How important is it to learn music theory for jazz guitar?

[Darren Dutson Bromley]

Also, with the risk of plugging things check out out GuitarBytes - Free bite-sized video podcast lessons on effective guitar technique there are loads of free things to help and a lot of theory is explained.

[boatheelmusic]

I've found Jody Fisher's series of instructional books most helpful in organizing my journey, and I think you might, too.

[BrandonB]

Ok, so if I could have rephrased the question of this thread, I think I would have asked "How important is it to be able to read music notation when learning jazz guitar?"

You see, I'm coming from "tab-land." Yes I was one of those dorks with a huge folder full of tabs of pop songs I had printed off just so I could learn the first few measures and look cool in front of other people and say "yeah, I can play guitar" or "yeah, I know that song."

But what I'm finding out is that reading music notation is my biggest challenge thus far. Once I can get that down I think jazz concepts will come fairly easy. I'm already fairly decent on theory.

What my bigger question is, how important is it to be a whiz at reading notation, and what place (if any) does tablature have in the world of jazz guitar?

[docbop]

tab is a nasty word on Jazz forums and should be avoided. Most people think sight-reading when they say read music. Yes you should learn to read music because its the language of music and musicians. There is a huge world of resources all in notation so you need to read enough to be able to use them. Sight-reading, being able to read a chart and play it instantly is a skill of its own and one that can earn you a lot of money, but not everyone is a sight-reader or a good sight-reader.

So yes you need to learn to read notation.

[BrandonB]

Ok, I guess that brings me to my next question. How important is it to be able to sight read for guitar? I knew tab was probably a nasty word, but I wanted to just have that confirmed.

I guess my frustration coming so early on isn't really a jazz thing, but I can't read music and play fluently. My process right now is like this.

1. "Okay, that there is a E"
2. Find E on fretboard.
3. Look back to sheet.
4. "Okay, next is a F#"
5. Find F# on fretboard.
6. Look back to sheet.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 for several more notes
8. Get confused on when to repeat a measure and when not to.
9. Repeat step 7

You get the idea. Are there any good websites anyone can recommend that can help me with sight reading? Any other advice is appreciated.

[JazzinNY]

I recommend you get a good beginning method book. I used the Christopher Parkening book, a classical book. It's good because it gives you notes on a few strings at a time, and teaches really methodically. You can learn "first position" (1st five frets) fairly easily. From there, it's a long ongoing process to also learn the notes higher up on neck.Many people on here recommend the Bill Leavitt book instead.Personally I was a stubborn convert to reading notation. I said "tabs show you the actual geometry of the notes." This is somewhat true, but notation has several advantages, which you can't really understand until you become fairly proficient.