Guitarists - reading music

[alexthecheese]

OK, I'm giving up on tab. Before Christmas I told my guitar tutor that I wanted to learn to sight read, and I had my second lesson in this yesterday and it seems pretty damn hard at the moment.

Tab was easy to pick up, but sheet music is a completely different beast altogether. Not just reading the notes and having to know where they are on the fretboard, which I am shamefully bad at doing, but reading the timing as well... just sitting there clapping out the rhythm is hard, let alone actually getting it down and playing it. It's frustrating as my playing ability is far beyond the things I am going to have to read to get better.

Anybody experienced this? Im a bit miffed with myself that I didnt do it years ago, but it's better late than never I guess. I can see the potential in sticking with it, but it's going to be tough....

 

[alexthecheese]

Well that's what I'm aiming for, reading it on the fly.

Anybody know where I can get some sheet music to practise just working out the notes fluently? I figure that you dont actually need a guitar with you at all times to do this, so I could do some at work...

 

[alexthecheese]

I think I wanna learn to sight read more for the periphery of benefits as opposed to the actual method of learning to sight read music - like learning the notes on the fretboard, knowing the notes for each chord intimately, working out the harmonies... being a more complete player.

I dont know what else I guess, you're clearly far more knowledgable of this stuff Andelusion so can understand the benefits better, but a lot of the time when it comes to improvising I'm just noodling in a scale regardless of the chord I'm playing against. Another thing, like you say, is the rhythm - analysing the rhythm and actually counting it out from a piece of paper is infinitely harder than listening to a piece of music and just playing it - but already I understand grouping of notes a lot better and am able to see more clearly how pauses etc. can help to make the music sound infinitely more interesting.

I think the most frustrating bit is that I should've done this years ago, and its forcing me to play stuff that would take me 2 seconds to pick up by ear and tab but about 15 minutes from a piece of sheet music.

The metronome idea is cool, and I'll only be reading the treble clef, aye, and I meant that I'm giving up on tab... not the sheet music.