Sight Reading Jazz Guitar

masterguerrero · #1 10-27-2011, 12:06 PM

Hello and greetings from Portugal

I've been playing for almost 15 years now, and jazz and blues guitar for 5 years, and finally i going to get (dont know the exact term in english) my major degree in music in a very high standard music school in Lisbon. Well i'm gonna try...my choice is obviously jazz guitar.

Well...the tests to get in are a bit challenging thou.
I can handle most of in (chords, scales, standards...) but sight reading and ear training is the most difficult for me.

In the past i studied classical music and flamenco with a private teacher for 6 years, and back then i could sight read pretty good.Now i'm a bit "rusty" in this area.

I'm afraid too of the "relative ear/pitch" questions. I have a good relative ear/pitch but i want to improve. I often practice with band in a box that has a ear training plug in software.
Can you give me some advice in this area?

And, the main issue, do you have recommended book in how to improve my sight reading?

I have many books: A Modern Method For Guitar 1,2 and 3 (berklee), Aebersold collection, William Leavitt's - Melodic Rhythms for Guitar and others.

I was thinking of buying William Leavitt's Reading Studies for guitar and advanced reading studies for guitar.

What is your opinion?

Thanks in advance

fep · #2 10-27-2011, 12:09 PM

Since you already know how to read music, I think the Real Book would be the best for you to practice sight reading.

whatswisdom · #3 10-27-2011, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by masterguerrero

I was thinking of buying William Leavitt's Reading Studies for guitar and advanced reading studies for guitar. What is your opinion?

Great choice. Both books are very good for developing your reading--lots of variety between single-note lines and chords. Combine with Melodic Rhythms and The Real Book and you have a comprehensive program of study.

mattymel · #4 10-27-2011, 12:33 PM

I like sax books best. Nestico's Jazz Etudes (both volumes) are great. Way more fun than the Leavitt stuff.

jmstritt · #5 10-27-2011, 12:43 PM

I know that they are a dying breed but if your city has a store that sells sheet music, I usually go once a month and buy whatever is in their discount bin.

I have gotten books that are jazz and classical etudes for clarinet, sax, trumpet. When you open your self up to other instruments, you open your mind up to much broader musical traditions that what we have on the guitar alone.

Also some of the Berklee stuff is good, but it is very... guitaristic? You won't encounter many things in there that don't already lay out nice and neat on the fretboard. Reading an etude written for violin for example will more than likely present some different fingering challenges and give you different intervals to work on and such like that.

The Berklee stuff is great, heck I used it with my teacher before I went to GIT, but it is not, "Complete."

BCPete · #6 10-27-2011, 02:07 PM

Here's a link to a free download of my book:

http://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/every...-download.html

Cheers
Pete

masterguerrero · #7 10-27-2011, 06:19 PM

Thank you all very much for your replies. All your suggestions are very welcome...you helped me a lot!!!

Very good ideas on studying other instruments books specially sax book.
But in short term i have to aim to simple melodies to re-learn sight reading.

Thank you very much BCPete for your book. I'm gonna certainly check it out.

What about ear training? Any advices/thoughts?

Reg · #8 10-27-2011, 07:40 PM

For ear training... use one of the standard ear training programs...
There already set up... single note lines to counterpoint. Intervals to full chords... and many levels of difficulty... There were a few floating around this site ... but search the net... there are many.
With sight reading... there's a difference between learning or memorizing the notation and where and how to play on your guitar ... and Real sight reading... to practice you need lots of material. Your teaching yourself to recognize rhythmic and melodic patterns... Sight Reading is having that skill of recognizing rhythmic and melodic patterns and being able to be reading the notation ahead of what your playing.
As Jmstritt was saying... there is no one answer... Fake books are great source of lots of material... and as said... usually not guitar oriented. Get use to not having material transposed and i usually try and transpose tunes to different keys while reading... really forces you to get ahead.... even if you already know the material.
The key to sight reading is being able to recognize rhythmic and melodic figures... most start with rhythm first. Reg

=DK= · #9 10-27-2011, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by masterguerrero

What about ear training? Any advices/thoughts?

