Sight Reading for Guitar Players
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
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Got any tabs for that? 😂
hahahaha
That got a solid lol from me
Lol.
Lol
Tabs aren't the solution. Whether you're sight reading sheet music or tabs, you're still sight reading. The point is not looking at your hands. If you have to look at tabs while playing, that still makes playing more difficult.
You're one of the best guitar teachers on TH-cam. Straight to the point, entertaining and informative.
Thanks a lot!
Music is Win can you explain what position is the book refer too? Scales position or fret position?
Diogo Fernandes fret position. in the book if it says 3rd position or a III below the staff that means your pointer rests on the 3rd fret, your middle finger on 4th etc.
Thanks for the clarification :)
Diogo Fernandes no problem have fun sight reading (even though sightreading makes me feel like my hands dont work)
"the action is way too high" I say that all the time when I try guitars at a music store.
Yes hahaha
I say the opposite lmao
@@GammaFZ you must be used to a super high action then.. at music stores usually they fix the guitar once, and "quick", with no more fret leveling from what it came from factory. To avoid buzzing they just rise the action. Also, the guitars are left unplayed for long time sometimes, and then the action get higher naturally. AT least that is my experience at stores in many countries I have been.
yeah but none of my buddies get paid to be guitar techs or even know what theyre talking about lol
they just have weak hands and poor intonation in my opinion
Learned to sight read at age 11, my guitar teacher used “Alfed’s basic guitar method” I did a couple of grades of classical guitar and enjoyed sight reading, ended up playing drums in crap school bands and sort of giving up.
Years later I see the video, regret it all and find myself reaching for my credit card 🙄
Can still read music though 40 years later. Cheers Tyler 👍
As a semi-professional classical guitarist, I absolutely love sight reading and never knew this was a problem for guitarists until college.
well if you're a classical guitarist sight reading is something normal and gets easy after some time *cough cough 1-2 years
Paul Nikolaidis how long does you took to learn sight reading properly ?
Aakash Chakrabarty it took me about 1 year and a half to be able to see something for the first time and play it on the spot ( with a couple mistakes)
I'm a classical player too. Learning to read music fluently was definitely worth the effort for my style of playing.
i play piano this took me 3 week noow i looks slowly and know alot the spaces alines ledger lines names
To be honest, it really isn't that much of an effort. I couldn't sight read incredibly competently a few months ago, but I just kept on looking at sheet music. Now I can sight read I can't go back to tab, it's horrible
There's a program called Band-in-a-box that lets you put in any chord progression you want in any style you want. You can also set it to generate written melodies or solos to however difficult you want. Great for sight reading practice because it generates a different solo every time and you never develop any memory of what you're playing.
I love how the Berklee press has never changed their formatting, font, or anything. Since ever.
I just got an ad saying why I shouldn't use guitar lessons on TH-cam lmao
Those ads are stupid it’s like saying watching helpful videos that are free on youtube? Well don’t download our app and learn the same way but pay for it
I can sight read violin, as I was a violinist first. But in all honesty, while there are some similarities between the two, I cannot really read guitar sheet music.
-Ace
Are you self taught? Did you learn from tabs? If you read music and understand the positions as he introduced here it is easy
My guitar teacher told me to learn from violin sheet as it comes in a lined form. The guitar notes are actually stacked.
The Leavitt book is an excellent one to work through: all 12 keys and difficult rhythms.
Too many people insist on being guitarists instead of musicians purely because it is too difficult - that is really the only reason. Music is a never ending lifes' work, no one will ever master it and trying to take the easy way out in any aspect of it will not lead to better understanding just basic instant gratification. Does sight reading replace using ones ears? Absolutely not - ears are most important thing - however if you really want to understand your fingerboard and communicate with other musicians you need to know what the notes are.
We need to get on the same page with other instruments so we can all speak the same language. Frankly guitar notation is already behind because it is printed on the treble clef up and octave where it should be on a grand staff where it sounds. It does not share the range with a violin as much as it does a cello and SATB choir.
