So I know how to read standard notation from years of playing trumpet in an orchestra.
And I know how to play guitar (and bass guitar). However, the next thing I’d like to conquer is putting those two together and being able to read standard notation for the guitar. This opens up new worlds of playing things like jazz and classical and doesn’t limit my sheet music to only tablature.
Any suggestions on how to learn this? Yeah one way would be just to memorize what note corresponds to each fret of each string. But might there be an easier way?
One way to learn it would be to read the little chord diagrams that usually accompany tablature. Once you learn that sometimes a G Chord uses a fingering like:
The more chords (and chord fingerings) and scales you know, the easier it will be to read tab.
Check out olga.net (or tabrobot.com which is an aggregate for a lot of tab sites) and find songs you like and play along with the CD while reading the tab.
Sorry, you misunderstand. I’m completely fluent in tablature. What I’m trying to learn is to play guitar based on standard notation (treble clef & bass clef). The actual notation isn’t even a problem since I’m well aware of that from orchestral participation. It’s just where the notes correspond on the fretboard which gives be trouble.
About the best I’ve come up with so far is using good sheet music that has a song in both tablature and standard notation so that I can see which notes are which. But that’s not really learning it in any organized way.
Honestly, I’d pick up some beginnng guitar books. Yes, they are aimed at children, and you’ll breeze through them really fast, but they are pretty systematic.
The problem will come with higher positions. You might be able to figure them out on your own, but you might not. Books from Berklee Press are pretty good. You’ll get not just reading, but some good technique as well.
I wouldn’t recommend this. I tend to find this slows down learning of notes as one tends to concentrate on the tab rather than the notation. Something I do with my students is give them some music (any music though I tend to use stuff from jazz fakebooks as they are single line and usually fairly interesting) and get them to work out how to play it in several positions. Fretboard diagrams are allowed but typically, because the first position is usually learned fairly quickly I prefer them to work out higher positions by their relation to the first position. If you are still trying to learn the first position then follow tdn’s advice about beginner books but also try to figure out the frets in relation to the open strings. I have found that learning the notes in realtion to other notes is much quicker than just trying to learn the notes in isolation. Of course the only way to get good at reading is to do lots of it and unfortunately there is no shortcut for that.
This diagram shows all the notes from the open string to the 12th fret. After that they repeat at the higher octave. This assumes a right handed guitar, with the headstock oriented at the top.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking I know much else though. I just bought my first guitar yesterday!
To improve my sight reading I do random notes in one position (the randomness helps) and just read in time slowly at first. You can get more advanced as you go by adding bigger intervals and multiple positions. This of course you would do after going through the first and/or second Berklee book or learning all of the positions some other way.
Slight hijack: did they just add spell check? Berklee is underlined in read for me.
Dots didn’t make sense to me at all until I started practicing straightforward scales and arpeggios rather than just blues/rock box type patterns and pentatonic stuff. Once your fingers can walk themselves up and down “proper” scales and pick out chord notes without you having to count frets you’re halfway there.
Exercise one, find all the Cs on the fret board, now all the F#s. They’ll be in the same place tomorrow.
BTW all guitar music is in the treble clef. Do bass players read music?
The problem is that for most notes on a clef, there are multiple positions you can play them on a guitar/bass.
Do I play G below Middle C
Open on the fourth string
Fret 5 on the third string
Fret 10 on the second string
Fret 15 on the first string
The actual playing position is determined by context, and can only be determined by analysis and trying it out. There is no easy sightreading approach to do this.
I use Guitar Pro to help - I can take notation, make a midi file, import it in to Guitar Pro - which will guess about appropriate strings/fret positions, and then fiddle about to find a fingering flow that makes the piece work. Guitar Pro has a move up/down a string function that makes this pretty easy.
Otherwise, do your own analysis on the score and just note critical fingering points that will keep you in the right place.
Thanks for the suggestions so far. Having played various wind instruments for years and even a half-decent piano, it’s always been easy to tell exactly what note you’re playing. On the trumpet, sax, or flute, you learn the fingering for a low C or an Eb, etc.
However, although I’ve been playing the guitar for 14 years or so, it’s always been a very visual thing for me. I can play a G major scale or a Phrygian or a Mixo-blues scale because I know what the shape of it looks like. I don’t know (though I probably should learn) what notes are in it.
I like the idea of finding all the C’s on the fretboard. And then all the F#s etc. Maybe a note a day and I’ll be done in 2 weeks!
One thing you should know is that notation for the guitar is written an octave higher than it’s played. That allows everything to be notated using only one clef. Middle C in notation would be played at the 3rd fret of the A string (or 8th fret of the low E string).
If you know how to read music and know the names of the strings, it should be pretty easy to work out what the note are for each fret. Every fret is a half-step. Just follow the same intervals as for any other instrument to find the scales.