Do you know what melodic dictation is? Basically you hear a melody, and write it down in standard notation. Usually you get to listen to it multiple times, before you turn it in.

Do you know what it means to transcribe a solo? It's melodic dictation applied to Jazz improvisation. As you listen to a solo on some Jazz album, you write it down in standard notation. I'm currently transcribing "The Incredible Guitar of Wes Mongomery", but it doesn't have to be a guitarist's solo, as has been stated. This exercise does wonders for both your ears and your reading.

=DK= · #10 10-27-2011, 08:10 PM

Ear Trainer
Big Ears
Ricci Adams' Musictheory.net

Arpeggio · #11 10-29-2011, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by masterguerrero

Hello and greetings from Portugal

I was thinking of buying William Leavitt's Reading Studies for guitar and advanced reading studies for guitar.

What is your opinion?

Thanks in advance

I'd recommend those two. The advanced one is only so in that it is positions 7 to 12 as opposed to the first book positions 1 to 7. Melodic Studies by Fred Hamilton starts simpler but has sight reading exercises on one string wich is different. Much better to use method books designed for it than to sight read in general, you'd have to have such a large amount of sheet music to get the same amount of diversity as the exercises in the books with all their positions and keys.

You could also say out loud the note names as you play them and at the same pitch, which is also good if you are new to solfege with the guitar to guide you.

Kman · #12 12-01-2011, 08:35 AM

I agree with jmstritt here. Go to a music store and buy sheet music. Get multiple stave music with melody, accompaniment, bass cleff et.,, it provides more than standard lead sheets and is more enjoyable.

TruthHertz · #13 12-01-2011, 09:01 AM

Regular is more important that what... that's what I think anyway.
Classical etudes for oboe, flute, etc are good for melodic material, especially since there are no position guidelines, you've got to do it yourself.
Modus Novus is a very good reading book because it's so atonal, and melodic at the same time.
When I teach, I've used Sight To Sound, by Leon White. It's a really good method written by and for the demands of a studio player. It addresses many different aspects, rhythm, fingerboard issues, melody, etc. with a goal of deep proficiency. Well thought out and very effective.
In the jazz vein, Lennie Niehaus etudes for sax are good. Jazz etudes by Greg Fishman are good for assimilating the bebop lexicon.
15 minutes a day.
One person's suggestion and suggestion only.
David

Soco · #14 12-02-2011, 11:36 AM

I read tons of Bach and that has really helped.

mattymel · #15 12-02-2011, 05:20 PM

these days i find the leavitt stuff pretty painful.
i always tell my students its a "thorough method for guitar" more than a "modern method..." but it is what it is.

i highly recommend "creative reading studies for saxophone" by joseph viola. that stuff is pretty deep and it will make you a much better rhythmic player, which is what i think is hard about reading when you get down to it.

CRFS gives you a specific rhythm (perhaps a triplet tied into a quarter note) to play over a cool sounding tone row. then you take a different rhythm (say 2 sixteenths 8th note triplet) and play over the same notes. you can spend hours on the same page of that book and you REALLY learn the rhythms. plus they usually sound pretty hip. WAY better than up and down f major scales for 20 pages straight.

pierre richard · #16 12-02-2011, 08:43 PM

violin studies as well as clarinet and flute studies are good for sight reading..as I have used over the years...

check out mel bays sight for sight reading skills books and do not forget jamie aebersolds site as well..

and the ones listed in this posting..

time on the instrument...pierre

mdenney10 · #17 01-08-2012, 09:02 PM

for working on sight reading more complicated pieces, i've been using the Charlie Parker Omnibook lately, it works well, and has a lot of cool licks in it

Arpeggio · #18 01-09-2012, 05:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattymel

these days i find the leavitt stuff pretty painful.
i always tell my students its a "thorough method for guitar" more than a "modern method..." but it is what it is.

i highly recommend "creative reading studies for saxophone" by joseph viola. that stuff is pretty deep and it will make you a much better rhythmic player, which is what i think is hard about reading when you get down to it.

