Sight Reading Poll

[deacon Mark]

1. I do not read music

2. I can read music but not really sight read on guitar

3. I can sight read music on the guitar like Fake Books and Tunes

4. I can sight read lines and some syncopated rhythm just not fast

5. I can sight read most things and the only catch is fast tempo or really complicated rhythms.

If you really define sight reading per the definition is that you can look at a piece of music and after about 1 run through you, have it at performance level. I am going to fudge on that definition and say that if you get a piece of music and within a short rehearsal you have it down. I am interested just because I think most guitar players are pretty timid about their sight-reading abilities. It does not make some a great player but being able to read music is a skill that I believe helps completely in the end. I am going leave the poll up for a time just to see what it comes out as. Maybe no one cares. Since I did the poll I am going to answer first and tell you. I am well above 4 close to 5 in most things. Basically, I can get bogged down if the tempo is fast, melodies in a fake book are easy I can come up with instant chord melody sight reading. That said I am a long way from being a moving force playing the guitar.

[GuyBoden]

My sight reading has totally lapsed, considering I studied music at college for a year after I left school at 16 in the early 1980's, it's an embarrassment.

[DawgBone]

I can read it slowly but sometimes the dotted notes get me confused. I have no sight reading ability with a guitar to speak of.

I picked up trumpet almost 6 months ago which has def helped improve things. I'm just playing songs I already know the melody lines to but that helps me learn how those note values work better as I learn more heads.

[AllanAllen]

This is like... a 10 year goal for me. I've improved more over the last month with this pit gig more than I have in the past 5 years.

[Tom Karol]

My sight reading has totally lapsed, considering I studied music at college for a year after I left school at 16 in the early 1980's, it's an embarrassment.

I'm in the same boat. Sight reading prowess will surely atrophy if you don't do it on a regular basis. Learning to recognize rhythmic or melodic patterns helps. At this point I can read lead sheets to learn songs and even solo over written changes, but I wouldn't say I can sight read effectively - if I ever could.
There's an old joke: "How do you get a guitarist to stop playing? Put a sheet of music in front of him."

[deacon Mark]

I have to add an additional note. The best paying gig I have had at least based on the value of money at the time was because I could sight read. They had the Musical Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at the local College for month of shows. They need a guitarist who could sight read the parts and called the local music store at the time I was teaching guitar there, and they got me.

I not sure what the how is was all funded but through Eureka College and wow did that pay serious money. It was over 40 years ago and even by todays money it is not horrible. The first few shows were hard but by end was getting most things correct. I should add that I am a far better sight reader now than then be interesting to see the score again. Paid better than any regular gig for sure.

[Hugo Gainly]

This seems to be missing the most important test; viz: sitting down, as a newbie in a big band in front of the guitar pad. The MD calls a chart, and you see that the first page has some staves sellotaped in place of what was on the original. It's in pencil and the rest of the page is in pen. And much older.

Watching the MD sway and emote in the count in. Where the * was one?! Was that it?! The playing the music with the rest of the band. Which includes trumpeters. Who are never wrong.

If you can't hack that and still think you 'can read', you're kidding yourself. You might be able to translate, (transliterate maybe) but it's not reading.

[wolflen]

Back when..I could read chord charts (fake books etc) of many tunes..

there was a home recording studio doing singer demos and at the time drummer/bass players were
near by.

In time a very good keyboard player (Rhodes) was part of the mix and I could now do some lead sheet reading.

Later teamed with another guitarist songwriter and we did duo work for several years..got fairly good
and could sight read fake book standards and have them down in 3 or 4 takes.

But as other have said those skills need constant exercise.

Now I can read complex rhythmic lines at my leisure and take my time getting a tune at tempo.

Im glad I took the time and effort to learn to read and write standard notation.

[kris]

I have no problems with reading sheet music.

[James W]

I have no problems with reading sheet music.

You and me both.

I've been practising sight singing with my guitar in hand to check myself for some time now. Ten or fifteen minutes minimum a day.

[Sigmund451]

True sight reading no.

