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Hey guys. Well I've recently got into jazz guitar and I tried out for my school jazz band and made the band. Now the director says my strong area is improv which I agree with, but I need to work on music reading and sight reading.
I was just wondering if there were any good music reading books/sites that can help me with this and really get me into shape in about 3/4 months for the start of school again.
Also if there any tips or great jazz guitarists you could suggest for a new jazz player that'd be fantastic!
Thanks in advance
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05-26-2011 04:51 PM
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William Leavitt and the Berklee Guitar books for your reading. Start with Charlie Christian then Wes Montgomery for your players. Tons of other books and players but that'll get you on solid ground... Good luck with your music.
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Get some solo transcriptions and struggle yourself through them
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I'm using David Oakes. It's good. I have no idea how it compares to the others, but it certainly leaves no stone unturned.
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check out bert ligons site at the U of South Carolina...
any music book that you have not seen as yet will work...
just read or play along..and don't worry about keeping time or making mistakes...we are learning...
time on the instrument...pierre
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I've always preferred playing by ear but I've decided to improve my reading. I wrote a program that randomly generates a pages of 1/4 notes. It has helped me a lot. There are no timing issues and no melody to let my ear take over. I'm forced to read the notes and find them on my fingerboard in different positions. You can get the program at Alf's links. You need some other programs to make it work but they are free.
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+1000 on the "Berklee Book" (Amazon.com: A Modern Method for Guitar - Volume 1: Book/DVD-ROM Pack (Method (Berklee Press)) (9780876390696): William Leavitt, Larry Baione: Books). I am using that method to learn to read and it is tough, but very rewarding. Make sure that you get the version that comes with the DVD, it is invaluable.
Originally Posted by whatswisdom
William Leavitt and the Berklee Guitar books for your reading. Start with Charlie Christian then Wes Montgomery for your players. Tons of other books and players but that'll get you on solid ground... Good luck with your music.
I really wish that I had done this when I was your age! Good luck.
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IMO, the fastest way to learn how to read music effectively is also probably the slowest way. If you can afford it, get a good guitar teacher, one who teaches reading, harmony, theory, etc. Do NOT go to some clown who teaches students to use tabs and just shows students how to strum simple chords to simple popular songs. Originally Posted by SLCdragons102
Your biggest problem, by far, will be finding the discipline and will power to put in the time and effort playing, correctly, through the very basic exercises and doing those basics very well. Then there's learning to read in the various positions. It can be a hassle but if you approach it with a positive attitude and are willing to do the early work it will soon get easier. And, assuming you really apply yourself, the future payoff is tremendous.
If I were you I'd start with a simple guitar course, like the basic Mel Bay method, book 1. Learn to play in 1st position (well), then learn the stuff in 5th position, etc. A good teacher would be a great help to you. Don't worry about learning fast, worry about really learning the basics well.
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Hey SLCdragons102, what's your reading like now. Can you read pretty well in open position...., just starting...???
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I think it's pretty simple...
For those who don't read well, ask yourself, "how much did I practice sight reading yesterday? in the last week? the last month? the last year? the last 3 years?
The material doesn't matter much, what is necessary is putting in the time, everyday over a long period of time.
I use the real book and other fake books for sight reading practice. Been doing it for a half year and now I'm finally starting to believe I can becoming a decent sight reader. Whenever I first pick up the guitar for a given day, I always do sight reading first... sight singing second... then on to the more fun things to practice like jamming on tunes.
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I taught myself via the first Mel Bay Book, then when I could take lessons at around 16 years old I was taught to arrange chord melody. I had to write out one chorus/tune a week including the chords I was using. This really helped get my reading together, by writing it out. I don't read well enough for the pit (real sight reading) but do read quite well just the same.
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Leavitt's very good. Not exciting stuff though.
Supplement it with learning tunes so you stay interested. I like Fep's suggestion--reading single note lines out of a Real Book isn't too hard, even for someone starting out. Start small, look for tunes without a lot of syncopation, and work your way up.
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For me one of the most important thing I did was just trying to play songs from the real book with melody and chords at the same time.
Simple and effective, and most of all, very musical. :-)
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Yes, the Leavitt books are good for developing your reading. Skip the first 59 pages of Volume One and start with the second postion studies on page 60. Originally Posted by whatswisdom
William Leavitt and the Berklee Guitar books for your reading. Start with Charlie Christian then Wes Montgomery for your players. Tons of other books and players but that'll get you on solid ground... Good luck with your music.
Also, see my article on reading vs. sight-reading:
iBreatheMusic.com - Sight Reading by Steve Carter
I have some sight-reading exercises on my web site, on the Guitar Lessons page.
Steve
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I am assuming that your school band is a large(r) ensemble. Some of my favourite more modern large ensemble recordings with guitar are Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, a Canadian big band, Ed Bickert a Canadian guitar player, played on most the records. I think he is one of the better examples I can think of as big band or - 'jazz orchestras' as they are called - modern-ish guitar player that keeps to a pretty traditional sound. I strongly recommend going out and buying a couple Boss Brass records even if your not in a large ensemble - they swing hard - a lot to learn from them.
I also have recently got into The Maria Schneider Orchestra, which features Ben Monder on guitar, but not because of the guitar (which is excellent), more from the arranging and composing aspects of the music.
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Hey Steve, thanx for the link. I will be applying your insights at first chance. Originally Posted by SteveCarter
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Hi Steve nice article... Originally Posted by SteveCarter
On your tips to sight reading you wrote "2. Notice arpeggios, chord tones, etc"
In that certainly scalar passages also, (I suppose that's covered in the etc.)
What I've realised as I improved at sight reading was... try to look ahead of where you're playing. Sometimes you can take in a whole measure with a glance and then start looking at the next measure... Sometimes I'm a measure ahead, and sometimes when I'm having difficulty I'm only a note ahead. Being only a note ahead is setting yourself up for a crash and burn.
This looking ahead was a realization that immediately improved my sight reading.
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Yes, as you say, looking for scalar passages is important. The only reason that I didn't mention that was because, having used so much of Leavitt's materials at Berklee, which is so scalar (Reading Studies for Guitar, for example), it seemed obvious. But to the beginning reader, nothing is obvious, so it's good to alert the beginner where to focus attention. Originally Posted by fep
As for looking ahead -- in one sense, I agree, and in another I disagree. Certainly, as experienced readers, we do "look ahead." But advising the inexperienced reader to do this can be counter-productive. He (or she) has all he (or she) can do to deal with one note at a time, and the encouragement to "look ahead" can, at certain points in the student's development, create more tension than it is worth. The eye movement, known as "saccades," is very complex, and develops gradually with experience. I think the best a teacher can do is to explain that an experienced reader does "read ahead," and then advise the student not worry about it, but to have faith that the ability will develop over time. There are some exercises that can help. For example, asking the student to focus his or her eyes on a given note on a lead sheet, and asking about a note or chord a few beats or a few measures to the right or left -- this helps to develop the sense of peripheral vision, which is probably involved in saccade eye movements.
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Hey man Congrats! I would suggest Ed Bickert, Wes Montgomery, and Kenny Burrell, pretty much any guys you see mentioned on this site for listening. Make sure you don't limit yourself only to guitarists though. Listen to horn players like Miles Davis and get a good earful of their phrasing and how they feel time. For sight-reading, and everything else, the best advice I got was the more you do it the easier it gets. If you have trouble with rhythms, look up the Eastman counting system and just count out everything you see. Church Hymnals have an endless amount of notes to look at if you have access to one
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