Reading Sheet Music - Reading Notes on the Guitar
Notes don’t bite. I have to tell my students that over and over again. I don’t force anyone to read music, of course, but it doesn’t really hurt to be able to read notes.
Nevertheless, it’s difficult to learn a new ‘language’ in this sense. It’s like learning Chinese (for non Chinese people for sure :P), but with far fewer letters/words.
The Musical Alphabet
Fortunately, the musical alphabet only goes from A to G.
A — H — C — D — E — F — G.
By the way, ‘H’, right after A or before C, is referred to as ‘B’ by the majority of other countries. So the alphabet would actually make sense:
A — B — C — D — E — F — G.
Okay, enough confusion caused. Let’s take a closer look at this in practice:
We start with C and end with C. You can play along with the scale using the tabs below. Right now, you’re essentially playing nothing but the C major scale.
Notes on the Guitar Fretboard
Here I have now, exemplary as I am, taken the musical alphabet used in the USA or UK. So without ‘H’ but with ‘B’.
You don’t have to memorize all the notes on the fretboard quickly in order to be able to read music.
There are what we call ‘positions’ on the guitar. These describe where you are on the fretboard.
Usually, we always learn to read music in the first position. Whether you continue to the second, third, fourth, etc., positions after that is up to you.
The first position is marked with a yellow rectangle in this picture. As you can see, the first position includes all the notes of the musical alphabet.
Practical Examples
To be able to read sheet music well as quickly as possible, you should practice it often. There are simple exercises available to learn this quickly.
These are many little ‘licks’ or ‘melodies’, whichever you prefer to call them.
1. Name all the notes (e.g., C or F, G, etc.).
2. Play all the notes in the first position (0th to 4th fret).
3. Change the key and repeat steps 1+2 with the new key.
When you change the key, simply imagine that a # or a b applies to all licks, so you can play through all the licks 12 times without needing to generate new ones. So, these 48 examples are actually quite sufficient.
If you really have no idea how to start, or where certain notes are, here’s the ‘solution’ with all the tabs.
Small Sight Reading Exercises TABS
A few more tips:
Be forward-thinking: Don’t just focus on the note being played at the moment. Also, look at the next measure. This takes some practice because you need to memorize the next few notes quickly so you can anticipate the next measure.
Don’t play overly complicated: Don’t be a hero! 🙂 Play notes that are slightly below your level. Avoid playing Paganini lines or exercises with 2–3 (or even more) consecutive notes.
Use a metronome: Just playing along casually might be fun, but it’s not necessarily conducive to learning. You won’t learn rhythm, etc., if you don’t have a reference point. Unless, of course, you’re tapping your foot perfectly accurately and not speeding up or slowing down (better to use a metronome!).
Play little but often: If you try to read through all of Bach’s works on a Sunday, you won’t necessarily make great progress. Instead, read sheet music for 10–20 minutes every day. Firstly, you’ll have more motivation since 10 minutes isn’t a huge commitment, and secondly, consistency (as with everything) is key to progress.
Useful literature:
Good books that are very helpful and contain enough exercises include:
- https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-Positions-Multi-Position/dp/0634013351
- https://www.amazon.com/Music-Reading-Guitar-Complete-Method/dp/0793581885
- https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011/
Another option is the website: https://imslp.org
