Question about sight-reading on guitar?
Mice asked:
Hey guys, I play guitar and when I sight read sheet music I see a note and I don’t really think about what note it is I just see it and play the fret it corresponds to (note I can only play in open position, I can play in others but it takes a while) So anyway, Is this bad? Should I first identify the note then play it or should it be instantaneous? (BTW I can read music perfectly so it’s not like I don’t know the notes and I know all the notes in open position) And if this is bad, Is there a way to break this?
Ya so what I’m wondering is when I read sheet music I just see the note and play it, it just flows naturally, Should I be thinking what note I’m playing or should I just play it?
What Top Musicians Know About Sight Reading Music
Hey guys, I play guitar and when I sight read sheet music I see a note and I don’t really think about what note it is I just see it and play the fret it corresponds to (note I can only play in open position, I can play in others but it takes a while) So anyway, Is this bad? Should I first identify the note then play it or should it be instantaneous? (BTW I can read music perfectly so it’s not like I don’t know the notes and I know all the notes in open position) And if this is bad, Is there a way to break this?
Ya so what I’m wondering is when I read sheet music I just see the note and play it, it just flows naturally, Should I be thinking what note I’m playing or should I just play it?
What Top Musicians Know About Sight Reading Music
sight reading music
I’m not quite sure what you’re asking, but you’re a step ahead of most young guitar players just by playing notes lol
Edit: nah shouldn’t need to think about it to much, I never really payed attention to all the notes after the initial reading, I played Saxes, Clarinet, flute and oboe for 8 years not sure how it is on guitar though.
Learning to Sight Read Music
Mike:
You have somehow reached, quite early perhaps, the desirable stage in guitar sight reading when the brain no longer needs to say the note names, but automatically sends an impulse to the appropriate finger to execute the playing of the note. Thus, the term in music of “its in the fingers”.
As a classic guitar teacher, I used to wait for this change to take place in my students playing progress, but never mentioned it to the student. I could always tell when they had crossed this important sight-reading line and watched their playing improve dramatically. No longer hindered by the slow note-recogniton time lapse, the music begins to flow more easily allowing more attention to the tonal qualities and nuances of the composition….very desirable.
It is important to remember that music notation is a “means to an end”…that is, to make the desired musical sound on your instrument. Concert performers, we notice, always memorize their compositions so that they can fully concentrate on tonal quality and interpretation. Long past simple brain recognition and its handicap of computational time, the seasoned performer has nearly all of the notes “in the fingers”.
Playing in upper fretboard positions will take some additional time to master, but understanding the natural “geometry” of the fretboard and note relationships in “chordal” associations, rather than just scales, will help immensely. Learning chord patterns (major, minor, dominant and diminished) in various inversions up and down the fretboard will help secure sightreading confidence in upper positions. It is best to learn these patterns in triadic form (basic four-note construction..SATB) to better understand the nature of chord inversions. Music Theory classes take this approach and time has long shown its wisdom.
Cliff E. (classic guitarist)