Ok I feel like learning to sight read is like learning a new language
Another great video! I love to watch your videos. Keep up the good work! Cheers!🤘🏻
i will recommend practice with violin exercises reading books, saxophone, flute ,clarinets too , to improve speed reading, by the way i had that Berklee book many decades ago
William Leavitt's books are really good, they changed significantly the way I play and I approach the guitar now. I already have the 3 volumes of "A modern method for guitar", the ones on the background of your last videos, and they are really worth it, to say the least. I did not know the existence of the one you are showing now, I will purchase it immediately! Thanks for the video, very good indeed.
Greetings from Catalonia!
Hey man I thoroughly appreciate your encouragement. You are truly a great guy and deserve reverence, honor and respect from all of us commentators at TH-cam.com. Sorry if my English is bad Peace from kyrzikstan
I just started learning guitar. I kind of enjoy learning sheet music. I guess tabs are easier but everything feels equally hard so I’m primarily focusing on modern methods for guitar & hal leonard books
Music is Win, great video as always. May I suggest you a topic for another video? I know that your main interest (for the sake of this channel, at least) it's guitar and guitar techniques but maybe showing us more on you, for example, sight reading "live" or transcribing some riffs or even composing something would be at least very interesting (and could be very funny too, knowing your "verve") at best a great source for inspiration. Hope this doesn't sound silly. Sorry if this sound very confusing but English is, obviously, not my first language. Keep up the good work. Thanks a lot.
I want to see a video of a guitarist sight reading a piece they've never seen, do they seriously just look at a sheet and then play it? That is insane.
I just saw a pianist do it, just mindblowing....
depending on how complex the piece is and how good the guitar player is, it can range from extremely easy to almost impossible. What you're describing can be applied to all kinds of scenarios.
I love my squier, because I don't feel worthy of touching a real fender
i remember those books 40 yr ago, you need to be motivated to practice 4 hours first sight reading everyday, you never know when music directors will call you for a jam session(they call like that to test your reading abilities and many more thing about your playing )
I think I'll stick with tabs (sorry for bad German)
it's chinese dude !!
Steve johnson sorry, my French teacher didn't teach me Chinese good
thought so !!
Relatively Large Matt No, either you play by ear or learn to PROPERLY sight read. Tabulature is the worst solution, unless you're a complete beginner. As soon as you can fluently play by tabs, that's when you should start switching to sheet music. Beyond that point, tabs are cancer for your musicianship.
Yeah, me too. Tabs looks easier and more direct. Learn by ear for the majority of the song, and the tabs are far mostly a guide and some intricate sections which may be hard to make out. As me, I started out not being able to sight read tabs. That was a translation of a number to a hand position that makes sense to put the finger for the next number easily.
Nothing wrong with Sight Reading though. If you have a keyboardist in your band. Far easier to be able to read his sheet music on the fly.
I know both treble and bass clefs but never been good at sight reading like just seeing it for the first time and just play through it! I will buy the book and give some try! Thanks for making me a better guitarist and musician!
THANK YOU SO MUCH, i've been trying to sight read for a while and i've even considered going to another guitar school, but thanks to you i can finally make relative sense of sheet music, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!
im in middle school, and jazz band try outs are coming soon. Ive never learned how to cite read. Your video helped
I learned how to play the piano so that I could learn how to sight read. It worked. It's easy on the piano. And it's the best instrument for learning music theory. Then it makes it a lot easier to understand and also sight read for the guitar.
I love this channel. So much helpful content, so much funny and original content, so many awesome licks!
I definitely don't think that guitar is the hardest of all instruments to sight read on. As a guitarist, its definitely not the easiest, but we should respect other musicians and how hard of a time they have it too! Developing a sense of superiority can be a dangerous road to walk. Accept and love the challenge you have chosen to take, but appreciate the grind of others of a parallel path.