I can work my way through notation in fake books and such. Its sure helps a lot if I have the tune in my head correctly.

[spencer096]

stuck at #4 unfortunately...the amount of time ive spent on sight reading is embarrassing

[Christian Miller]

I can read fly shit







Music poses more of a challenge


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[mikeSF]

I studied clarinet and tenor sax in high school and college, so I arrived at guitar with good single note sight reading skills. It took decades to get 2 and 3 notes simultaneously strong, but I've played guitar in dozens of pit orchestras, so now everything comes pretty easy. For jazz charts, I've subbed on the bandstand with pro big bands, and was able to hang pretty comfortable by the second set.

[rpjazzguitar]

I'm a mid 5.

I can read most things, but when the going gets tough, the horns, piano and bassist in my big bands are often quicker.

The other day I came across something that was impossible. New chart, fast, lots of hits. Gordon Goodwin. At one point there are several bars of hits in a row. Several chords per bar, each for one hit. The hits are denoted as syncopated slash noteheads and the chords are symbols above the staff, as usual. I couldn't move my eyes up and down fast enough. I'd have to memorize the hits to play it, but this was the first time through. Would have been easier if the chords were on stems without symbols.

[AllanAllen]

Would have been easier if the chords were on stems without symbols.

I really think big band guitar would be easier if the arranger knew what our role was and just wrote out the quarter note tenor line they wanted instead of all the usual mess of slash chords and diminished passing chords.

You know, like they do for all 12 horns and the bass player.

[Christian Miller]

To be honest most of the time I think they’d rather we just naff off


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[AllanAllen]

Well yeah, they write a bad sheet and then the guitarist sounds bad. The gig is single notes and they write out chord symbols and slashes. We are doomed to fail.

[rpjazzguitar]

I think I understand the thing about single notes. But, I don't care for that sound. Matter of taste, or course. I use it only as a safety net when my brain is behind the band and I can't think straight.

The chord symbols and slashes permit a broader range of possibilities by alerting you to potential conflicts with the chord the band, as a whole, is playing and also potential conflict with the bass line.

You can play simple shells that won't conflict and that can sound great, but so can actually playing the chord that the band is spelling out. To do that effectively, you have to know which bass note, which fifth, which 9th, and so forth.

[Christian Miller]

Well yeah, they write a bad sheet and then the guitarist sounds bad. The gig is single notes and they write out chord symbols and slashes. We are doomed to fail.

Or doomed to go to the bar.

[Christian Miller]

Well yeah, they write a bad sheet and then the guitarist sounds bad. The gig is single notes and they write out chord symbols and slashes. We are doomed to fail.

Actually I play sometimes with one band and they have loads of written parts for the guitar. Some of them are pretty tough sight-reading. But I still think I like that better than the dreaded slashes - and I think if someone writes something for you, you know it's going to sound good. It makes me feel valued.

It's hard to make choices on the fly specially when you are next to pianist who is also reading. Not so much of an issue with trad Basie style stuff, because we know what we are doing.

Horn players don't have to make choices and they only need to interpret one type of notation, unless they are blowing.

[Cunamara]

47 years with the guitar and I still can't sight read the first Mel Bay Grade 1 piece. I have never been able to get it despite hundreds and hundreds of hours working at it. It is embarrassing and I avoid situations where I might be expected to read- which means I have avoided most gigs over the decades. "Hey, man, I need a guitarist for a gig Wednesday, can you do it?" "Ah, shit, sorry! I have something going on that night." Maybe I'd say yes if they could send me the charts a month in advance.

Calling yourself a musician means that you can sight read, IMHO. If you can't, like me, you're a guitar player at best. Why would I waste the time of actual musicians and embarrass myself? They can hire someone who can do the job.

[joe2758]

Maybe so, friend, but most musicians can't call themselves a guitar player.

[mikeSF]

...something that was impossible. New chart, fast, lots of hits. Gordon Goodwin. ..

yeah, those charts are wicked!

[voxo]

early music books were hell..Tabs saved many a soul...