Music reading for guitar (the complete method) by David Oakes is a great book for building non-classical reading skills but as for sight-reading, that is more a matter of getting hold of as much music as you can (at an appropriate standard) for any instrument, setting a metronome running, and working through it all a page at a time, remaining thick skinned enough to take it on the chin when you make a mistake, not go back and 'repair' anything (because that is not building sight-reading skills anymore), and then repeating this over and over again, gradually confronting more challenging music until you're good at it.Originally Posted by Koss59
Book wise I recommend music reading for guitar by David Oakes
This is a great classical tutor method book, as is Aaron Shearers book, or a few others, but this is not really building sight reading as such, more learning how to read in the first place.
From the CGPW blog:
The Contemporary Guitar Performance Workshop
Reading Music Notation for Guitar (part 1)
Standard notation is the shared language of music for all instruments. It is not as difficult as it is usually assumed. The principles of time signatures, key signatures, pulse, tempo, rhythm, and pitch are not at all difficult to understand if they are properly and clearly explained. Musical notation is a language, and like all languages it will take time to learn, understand, read, and write fluently. This is a commonly overlooked aspect of notation which people don’t always understand. In the west, quick results and understanding are a measure of success. Notation cannot be learned in an afternoon. Time will need to be committed to its study in order that you may benefit from a strong understanding of it
There are two factors, which make the process of learning to read music for the guitar a little more difficult than some other instruments, but again this should not present too many problems if this is properly and clearly explained:
1. The guitar has an unusual range. This range doesn’t sit comfortably in any standard musical clef. The lowest note on the guitar would usually be written in the bass clef on a ledger line below the stave! The highest note (which is different for different instruments) can reach up to five octaves higher (usually about 4 ˝ octaves higher). Taking this into consideration, music for the guitar is read exclusively in the treble clef and transposed 1 octave higher. This means that the notes that are played from notation, would actually sound one octave lower than they are written.
2. Most of the notes on the fingerboard of a guitar can be found in 4, or even 5 different places because of the nature of stringed instruments. This makes learning to read notation, taking a holistic view of the instrument, as a point of departure particularly awkward because of the options available to you. Eventually this can become an advantage, and offer many interesting ideas concerning “phrasing” when interpreting notated music, or arranging music for a guitar which has been written for another instrument.
There are different schools of thought as to how music notation is best learned for the guitar. They have evolved through different pedagogical ideas, but have a tendency to be style-specific. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. The culture of “classical” guitar (within which a strong reading ability is considered favourable) offers a range of successful methods of developing this skill (for this style) although I don’t consider practice at reading certain rhythms or phrasing (which are alien to the classical guitar style) to be adequately covered using these programmes. Some styles of playing require the student of “guitar reading” to offer particular attention to a broader range of ideas than to just follow any one reading method or course. Here are four examples:
1. Single string method. This is a good, effective method of learning to read notes. It is based on the idea that you learn how to read the notes in the same way that the guitar has evolved over the years. Once there was an early incarnation of the guitar with only one string, so why not learn to play and read notation in the same way that the guitar has developed over the centuries? Disadvantages include the time it takes to reach the point where you can play chords. Chords make up a lot of guitar playing across a range of styles.
2. Classical positional method. A tried and tested method within which all the notes on one position are learned before moving into the next. This works very well in covering the subject of note duplication but only really offers advantages to players who wish to remain “thoroughbred” classical guitarists. Using standard classical repertoire, more contemporary rhythms and phrases are not offered sufficient practice without diversifying reading study. There is another school of thought which is very similar although the starting point within this “school”, is the 5th position. This method is based on the principle that the fifth position contains notes covering most of the range of the instrument. There are only 5 notes below this position and (practically) only another 10 above it. It is also the position where many guitarists remain when sight reading (see “a note on sight reading”).
3. Learning between 6 and 8 notes as they appear within different positions method. This is an attempt at a “happy medium” between the single string and classical positional method. Simple repertoire is played in different positions using only a small number of notes at a time before learning more. This method works well but again suffers from the time it takes to learn chords.