CRFS gives you a specific rhythm (perhaps a triplet tied into a quarter note) to play over a cool sounding tone row. then you take a different rhythm (say 2 sixteenths 8th note triplet) and play over the same notes. you can spend hours on the same page of that book and you REALLY learn the rhythms. plus they usually sound pretty hip. WAY better than up and down f major scales for 20 pages straight.

Good idea, I think sight-reading books for instruments other than the guitar would be more geared toward the technicality / style of their instrument therefore maybe different challenges from the "normal" on the guitar. Ships within 21 days on music room while amazon don't appear to sell it directly, looks like I'll have to wait.

Drumbler · #19 01-09-2012, 07:03 AM

I wish I had an answer.

One thing for sure is that you can't become a proficient sight reader in 30 days any more than you could go from being illiterate to reading War and Peace in 30 days.

You start by learning to read Golden Books and after a LONG time you can read novels.

The question often posed is "I will be attending music school in 4 weeks. How can I learn to proficiently sight read by then?"

Unfortunately you can't.

JoshGuitar · #20 01-28-2012, 11:04 AM

'Modern Reading In 4/4 - Louis Bellson' Helped me so much, reading pitch is relatively easy, the majority of things I've had to sight read for exams have been diatonic and fit in scale shapes and positions, the difficulty has been rhythmic reading.

chrisnewlin · #21 02-26-2012, 01:30 PM

Advanced Rhythms by Joe Allard is an absolutely fantastic sightreading book.
There's 120+ exercises that start gradually and become intensely complex, forcing you to read in different key signatures constantly. The exercises themselves are not all that musical, but if you're determined, they will get the job done more effectively than anything else.

ADVANCED RHYTHMS: C EDITION: Joe Allard:

TruthHertz · #22 03-30-2012, 04:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theza101

Hi,

Does anyone have any tips on learning how to sight read? I know some really basic stuff but I really want to be able to know what all the know what the notes
are on the neck.
Thanks

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WVNicholson · #23 04-02-2012, 06:52 PM

All of your links re-direct to the top level page of the forum, TruthHertz,

William

Quote:

Originally Posted by TruthHertz

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TruthHertz · #24 04-02-2012, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WVNicholson

All of your links re-direct to the top level page of the forum, TruthHertz,

William

That's too bad. People always wind up asking questions that already have extensive threads already, the same people wind up getting into the same discussions and arguments when referencing the topic with the search function could save us this friendly ritual. Those were previous threads in response to the same question, I was trying to gather the information so we could let our fingers do the walking. Oh well, nothing wrong with a little replay I guess.
David

wolflen · #25 04-18-2012, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reg

... and Real sight reading... to practice you need lots of material. Your teaching yourself to recognize rhythmic and melodic patterns... Sight Reading is having that skill of recognizing rhythmic and melodic patterns and being able to be reading the notation ahead of what your playing.

this is a guitarist nightmare..most other instruments can do this without much diffuculity..but the guitar is illogical..(lets see there is a Bb on the third fret and one on the 8th fret..) knowing what position you will play before you play it helps achieve the goal of reading two bars ahead..

Get use to not having material transposed and i usually try and transpose tunes to different keys while reading... really forces you to get ahead.... even if you already know the material.

one of the best techniques in sight reading..reading songs you know by heart..lets say in G..but play them in Bb and as many keys as you can .. for variation-in a octave up or down as written..where possible..

The key to sight reading is being able to recognize rhythmic and melodic figures... most start with rhythm first.

very important point..seeing scale passages, arpeggios..runs in thirds and other common intervals....things you DONT have to read..like the written word..you dont read: and if or by to where when etc..that is things you already know you can pass by and concentrate on more difficult passages..

wolf