Just ordered it! Thanks for the recommendation! This is something I've been wanting to try for quite a while now
The Leavitt book assumes that you can 'read' music, but not sight read yet. So before you do anything, you need to learn time and key signatures and note rhythm values. If you don't know how to play eighth notes, you can't read them by sight. The Leavitt book actually isn't great for sight reading in general - I got it through my local library system and looked at it. The rhythms don't vary enough - half of sight reading - so it's really a book just for getting to know the neck rather than sight reading. Sight reading involves playing music you don't already know the first time, without ever hearing it. Leavitt is more about finding the notes on the strings. Also, you can play Leavitt's exercises to learn to get around the neck, but if you've already played an exercise and you know how it goes, then playing it better does'nt help you sight read. It's good for your playing, but it's not sight reading.
Always making my day a tiny bit better...you rock!!!
Leavitt's books are excellent, but I learnt to sightread from David Oakes book 'Music Reading For Guitar'. Oakes studied with the late, great Tommy Tedesco (who played countless sessions in the 60s and 70s), who was one of the best sight readers in the business.
I'd definitely start wth Oakes book and THEN move to Leavitt. Why? Well, I think that its a tendency amongst guitarists to are ahead and try and learn too much too soon. Oakes book is more graduated and easier to digest in small chunks.
We do sight reading in Music Theory class. It's kinda fun but it also lets me know how much I gotta practice and learn the notes in bass cleff...
Been looking for something like this. Thanks
I feel like the easiest to remember is intervals on the guitar "oh im on an f the next note is a 5th up" play a fifth shape on the guitar then do it with all the notes and u become a master
Nice tip
I’m fine until the notes goes below the last line and then I’m lost
You are trying your best at the technicalities. Kudos.
Music Is Win, is steadily becoming my favorite channel on TH-cam. So much info here, thanks so much. So glad I subbed to this.
Sir, I love your video tutorials. One thing that bugs me and I think most of the "intermediate" guitar players (idk if I used the right word lol) is that how, u masters of guitar just hold the guitar, and something instantly comes up in your mind, and u start playing it without a stop in a series. I mean, we all know scales and all.
HOW TO ACTUALLY PLAY WITH CREATIVITY? Wanna make a video plz? Anyone with same problem here plz comment the same ny replying.
Sohail Saha don't let the scale Play you
don't follow scales in sequence don't play the same note value or note articulation
I've just started this but hear a melody in your head and try to translate to the guitar
one of the best pieces of advice I got given is play a scale on one string and improvise only on one string
learn many solos and licks, and then practice incorporating those licks while you improvise over jam tracks. your guitar teacher might have a page of "cliche pentatonic licks" or major scale ones. if you're very serious, books on jazz improvisation by Garrison Fewell or Bert Ligon will help.
DYB So, you say that I should learn lots of licks, then merge them in my own way into my guitar playing. That's good, but that wasn't my exact question. My question was about how to tackle so many scales?
Michael Stock Sir, what do u mean by "Don't play scales in sequence?" and "same note value or note articulation"?
Secondly, how do u propose i memorize all scale positions? Seems impossible (to me). What approach have you used?
For example, i am on stage, a song is being played in, say Dmaj scale. There comes a part of soloing gor me. What am I supposed to do instantly? I see all great guitarists, their fingers just reach for the right note. How do u guys do it?
Haha I'm still answering that question myself
So scales go in note sequence c major
C d e f g a b c
Don't play the scale in that sequence
Don't pick every note maybe use legato maybe bend up to them slide etc
As for on one string best way is start with an easy key without many sharps or flats and learn the notes on that string and learn the notes of the scale
Then put a backing track on try and hear a melody in your head then try and play that melody on guitar
It doesn't come Easy at all and takes a lot of work
Also learn the notes of the guitar and learn the 5 pentatonic box shapes as well as 7 major scale shapes and be able to switch between them
The first part is about improving your musicality
The second is fret board knowledge
It's a lot of work though
Good luck!
i can read guitar sheet music i just cant and dont think its that important to sight read and play at the same time as an advanced player you can just read the sheet music and analayze it practice it like any other song and that will obviously do no need to sight read on the spot like pianists??