4. Scale Position learning. Frequently, the wider applications of learning scales are lost when guitar players practice. Fingerboard familiarity when it comes to scale knowledge is very useful when it comes to reading, as it simplifies key signatures (using many sharps and flats). This is because the notation may be played “off the scale form” rather than for each note to be considered on it’s own merits (which many players do when first learning to read in different keys). I would however, suggest that too much reliance on shapes and patterns is not good, especially when reading because “accidentals” need to be accommodated as quickly as the piece is moving!
By far the best way to learn would be to combine the best, most effective and useful aspects of all five methods. There are no rules governing learning to read and no method requires that you stick to it for any given length of time for it to be successful. Any disadvantages of any given method can be quickly remedied by changing what you are doing. A well-balanced approach will offer the best results. You can always start with chords, since chords are the basis of a large amount of the playing within many different styles. Learning chords first using the simple letter notation for chord types would make sense before moving on to notation. Depending on the style, chords are usually the only aspect of notation which appear differently, either in standard notation or as letters and numbers. To some extent, learning to use chords will offer you an insight into some aspects of notation like pulse and rhythm before you learn the notes. Whatever you try, if it doesn’t seem to be working, change it. There are lots of options.
A Note on Sight Reading:
Dependant on how good you want to become at it. "Sight-reading" is worth defining first. If you want to be able to play music fluently from notation, then you need familiarity with the notes and note values as they appear in standard notation (together with key signatures and dynamic markings), and a thorough knowledge of the fingerboard on a guitar. Guitarists are actually notorious for being bad sight readers (even classical guitarists who have read notation from the outset of their playing). This is because the real core of "sight reading skills" as people understand them to be are developed in ensemble situations. The classical guitar isn't in ensembles in the same way that orchestral instruments are, and bands which have guitars in them don't read notation even in rehearsal situations.
If you want to become a seriously proficient sight reader, (after learning the basics of notation, and familiarising yourself with the notes on the fingerboard of the guitar) in my experience the best method is to actually simulate this ensemble situation. You will need a metronome, quite a bit of patience and discipline, and some music. Take a piece (or a book), set the metronome going at a realistic speed (which, aside from keeping an accurate pulse, is actually serving to simulate the rest of an ensemble), start at the beginning and do not stop until you get to the end of the piece. Remember that you are simulating an ensemble situation. If you make a mistake in an orchestral rehearsal, you keep going no matter what, the conductor not wait for you, and neither will the other orchestra members. If you do this for about 45 minutes a day, in a short time, your reading skills will have developed considerably.
Yep, making a mistake and not thinking "Crap, I made a mistake" and stopping, just carrying on regardless and picking up where you can. Once in a while all the members of an ensemble accidentally do this at once, we call this Jazz
As Nik said, regular practice is the key to becoming proficient with any area of music, whether it's understanding or performing. A lifelong pursuit that twists and turns as your interests change and can forever surprise you if you let it
The worst 'musician' I have ever had the misfortune to play with was grade 8 violinist.
For Sale: Jackson DK2
I found this one of the hardest and most useful for me: http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Sigh...ctCurrency=GBP
Another +1 for David Oakes too.
And another +1 here
Does anyone here keep on top of their sight reading?
I try to keep on top of it.
I'm lucky in one sense because I've always read music my whole musical life. Never too late to learn, and never too complicated for those who think it's "impossible". With a decent enough teacher anyone should be reading basic stuff in a few short weeks, but it's like any skill. If you don't use it, you lose it.
It's part of an essential skill set for gigging if you're going to expect the decent pay checks! 30 minutes a day minimum.
Nik
Here's a way which works:
Get a Fake Book, (I got this one) and practice. It's a lot of music with just the melody lines but all the notation. Everything is in there from the easy to the challenging.
Straight away I knew a lot of the songs so I knew how they "should" sound which was a massive help. And there are plenty of songs which I didn't know and could have a stab at playing then check straight away on Spotify and get instant feedback on how I was doing.
Sight reading is a skill of many levels. I realised I didn't need elite sight reading skills, but something of this level is plenty enough so that you can see a piece of music and have a very passable stab at it.
'My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic'
I try to do 30 mins a day before I get distracted by anything else. Have you done this one, Nik? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reading-Cont.../dp/0634018299
Reply With Quote