Good Sight reading book/tutorials

[fretmeister]

I just mean from experience teaching and playing myself, if you have the music in front of you it becomes a crutch and you will often become reliant on having it there. It's often seen with singers who insist on having the lyrics in front of them.
I think reading is a great thing to be able to do and if the OP has the time to do both then great but there is no substitute IMO for working out a song for yourself to develop your listening/ transcribing skills which personally I think is more valuable to the modern guitarist.

So when this 'modern guitarist' turns up to a gig and is handed some sheet music, what does he do then? A 'professional' modern guitarist should be able to sight read it.

Ear training is vital of course. But not more important than actually learning the vocab in the first place.

I recently joined a school based band in which my daughter plays. Before my first session I was informed that a certain tune was going to be played. I halfway knew it already from old covers bands.

So I downloaded it, worked out the rest from the record and was completely confident I could perform it.

Then I get to the rehearsal and discovered that the school group were not playing it in the original key. If I could sight read the music that would not have been an issue at all. But it ruined the session for me. My rather good ear / transcribing skills were utterly useless when faced with such a change.

[BigLicks67]

It's not Rock but,

Solo Guitar Playing by Frederick Noad (Book 1) is very good and there is no reason that you can't translate these skills to reading rock music. The important thing is it takes you through the rudimentary steps and builds up your knowledge in a systematic way.

[Koss59]

The OP said he only knew had to play a few songs,I presume he's not at the stage of somebody handing him sheet music at a gig.
I was just trying to help with what I thought was more important at THIS stage, if you are going to play for a living you should be able to read yes but everyone has limited time to practice etc and I was just pointing out what I thought was more important to the average guitarist.

[fretmeister]

The OP said he barely knew had to play two songs, he's not at the stage of somebody handing him sheet music at a gig.
I was just trying to help with what I thought was more important at THIS stage, if you are going to play for a living you should be able to read yes but everyone has limited time to practice etc and I was just pointing out what I thought was more important to the average guitarist.

Read the OP again. He can widdle over blues, he can do a few modal things and he finds the classical stuff pretty easy when following (presumably) tab in a mag. Sounds to me like he can cope with picking stuff up from a CD.

Now he wants to properly understand what he's doing.

Learning music is an academic exercise. The artform that is created with that knowledge is an entirely separate endeavour.

If someone doesn't want to learn music theory, that's fine. But I really don't understand the anti-theory reverse snobbery that so many guitarists have. And it pretty much is just guitarists too. You don't get a 1 year playing beginner pianist not knowing the major scales. And just as importantly you don't get piano teachers advertising for "Beginner to Intermediate Students" only, which we all know is code for "I can't sight read or play in 3/4 time"

Even if the very first lesson a person ever has is learning to count to 4, that is always combined with a piece of sheet music, with a note (usually middle C) and a selection of semi-breves minims, crotchets and quavers. It might not be a piece of sheet 'music' but it is reading. From day 1.

Only guitarists seem to think this is a bad idea. And collectively, we are wrong.

[Koss59]

Ok maybe I read it wrong so he know more than I thought. In that case fine if he's ready to move on
All I'm saying is music should be learnt by ear, it's a language like you said a vocabulary and to learn to speak you listen and learn.
As a child you do this to learn to speak, you don't read to learn a language.
Over and out

[frankus]

To truly play and understand a song it should be worked out yourself.

Yeah but to truly play a song you don't need to understand it

[Axe_meister]

Ear training is something I also need to work on.
I can with the help of some tab and a CD get to the crux of learning a song and put my own take on it (usually to hide the bits I have difficulty with). I did the ICMP rock live performance 10 week workshop recently and found it fairly easy.

However my thinking is really going back to basics or back a step or two to help me get to grips with more complex stuff, i.e. instrumental rock.

I've been playing since 1988 so from a technique point of view fairly competent. I don't don't wish to rely on notation just use it as an accelerator to learning.
i.e. pick it up to play a song all the way through. Then keep playing through it until it sits under my fingers.

I used to be somebody who subscribed to the "You've got to feel the music", but have come to the conclusion that I don't quite have the talent to rely on it.

I don't have oodles of time to concentrate on transcribing and ear training (work, being a father and a husband getting in the way).
But could spend some time with a bit of music in front of me and a guitar to hand.

[colski]

And just as importantly you don't get piano teachers advertising for "Beginner to Intermediate Students" only, which we all know is code for "I can't sight read or play in 3/4 time"

Totally LOL'd at that, I can never quite get over when I read a teacher's advert that says precisely that. Nor can I understand why a pupil whould respond to that advert. The other classic is "I don't bother with all the boring theory, you don't really need that to ROCK anyway".

[jpfamps]

How do you get a guitarist to turn down?

Put music in front of him.

[frankus]

I had a bitter-sweet moment the other day, upon taking delivery of some John Scofield books - I really got what he was saying about TAB and how he'd never used it.. so decided to ignore the TAB what did occur was the rhythm notation is a little way beyond me at present. It was saddening but also really reassuring to know I knew my limits and was challenging them.

A while back a friend of mine recommended https://sites.google.com/site/sightreadrhythm/home

I've been using it and I've seen some difference