ITs me!

Hey! This is guitar_chick. I'm sure you all remember me. OR maybe not. I wasnt very active. Well, I changed my name. Someone told me that name in one of my posts a while back. I couldnt find it so I'm not sure who it is. But thanks for the name.

Well, I'm having some trouble. THe only kind of music I know how to read is TAB. I dont really understand the notes on the staff y'know, the sheet music. My guitar teacher is teaching me a song from sheet music but I still dont understand how you read it. Can anyone help or does anyone know a website that can help?

Hey I like the name!

I'm sure there are plenty of websites devoted to reading music, I'm not sure of any exact ones however. But if you just want to know the notes, then here goes. For the treble cleff (which is what the guitar utilizes exclusively), the SPACES are (from bottom to top): F A C E. The LINES (from bottom to top) are: E G B D F. You'll remember them soon enough, it just takes practice. Unfortunate, I think you need to pay your dues playing songs like "Yankee Doodle" out of those instructional booklets. But trust me it's worth it once you learn to read music.

Hey guitar_chick / Kimi. I'm flattered you changed your "name" to the one I suggested in one of your earlier posts. Just sort of came to me when reading the replies to that topic. Glad that you like it. As for learning sheet music; if you have the drive and desire to learn to "sight read" (I wish I could) it will repay you many, many times over. Combined with a good ear and a dedication to proper technique, you'll become quite adept at performing most any type of music. Tabs give you the notes to play but are inexact in describing timing. Try picking up the tab to a song you've never heard before and playing it (admittedly, the quality of tabs on the net varies greatly and this is just my own observation). If you can read music and are given the sheet music to a song you've never heard, you'll come much closer to nailing the song. My wife has no ear at all, but sight reads and can play (on the piano) almost any piece of music she sees. So, go for it. It will definitely make you a more rounded musician.

I understand the F A C E and that stuff now. So, on the guitar, like the top E string... are the notes starting at fret 1: F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E? Do you just find the note on the staff and then find that note on the guitar? Thats what I'm not sure of...

You're on the right track. Still to come are note durations (whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, etc.) rests, naturals, key signatures, timings .... and on and on. One thing I don't understand for example, is which string/note to play to correspond with say a D note (fourth line from the bottom). Would it be the G string 7th fret or the B string 3rd fret or the D string 12th fret ? If your teacher can shed some light on this, please share it with us. My wife says a D note in that sheet music position is the D above middle C on the piano (or something like that) and I'll play the D notes as I described above and she'll say that's the same thing and I'll say but which one is it and she'll say .... I gave up. Don't let my tale of woe discourage you though.

The G string 7th fret, D string 12th fret and the B string 3rd fret are all the same note. They sound the same to me. THey are all D's. I'm pretty sure thats right. I guess they are different 'voicings'. My teacher is showing me different voicings of chords. Different chord positions but they all sound the same sound. But you could play either of the different D's I guess. Anyways, on the sheet music I got it has a chord name above, like Gm6. How are you supposed to figure out what a Gm6 is? Or do you just have to memorize all these chords... like D#7#9 and E11 stuff like taht.

Well you can't really play any D on the fretboard, you have to be more specific, because keep in mind octaves. The tone might be the same but the pitch isn't. The staff can extend beyond the five lines, right? You can get notes way up and down it, so you can have plenty of Ds in sheet music that are specific about where you play them. It might sound off if you are supposed to play a low D and you play a D three octaves above what your're supposed to. But if it is the exact same note, (ie, open fourth string D and fifth fret fifth string D) then it's up to you where to play it, depending typically on what is more comfortable and easy.

Hope I made some sense... I didn't get much sleep last night!

I can sight read if you give me long enough- I used to play alto sax so I had to back then. But time has moved on and I've changed clefs... so it's a long slow process for me. Anyway, I can tell you that the low E or B on my basses (4 string vrs. 5) are all under the low line on the staff. I don't know how that translates onto the G cleff for guitar, but... ah... I probably just confused the issue...
I'm going to shut up now.

Keep in mind that guitar is a transposing instrument i.e. music as written for guitar isn't the same as music written for another C instrument. Middle C written on a sheet of music, middle C as played by piano, is an octave higher than the middle C we read. Middle C as played by a violin is the 2nd space from the top read by a guitar, but read by a violin its below the first line on treble clef. I don't remember which note u guys were asking about, but it should be clear now.
As for which one you play, well its up to you. As long as you are in the right octave, the fingering is up to you, which can make guitar a very hard instrument to sight read for, as there are usually many different fingerings for a given passage.

My wife cleard up my confusion on middle C for the piano - it's one line below the staff of the treble (G) clef - for piano sheet music. Pianists also use the bass (F) clef staff for many left hand fingerings.
Luigi: always wondered how the many different instruments all use the same staff for their respective parts (e.g. a classical or jazz orchestra). Getting back to Kimi's question about how to figure out how to construct a chord; (e.g Gm6) maybe you could impart some of your theory knowledge. Gm6 would be a G chord with a flatted 3rd (Bb) with a 6th (E) added ??? Is the sixth added higher or lower than the rest of the notes ? Or am I just confusing the issue much as Raskolnikov felt and should I just shut up now ?

Actually all this is confusing to me. I've only been playing for about 7 months. All I understand is TAB. I can play just about anything in TAB. But I wish I could understand all these music theorys and scales and the chords and progressions. How long is it gonna take me to actually get good?

don't worry about how long it will take- it all depends on how fast you learn. just focus on what you're doing now, and you'll be OK. We all listen to ourselfs and hear things we want to improve, or can think of things we wish we could do. Just keep working on what you're interested in and remember that you're better than you were last week.

I learned to play by ear first. Then after a few years I dicovered TAB's. Wow!
Soon, as was playing cover **** like everybody else, ripping of all the guitar-gods styles.
Then when I was 21 (3 years ago), I learned to read music and had a ****load of theory by piano. I could read music within a month, only with 4 hours class a week, no bull!
Then, I remember I hated my guitarplaying, always thought that I came up with some crappy stuff. A year after I'd learned to read music, I had totally forgotten how to play by it. I can still sort out the notes slowly, but nope, I don't use it and never will. The last 2 years I have returned to where I started 10 years ago, playing by ear.
Now I love playing all the time, jamming with friends, gigging with the 2 bands I'm in, still improving but ONLY by ear and what music I feel should flow through my guitars.

Guess this is only what works for some people, I'm not saying that to be able to read music and use it is a bad thing, not at all! Hell, Steve Vai can do anything about music and his playing is awesome, though his music isn't a favor of mine. I'm a little more retro.

Fiddles
Trolle

go to this site's theroy page.

Well, I guess it'll all come to me in time. I'm still young.