Do you read music?
I'm ready to admit (to myself) that I've been faking it for all these years. I'm mostly a self-taught hack who took a single music theory class in high school and have since more or less bluffed my way through all kinds of musical scenarios by having a good ear and very minimal reading skills.
In order for me to progress in playing the kind of music I love to listen to, I think I'm going to have to learn to read music. Have others taken this on after putting in a good amount of playing time? How did you go about it? Got any book recommendations?
I have done several of Jim's lessons and really used a combination of Jim's notes, the music, TAB and my ear...I want to be literate and fluent!
In order for me to progress in playing the kind of music I love to listen to, I think I'm going to have to learn to read music. Have others taken this on after putting in a good amount of playing time? How did you go about it? Got any book recommendations?
I have done several of Jim's lessons and really used a combination of Jim's notes, the music, TAB and my ear...I want to be literate and fluent!
Comments
I really encourage my students to learn to read for guitar. I use a combination of the three Hal Leonard books by Greg Koch and the three Berklee books by William Leavitt. The Hal Leonard ones are good for complete beginners as they have familiar tunes and cover many styles and techniques, along with a healthy dose of theory in volume 3; they also contain some tabulature and a CD with slow and fast versions of most of the songs. The Leavitt books are more challenging in that none of the pieces are familiar and the chords are standard notation. I've had good results with these across all ages; 6 year olds to adults in their 70's and complete beginners to those with years of playing experience but no reading background.
Mark
Regards
Clavan
The Netherlands (Europe )