I always to go staples, get them to slice off the binding on a book like that and getting a coil ring put in place. Then you can open the book flat on a music stand. Otherwise, you face the horror of trying to play your guitar and hold the book open with only 2 hands.
I completely agree that if you're going to commit to learning guitar, you should do the same for sight reading. This video is not going to make people want to sight read though. Showing notes but offering no explanation on how to identify them or demonstrating how to play them isn't really helpful. What does C major mean? What does relative minor mean? What does the first and second position mean? This is the same as taking a copy of Alfred's Level 1, handing it to a student and saying, "just do this!" I get it, I'm sure it's all explained in your subscription package. I just feel this does more harm than good for beginners.
Hey do you think you can do a video showing some of the books that helped you with Theory, Chords, etc? I think that'd be a good vid when you get a chance
I learn classical guitar, the first 2 or 3 months I have to struggle with this thing as the new language of music. Nevertheless they wouldn't throw you a sheet once you already know how to signt read. We are not in the orchestra that need to stare at those notes during the concert. The sheet ia just a way how we play for not deviating from the original one. Once you hear the song you know what it sounds and read the notes when we are get confused about what we are going to play on the next line.
When you said “sight reading” I had to pour a drink like they do in the old movies to steady their nerves
I don't think the Leavitt reading studies is the best place to start if you don't sight read at all. Instead, I would recommend going through a bunch of beginner books for classical guitar (for example, Frederick Noad's "Solo Guitar Playing"), and after a few of those, William Leavitt's Modern Method For Guitar books. The Leavitt books start you off reading the full range of a position right away, but I think it is more helpful to go through a few baby steps and building up to it a few notes at a time...
You guys should try the game Rocksmith, pure sight reading game
The start of the video got all my hairs up and tight, I was never so traumatised in my life.
As much as it would probably benefit me to learn this, it would also probably cause my insanity and eventual demise
I went through the Wm. Leavitt books 1,2 and 3 during the mid 70's. Great material . This book, I don't remember, but it looks good.
Can you sight read now.I am halfway through the first book and I am already way much better than when I started out.
@@tubwaiyan6776 I don't read much these days. The 3rd book was my favorite.
I'm glad i stumbled across your vid i haven't really read anything in 40 years its going to hurt
what you'll get from sight reading
Better knowledge of the fretboard (you think you know it but sight reading will expose that you don't know it as well as what you thought)
Better understanding of rhythm and playing in time.
what you won't get from sight reading
better technique
become more creative
How getting to know the fretboard better doesn't help you with being creative?
@@jfar3340 report back in 2 years after hard sight reading practice and let us know.
@@stupidusername38 I can't I started classical guitar 25 years ago and even though I stopped and only play blues/jazzish styles sight reading is part of my life.
@@jfar3340 that's good, nothing wrong with sight reading, but it won't help with improvising, that's a different part of the part of music making and I'm sure that when you are playing jazz or blues you won't be sight reading but because you're experienced at sight reading your fretboard knowledge will be more ingrained than those that only use tab
@@stupidusername38 I agree well said
much better to use reading studies i and ii as a workbook in conjunction with modern method 1 & 2. if you just want to sight read then skip the songs and exercises, and use MMFG to learn the 5 patterns. much more systematic.
I wouldn't say guitar is the hardest instrument to sight read on. The only reason it's hard for most people to sight read on is because most people don't know how to read sheet music.
