timed s**t at the wall, it would probably stick and he'd be home free.

Moral: if you can make something up that will fill the bill, then who needs to read the part?? But that's only if you can make it stick, which won't always happen. How special is this gig, anyway? and how special is the band leader who hired you to play? There is the question of necessity: if you need to be able to read for gigs, and you really want the gigs, you'll read, and if you don't want the paying gig that bad, or you have easier things to do, you'll go play with somebody else.

Reading ability is only one end of a spectrum of musicianship. I had a conversation with a guy whose main thing was Beatles Tribute bands - a go-to guy who specialized in George but could do Paul, John or Ringo when necessary. Naturally he had learned the repertory by ear as a teenager, and reading was not his thing. He told me that when he gets into a session and they ask him to read something, he tries to get a minute with the piano player: "Hey play me this thing a couple of times, would you please?" and then fakes it by memory. But after all, his main working thing is playing music he has known for years, and he doesn't actually need reading gigs, and figures if it's him they want, they'll give him a break and meet his reading abilities halfway.

... jack

 

[Given To Fly]

There is a funny old, possibly apocryphal story about a piece of music by Arnold Schoenberg (was it?), the great atonalist, a piece for orchestra which included a guitar part. The orchestra called up classical guitarist Jose Rey de la Torre, he looked at the part, and said "I'll need til May to practice." Well, they needed it right now, not next May, so they called up jazz guitarist Johnny Smith, who showed up for the rehearsal hung over and read the part at sight, no problem.... there is however a subtext to this story, which is that with Schoenberg's music nobody except possibly the conductor would even notice if the guitarist happened to play a wrong note, and Johnny Smith (if it was he) probably assessed this situation faster than he read the part, and probably immediately figured that if he threw some well timed s**t at the wall, it would probably stick and he'd be home free.

Serenade Op.24 (1924) - Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951)

The guitar part was a problem because it was originally written in bass clef. (Webern did the same thing in some of his pieces too.) I'm not positive but I think a harpist played the guitar part for the first performances. Schoenberg knew what notes were supposed to be played I can guarantee you that, plus, he was probably conducting.

 

[mongey]

I friend of mine plays a while bunch of classical instruments really well. piano , violin, cello , viola and a few more variations on each . she sight reads like a freak. I asked her once about learning and she said she got good at it when she stopped looking at the notes and thinking what they are, like "that's and F then an A then a C " , and instead looked and felt the sounds on the page .

she see's the dot and hears the note in her head and reproduces it , not recognize what note it is then play it

I said ok then went home and played some distorted power chords

 

[MajorTom]

If you where in the U.K. I would of posted you out some guitar theory books that focus on standard music notation in relation to the guitar, it's centered around the classical guitar, but the theory is the same whether your on electric guitar, steel string acoustic guitar or nylon string classical guitar.

 

[marcwormjim]

I recommend a beginner's sight-reading course, such as Alfred's Basic Guitar Method 1. By time you've finished it, you'll have the fundamentals down, and will generally feel like either going forward with level 2 or just using what you know to have a better grip on stacked-format notation-over-tabs (such as you'd find in guitar pro files). I'm concerned that approaching it with higher aspirations in-mind can lead to the easy trap of the guitar player who daydreams about their potential as a musician.

 

[chopeth]

https://chantiollinmx.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/encarnacion-lopez-de-arenosa-ritmo-y-lectura-1.pdf