What is the best Scale System to use when reading music?

[RossThrock]

Youtube seems to indicate that this vid won't be available till 5/19 at midnight, so if you can't see it right away, please try again later.
SJ

Thank you so much! I just got home from perfoming at a wedding, so I apologize for my late reply. Really means a lot!

[starjasmine]

If you know the note on the printed page (or screen) and you know where it is on the guitar, what advantage could there be in trying to relate it to a fingering of a scale?

Consider that any note might appear in a number of positions, and that you aren't reading a note in isolation, you are reading it in the context of what comes before it and after it. Having learned different ways to play a scalar sequence or an arpeggio allows you to read more efficiently because you are mapping what's on the page to mechanical technique that you've already assimilated as muscle memory - you aren't figuring out the fingering for everything on the fly.

[starjasmine]

Thank you so much! I just got home from perfoming at a wedding, so I apologize for my late reply. Really means a lot!

I once was at a wedding where the bride and groom entered the reception hall to the tune "Stranglehold" by Ted Nugent.

[starjasmine]

Jackie also taught me ways to move between positions and how to shift positions to play any scale, arpeggio or idea through three octaves (basically, the length of the guitar neck.) When sight-reading I use a lot of what Steve showed me with Jackie's approach to move through positions as necessary to execute an idea.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write that! Do you mind elaborating more on these two points though?

Here's an example of position shifting. HTH!

EDIT: At 3:07 I talk about using A- and E- fingerings "interchangeably" but I misspoke a bit. I meant to say that they are interchangeable for playing A minor... because E- is the upper partials of an extended A- chord. Sorry that wasn't clearer!

[starjasmine]

Here are some position-shifting examples for minor... pretty sloppy, I am first to admit! But I hope they give you some ideas for ways to do this.

[Hugo Gainly]

I'm not sure how all those methods are different from each other. Maybe a chordal approach - if that's what CAGE(D) means? - enables more of a visual aid but repetition of any method is critical. The road is long after all and improvement will not be obvious even though it will be happening.

I'll share my few thoughts on reading anyway...

1) Whatever you choose practise reading with a metronome little and often. If you fall off the horse run alongside and get back on again further down the track. Don't stop and re-start. FAR easier said than done. Reading needs temporal disciple.

2) Play in a big band or similar where you are expected to broadly be in the correct place at the correct time. This is not generally a welcome insight but it will sharpen your game considerably. Maybe find a regular college ensemble. Trumpet players can be cruel and mocking and you have to learn to live with it/them...

3) Play in the middle of the neck (fret 5 with either first or second starting finger) and adjust your scalic facility so you can. Melodic notes in guitar generally don't go below G or above C above concert and you can reach all those fairly easily from there. i.e. low A (2 ledger lines below the stave) to C# (2 above). Temporary moves to adjacent positions and the odd reach for very high/low notes will be minimised as a result.

4) Don't forget guitar music is transposed an octave down either so what seems low is in fact pretty high.

Why you want to do it? How many reading gigs do you anticipate getting? If it's only for learning a tune, which is useful, then the pressure is not 'that' on, and you may just let your study lapse. I did a lot (a lot lot) of work on reading, and the more I moved into composing and conducting the better my sight reading became. But....I didn't use the guitar so that started to atrophy. Still ok-ish but not the illusory 'ant shit' machismo stuff you still occasionally hear guitarists being capable of. There has to be a financial reason to become that skilled. To me there's also something countercultural in a guitarist playing and burning freely, and concentrating on how to read Basie Straight Ahead as if it hasn't been done before. It's a badge to go with knot tying and campfire starting...

[Christian Miller]

Trumpet players are the WORST

[VesaW]

For me the most educational experience was joining a big band a little over year ago.

Being able to read notes is a must. It was painful in the beginning, but I've learned a lot since.
Also the articulation and accents have a big meaning. Especially when playing lines in unison with horns.

I use Leavitt scale system...most of the times.