To Read or Not to Read (part two)

   This week on Have Guitar Will Travel, I'd like to follow up on my open letter to Guitar (and all music) students in regards to note reading. While others out there on the net will undoubtedly disagree with me, I still think learning to read standard notation is "where it's at". As mentioned in part one of this article, learning to read is a gateway to a lot of the advanced material in music. And, that's why here at The School of Music in Rockville MD, all of our teachers require students to complete some level of note reading proficiency. It just prepares everyone for greater things to come. So without further ado, here is this week's #2 reason for learning to read notation.

Reason No. 2- standard notation does a much better job of conveying musical concepts than tablature does. At least once a week, a student brings in a song that they got off the internet that's from some guitar tab site. If I've never heard the tune, your guess is as good as mine as to how it's supposed to sound. I usually have to go to the computer, go to You Tube, and listen to it. The reason for all of this is that tablature is usually devoid of any musical information pertaining to rhythm, dynamics, meter, etc. It only shows you where to put your left hand fingers. Now some people will argue that they have a good ear and don't need anything other than their ears and the occasional tab to get by. That's great - having a good ear is more important than anything in this whole article. However, I think we have to be honest with ourselves ; is it that we all have great ears or do we just not want to put in the time to learn how to read?

So there you have it, reason # 2. Tune in next week for Have Guitar Will Travel's  next installment of To Read or Not to Read.

To Read or Not to Read (part one)

  The classic, time honored musicians' joke asks the question, "How do you get a Guitar Player to stop playing?". Answer: Put sheet music in front of him! Ah yes.......it's funny because it's true. Yes, if there's an Achilles Heel for the majority of us guitar players out there, it's the ability to read and write music notation. In fact I can remember a few embarrassing moments early on at Berklee where, the trumpet player could play his part, the pianist was on point, but we were all waiting for me to figure out where I was in the score.

  These days, I'm pretty good at reading music. Actually, I rather enjoy it! There's an art to reading and writing standard music notation and it can be fun once you get the hang of it. "But wait a minute!",  you might ask, great players like Jimi Hendrix and Wes Montgomery couldn't read and look where they ended up! True, being able to read music is no guarantee that you'll be the next revolutionary guitar player. Then what's the point ? Can't I just get away with using tabs?  Over the next few weeks, I'd like to look at several important reasons why I think learning to read music is time well spent.
  
Reason No. 1 - reading music is the gateway to a lot of higher level music and theory. When I became interested in jazz, I quickly realized that to enter the jazz world, I really needed to read music. All of the theory that I wanted to learn was written out on the staff. Not to mention the jazz tunes, the standards that I wanted to play, were in the Real Book - sorry no tabs! The problem only worsens when we deal with instrumental music other than guitar music ; saxophone studies (good for learning jazz) are just never tabbed out for guitar! So, if you have a Guitar Teacher, ask them to teach you to how to read - they'll be more than happy to show you.

  So there you have it, reason # 1. Tune in next week for Have Guitar Will Travel's  next installment of To Read or Not to Read.