Funny story: In my school band class, we had sight reading tests for a few weeks. I suck ass at sight reading, regardless of what instrument I play on (my main one in school is mallet mercussion. Marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, etc). One day I decided to learn how to read sheet music on guitar out of boredom, and then decided to try to do the sight reading test on there. I still sucked ass, but not as much ass. And that was within, like, a week of learning how to read sheet music on guitar (given I already knew how to read it in general from other instruments)
You may have scare off more than a "handful" when you first opened the book to the first exercise. I first picked up the guitar and learned from sheet music. I was even able to read chords! Then...my co-workers, also guitar players, introduced me to tabs...I got addicted to them like a crack-addict! Yes, I learned songs easier and faster. But, I lost a skill, another language on a page.
:-) SIGHT READING!!!!! Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Exorcist....SIGHT READING! :-) No, it´s important and great. Theory at allis kinda fun to me. And it pushes me further. Your explanations in your courses are great.
Sold.
I guess this sort of thing might work for some...for me, never. I learned to sight read by sight reading pieces I wanted to learn.
I got the book but there wasn't any explanation of what to do or how to read the notes, what should i do, i need help
I've never seen a guitarist sight read a music even here on youtube. Can you demonstrate sight reading a piece you've never seen before? Thanks
The guitar is not the hardest instrument to sightread on you guys just did not care about it that much so you guys find it hard
Violin is hard to sightread on
Every instrument is
Wind instruments have a way easier time sightreading given that they don't require that you see the instrument while you play. Instruments such as piano/guitar/violin require you to move your hand around the instrument to change positions so it is way harder.
Great video!
Well this just adds to my "life fails". I know how to read sheet music. I know how to play guitar. I know notes on my guitar... but putting notes and guitar and sight reading together in one exercise... well just FML. So much damn practice... just endless f-ing practice.
Great video, thanks for the tip. Have ordered the book. Great app, for those that want to learn? Sight Reading Factory...
Agreed100%. If you want to ever play with other musicians (say horns for example), Tabs and chord charts will only get you so far.
are these sight reading exercises similar to the sight reading sheet they'll give you at the berklee audition?
there's a great one from MelBay aswell, meant a book for the same
BROKEN STRIIIIIIIING!
Stop
When I first got the real book, I know it's time for me to seriously tackle sight reading x_x
Sight reading is handy for sure, but for advanced or technically challenging pieces, the guitarist would obviously need to see the sheets in advance - which defeats the whole point. So, surely sight reading on the guitar is mainly rhythmic and relatively simple melodies?
I'm more referring to licks or patterns which a player physically cannot do because they don't excel at that technique. Even elite players sometimes need to spend time with a phrase in order to identify the simplest way they can play it, or may need to sort out the notes into a particular pattern that aligns with their style - and this could take hours, days or even weeks to learn at the required speed and precision the song may require.
But I'm sure if a session requires some tasty lead playing, then it will be more along the lines of them having to improvise over the provided chord progression, rather than giving them explicit notes to play.
How do you know to get to each position?
I wish that they had digital copies of these books, and then I'd put it on my ipad pro and stick it magnetically to the music stand.
Or just play rocksmith which is like karaoke for guitar
Hugh Mungus
ZeSnes Having played rock smith, I found their interface more confusing than just actually learning the songs.
im not a fan of how they flip the fretboard upside down, just my thoughts but also if anyone knows a way to flip right side up that would be nice
actually nvm i just realized that you can in fact flip it so it resembles tab
The noteway being at an slight angle makes it unnecessarily hard.
So I bought the book. How well are you with reading the chords? It surely helps with learning the fret board. The chords are pretty challenging.
I've got a "modern method for guitar nr. 1" from william leavitt. if you wanna learn sight reading AND how to play jazz then buy that one too! :D
I can’t read music so I’ll come back to this
I will never touch sheet music unless i want to be a jazz guitarist or such when im old, i will stick to my tabs and DAW
Your pfp is cute tho
Great video! Should guitarists practice sight reading with a metronome?
Dude the idea of middle C is confusing. For a guitar its an octave lower why is that?
We're just weird. At some point in the romantic period guitarists decided G clef was easier (to avoid lower ledger lines), so they kept it, just an octave lower.
