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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.
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I've found Jody Fisher's series of instructional books most helpful in organizing my journey, and I think you might, too.
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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?
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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.
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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.
- "Okay, that there is a E"
- Find E on fretboard.
- Look back to sheet.
- "Okay, next is a F#"
- Find F# on fretboard.
- Look back to sheet.
- Repeat steps 1-6 for several more notes
- Get confused on when to repeat a measure and when not to.
- 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.
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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.
Moffa Mithra
Today, 08:31 AM in For Sale