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While I don't believe it's hard to learn to read music, I do believe it's pretty hard to learn to read it well. You can probably learn the notes on the six strings of the guitar in a couple of months. Learn one string (just the first 3 or 4 notes on the string) at a time, spending a week or two on each string. But to be able to read the notes, move your fingers to the correct position, and play – to do all this smoothly and fairly rapidly – takes lots of practice. One way that helps me it is to deliberately avoid memorizing songs. If I play a song so much that it becomes automatic, that's fine. But I don't try to memorize the whole song. I might memorize a part of it for a warmup, but that's all. Then, when I play the song, I have to read the music. I can't rely on my memory. That way, I get more practice reading. There are a number of books you can buy to help you learn to read music. I used the Mel Bay books when I first learned guitar. You can check the internet, or ask at a music store. Or check the Guitar Links on this site. Now I had lessons, which is probably the best way to learn. But not everyone can afford them (my parents paid for mine, which I took for a couple of years in high school), nor can everyone find a good instructor. Your public library might even have some books. Once you learn the rudiments, buy a lot of music books, with a variety of music from your favorite groups. I have a Songs of the 1960's book, books of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Roy Orbison, Bruce Springsteen, and several others. One thing I did wrong when I was first learning was to memorize too many songs. I didn't have the music for that many, and I ended up memorizing most of the ones I liked, so I didn't have to practice reading music that much. So my music-reading skills deterioriated after a while. Either don't memorize that many songs at first, or (better yet), have a lot of songs from many books. That way you can't memorize them all. When I started college, I wasn't able to keep up my playing (or didn't want to – I'm still not sure which). So I gave up the guitar, and didn't start again for many years. I kept my guitar, moving it from place to place, as I went through college, then graduate school, then jobs in different parts of the country. I just never played it. (I did try, for a few months in graduate school, to re-learn it, but didn't have much success.) Finally, while I was visiting my parents during a high school reunion, I tried picking out a few simple songs on one of their guitars. (They had both taken up the guitar a few years before.) I was able to do it, and even play an F chord (which had taken me months to learn in high school.) So I started up again. I had to re-learn reading music, and decided deliberately not to memorize many songs. I still had my music books from the lessons. So I used them, and bought a lot of sheet music. When you're first starting, concentrate on learning songs in the Key of C. They're the easiest. Then gradually start learning songs in other keys. If songs you like aren't in the Key of C, you can convert them using the methods in this file. |
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