The first page of that book is confusing as fuck.
I remember the book I bought when I was starting out.
It had this page with 6 staffs on it and each staff was dedicated to each string on the guitar.
So you had 6 staffs and each staff had 12 dots representing the 12 notes in an octave per string.
And all i had to do was:
1. Learn the positions.
2. Learn the names of the notes (so I could play the same notes on the other strings).
3. Learn notes/rests duration.
4. Learn accidentals, time signatures and tempos.
And if you wanted to learn scales and chords you just went on from there.
Back then I used to write my original songs with this software called NoteWorthy Composer ('cause it was free!).
And with that software you could only write with notation, so it forced me to memorize the shit out of music notes lol
.
It was good practice, tho. In fact, it was so good that that is pretty much the only reason why I still know how to read music 'till this day.
Thank you, NoteWorthy Composer. You were an utterly shitty software that the Devil himself couldn't manage to write a simple melody with to save his ass, but nonetheless, you taught me a lot about physically writing and reading music.
So, thank you.
P.S: To this day I still remember how I lost 5 original songs complete with guitars, guitar solos, bass, drums and vocal melodies (and about 30 files with original I saved), 'cause you suggested an upgrade without letting me know that I couldn't open any of the old files I saved on the old version.. You ARSE!
P.P.S: I had no idea what GuitarPro was at that time. Actually this was in 2002/3 so not sure GuitarPro ever existed back then.
I got this book, I just opened five minutes ago, and I was expecting better quality on everything, I wish I can return it, if you are thinking about getting it, I would suggest you to look another opcion
At my church we do a lot of hymnal songs and they look like that so I guess I need to learn it....... Then make it METAL!!!!!! \M/
Hey Tyler I think you should try
"the try n not to headbang challenge"
love ur work keep sherding\m/
I'm learning electric guitar since 2 1/2 months but I cannot see me reading notes on paper to play them. Actually I could play them on a piano or keyboard, because I've learned that when I was a teenager, but guitar?! No way in hell. ;)
unless you want to learn how to play classical guitar pieces, its overrated. Even in jazz you can just play to lead sheets and learn chord arpeggios etc
Yo, I know this is an old video, but I recently joined Tomo Fujita's course and got A Modern Method For Guitar Vol 1 to learn reading. I think I saw you had volume 2. I know you learned with Tomo as well, what would you consider the differences?
you gotta check out the new PRS se24 reclaimed! I think you'd like man
"The guitar is the most difficult instrument IN THE WORLD to sight read on."
Piano: "Am I a joke to you?"
Sight reading on Piano isnt really that hard dude
So I had to watch a commercial to watch an infomercial. Thanks!
guitar grimoire exercise book is better has tabs with notes through and through for major and minor pentatonics
Some tabs out there have notes on top, so its not all that bad. Unless the tabs go away then you're basically screwed.
*Now here comes the next part to being a better guitarist, and that's to learn this shit*
Can you show how to play a few of these exercises? To get how to read the rhythm. I feel when you look at a page with other quarter notes, it's harder to analyze and keep up.
I got the book but I don't understand how it works. It doesn't use the CAGED positións, does it? I only see the open strings first position. Can you learn to read music using the whole fretboard with this book?
I wish I would have seen this when I was in high school lol
Robert Castrejon I’m in high school and I just saw it.... I’m just living the live aren’t I
you're really so cool and funny sir!
😩 opened the book and I almost had a heart attack
There's a thunderstorm going on outside my house so when you said "Sight Reading" the thunder kicked in it was fuckin' awesome
Hey Tyler, Thanks for great videos, I was wondering what do you think of periphery? like or dislike...
Is there anyone in the world who would be able to look at the sheet music for Tornado of Souls without having heard the song before and be able to play it on the spot without rehearsing for at least some hours?
on the second volume on the first page he says it's position 8 and then gets you to play a B which is in position 7, I'm kinda confused...