In my estimation somewhere around 90% of all musicians can read music to one extent or the other. I would also venture to guess that 90% of all guitarist read very little or not at all. This is why a lot of serious musicians look guitar players as some sort of lower life form in many ways. Should we even care? If you wish to communicate ideas via a piece of paper, you just might want to be able to do that. If not, carry on without it.
I want back to school almost three years ago to obtain a degree in music. I was forty-eight years old and thought…piece of cake, right? The only problem is even though I have a very good knowledge of theory and how to apply it to the guitar, I am still a rudimentary reader. I need to commit everything I know to memory. In the end, you should do that anyway, depending on the musical style. When you are learning a song, it is much easier if you can read. If you write a song, it is much easier to hand a piece of paper to someone than explain the whole thing.
I had a conversation with Jazz guitarist Pat Martino a year ago. He said once he started writing, he needed to learn how to read and write music. This accelerates the learning process. A high percentage of Rock musicians never do this. This is especially common with guitar players. Some of us almost wear this as a badge of honor. A lot of music has been passed down through aural traditions. Most of the folk music of the world was passed down from generation to generation. This follows story-telling patterns that existed before books were not just for the elite social classes. Nowadays, most of us can read a newspaper or a book or just about anything…...but…...there are still are guitar players out there…including myself...that struggle at reading music.
Is this really important? Some of my favorite musicians never read a note. Does that make it right? Some of my favorites read very well. It is a common thought that the paper gets in the way…somehow limiting your expression. If that were true, every Classical piece would sound exactly the same. I have recently listened to the same overture played by two different orchestras with different conductors. They were almost like two distant cousins with only very little family resemblance. Musicians are still going to add their own interpretations. The paper gives you notes, and dynamics, etc. There is a lot more. The way the dynamic marking “forte” has many variations and levels.
The paper serves only as a guideline. It is like a road map, another good thing to be able to read. For the same reason too…not getting lost. I am not a fan of being lost playing something. I like to know where I am at all the time. I am pretty good at improvising but that doesn’t always work.
Lead sheets are an effective compromise between the reader and the non-reader. I am getting pretty comfortable with that as long as I don’t need to read the melody. Me personally, I want to do better. The next few episodes of “For The Guitarist” will be addressing this. Since, I myself am at a student level in this capacity, my attention will be well focused on how to make this work. This doesn’t need to be as hard as it seems to be. I appreciate your thoughts and drop me a line if you like at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. anytime. Peace, RR.
