There’s an old joke:
How do you get a guitar player to turn down? Put sheet music in front of them!
I found this fascinating: my SweetNotes editorial in the last issue generated more response than just about any article we’ve ever run in these pages. The topic? My New Year’s resolution for 2022 to become a better sight reader. Responses included everything from, “What’s sight-reading; how’s it different from reading music?” to “I’ve always wanted to read better” (quite a few of those) to lots of encouragement for my quest. Naturally, most of these came from guitar players; I’m sure pianists, wind players, string players, and many others were thinking, “What’s the big deal? I was reading music before I could talk.” But being a great music reader — let alone a great sight reader — isn’t that common among guitarists, bassists, and drummers. For those non-reading musicians out there, let’s take a little closer look at the world of music reading.
In my mind, there are two “levels” of reading music, though I’ve not heard it described that way by anyone else. (For guitar players, maybe four levels if you count reading a chord chart and reading tab.) “Reading music” (to me) means sitting down with a piece of music, working through it, and learning to play the music — figuring out the notes and chords and their fingerings, where to play the notes on the neck, deciphering the dynamics, accents, phrasing, tempos, etc. This can take some time, and it’s not something you want to do “on the spot” at a show, session, or rehearsal.
Sight-reading, on the other hand, is a big level up. It means to sit down in front of a piece of music for the first time and play it in real time, reading the music accurately on sight. A poor metaphor would be: You’re able to read through this article on sight. You see the words and understand them, and the reading “process” takes place basically in real time. You could probably even read this article out loud, more or less accurately, without practicing it.
For sight-reading music, this metaphor transfers to being able to read music very well and very quickly, and having great command of your instrument. It’s a common skill for most instrumentalists (pianists, wind players, string players) that’s taken largely for granted because they do it all the time. But guitar and bass players, in particular, tend to lag. There are several reasons for this: one is that unless you’re a studio musician, play in a show band of some kind, are in certain jazz situations, or are a classical musician, you probably don’t need to sight-read — or even read music — all that much. Plus, guitar can be difficult to read music on. Unlike many instruments, there can be as many as five or even six places to play the same note on a guitar neck, and there are many, many ways that any given chord can be fingered and played on a guitar neck. It’s not easy, but the skill can be developed. Then you have to maintain it.
But it does pay off. I recommend that everyone learn to read music — at least a little. Depending on what you want to do, sight-reading can be an advantage or even essential. I play classical guitar, and in other genres, I often find myself faced with chord charts and lead sheets, so I’m an okay music reader. But recently, I was in a situation where I was hired to play guitar for a musical, and there were nearly 100 pages of music to read at the first rehearsal. Better sight-reading would have certainly come in handy! (I had time later to work all the music out before the performances, fortunately.) I’ve also taken part in gig rehearsals where I was handed a lot of music that was written out. I can get through, but it would be nice to be able to do better than that. Thus, my goal for the year.
But even beyond these sorts of gig opportunities that can come your way if you read music, reading also opens up a whole world of music to you and gives you a “language” for communicating with other musicians. If you’re not interested in sight-reading or spending the time to become a great reader, then I at least recommend that you become proficient at reading chord charts and lead sheets — again, this can open a lot of gig-opportunity doors for you.
What about tab? (Tab is a representation of the guitar’s six strings as lines, with numbers used to indicate what fret to play for a given note.) Tab is great — I use it a lot. But I find it limited compared to music notation. Tab is far more common for transcriptions of rock, pop, and country songs, for example, than for classical or jazz work. And, I can confidently say you’ll never be handed a tab sheet at a studio session, a show, or a rehearsal.
Is there an easy way to learn to read? I wish there was. (I mean, I really wish there was!) It’s a matter of sitting down and doing it. But the effort is worth it. You will be a better, more well-rounded musician, will have an advantage over others who can’t read, and will have the ability to play a huge range of music you can only access by reading.
Can you get by without reading? Of course, examples of successful musicians who can’t read are legion. But why limit yourself? Add a few minutes of reading to your daily practice routine and join the ranks of the musically literate!