How many of you read music?

[willem]

I think everybody is afraid of learning to read music(notes),,when I started to learn it I started with Cmajor and find it very simple C-D-E-F-G-A-B and they still are on the same place :laugh: or you must go an octave higher or lower :laugh: so I can read it but reading and then playing it I do not, my curiosity would be how to learn that within a course for guitar..I think for guitar it is ease'r then for piano(two bar lines)...I can read the bass line as well but...........

Willem

[daryl]

I can read music. Well, I should say I used to be able to read music. Many many years ago I went through ALL the Mel Bay books (I believe I got through grade 7). But I haven't really needed to read music since YouTube came along. Between watching the various videos and finding many varied TABs I'm usually able to cobble together something close enough for my liking. But I will say, learning to read music forced me to learn ALL the notes on the fretboard and that in turn help me to learn how to play lots of different chord voicings.

[thereshopeyet]

Big Bear Wrote:

I can't wait for Neil's approach to it.

I can't wait either, sound interesting.

TheresHopeYet

[dtaylor]

I can't read music, and don't know enough to proffer an opinion as to the value of learning to. I'm like Tony, there are only so many hours left to me and I have to prioritise.

[dekotaj]

daryl wrote:
[quote] since YouTube came along. Between watching the various videos and finding many varied TABs I'm usually able to cobble together something close enough for my liking.

I spent the last 7 years just learning songs.And was very happy doing so.Did not have a clue how this guitar dose what it dose.But found out I could not set down a play along with someone else.So a few months ago I set off to try and learn all that I can about music.(SLOW PROCESS).So for me, bring it on,don't know how fast or how much I will be able to learn.But these day I want to try it all.

Kevin

[sbutler]

TGNeil wrote:

Hi Walt,

I forgot to mention that I am working on a reading course that will demystify everything about reading and make it simple for even brain dead adults, I hope. You are my target audience with it and I bet you can do it with minimal time investment. I'll keep you posted and hopefully vice versa.

Neil

Thats great Neil, cause I can't read a lick of music. Jurys still out on the brain dead thing.

SCott

[wrench]

I too anxiously await the course. I can read standard notation, but I can't interpret it fast enough to play it on the fly.

[tombo1230]

I can, or at least used to read music. I took lessons about fifteen years ago and that was part of it all. I usually look at the tab and get the rythmn from the musical notation these days.

I am interested in what you have come up with.


Tom N.

[haoli25]

Another Mel Bay student here. Learning to read music is well worth your time and effort. I don't recall a particular "Aha moment" as I was learning, so I must have learned by osmosis.

Bill

[wrench]

unclewalt wrote:

That's great, I'll check it out for sure, but my learning missions are pretty well mapped out, and I just don't have the time or brainspace for it. I certainly don't begrudge you putting some music-only lessons here for those whom it can help. It just made me curious, is all.

I took organ and cornet lessons as a kid, and had a very tough time of it. I tried Mel Bay for guitar when I was about 12, too, and I couldn't get my head around it. I regret not having tried harder at the time. One thing I might get out of elementary lessons, though, is some better knowledge of rhythm. I have natural rhythm, but I don't understand it intellectually at all. I can't count off a song, for example, but I can keep a beat with just about anything.

I have learned more theory here than I ever knew, and it's helped a lot, but actually learning to read would be a whole different thing for me than what I'm doing now.

Walt, I am curious about why you are not more open to learning notation. With all we have learned here about music, it seems to me the quantity of information necessary to learn notation is far less than music theory. I think an analogy might be learning calculus without learning mathematical symbols.

I'm not being argumentative, just curious.