Should You Learn How to Read Music?

In my experience, people often use such quips to cover up their own inability to do something – and that’s okay. Nobody can do everything, and reading music is difficult, especially if you’ve never done it before. There are also lots of reasons why we might not develop this particular skill, such as the existence of tablature; the repetitive, pattern-based layout of the guitar fingerboard; the fact that Jimi Hendrix couldn’t read music… But as difficult as it may be, it is also logical and worthwhile. Here I hope to explain some of the reasons why and hopefully convince you to give it a go, because unless you are the next Jimi Hendrix, it might just come in handy one day.

Firstly, I think it’s important to draw a distinction between simply reading notation; that is, being able to interpret the information on the stave, and the oft-misused term ‘sightreading’. The latter refers to not being given any real preparation time and somehow still getting through a performance unscathed, and it is a much rarer beast. This article only really addresses the former, and attempts to argue the case for developing those skills alongside the other aspects of your guitar playing.

As a guitarist, you are no doubt very comfortable with using tablature to learn new pieces and exercises. It’s an incredibly valuable resource and removes the vast majority of the guess work that often comes with learning new things, but it does lack a good deal of relevant musical information.

There’s no indication of key centre or underlying harmony, rhythmic information is often missing – especially with internet tabs – and there’s no dynamic or articulation markings beyond arbitrary fretting hand slurs or pick strokes. I have no issue with using tablature but it’s impossible to deny that a reliance on it above all else can produce guitarists who may play exceptionally well but don’t understand anything about what they’re playing or why they’re playing it.

Learning to read music will force you to develop an awareness of rhythm and the relationship between the notes you’re playing, which will lead to a deeper understanding of the music you play. This can never be a bad thing, and you will still gain this knowledge even if you struggle to read notation with any real fluency, in which case you will always have the tablature to fall back on anyway.

Imagine you have a gig coming up and you’ve spent time learning a new song using a tablature that you’ve found. You practise diligently, getting to the point where it sits comfortably under your fingers, only to get to a rehearsal and the singer says he wants to sing it in a different key. If you haven’t taken the time to really understand the chord movements and the inner workings of the music itself then you might really struggle to accommodate this request, short of using a capo or detuning the guitar.

Whilst it is definitely possible to learn these things alongside the tab, it very much needs to be a deliberate choice to do so, whereas using the notation forces you to think about things in these kinds of ways. It may be a slower process until you gain confidence and experience, but it is a much more holistic approach and I guarantee it will yield more satisfying, lasting results.

As someone who derives the vast majority of his living from working in theatre, reading music is an essential skill for me. I would not have had the career I’ve had without being able to read music – often sightreading at very short notice. I once had a call at about 2:30 on a Monday afternoon, asking me to drive to Birmingham and sightread ‘Hamilton’ that night!

Other shows have involved last minute key changes or editions and being handed the music just before curtain up; or a live band karaoke event where it was impossible to adequately prepare beforehand because there was no way of knowing which of the 350 songs we’d be playing. All great fun, and very exciting, but also a perfect way of completely embarrassing myself if my reading chops weren’t up to scratch!

Clearly these are not the only kinds of gigs available, but in order to make a comfortable living in the music industry it is important to have as a broad a skill set as possible, and being able to read music could enable you to explore a wealth of additional opportunities and income streams. Of course, there is plenty of work available for players who cannot read music, but when you can read you can take that work as well as the reading gigs.

As I’ve alluded to above, tablature is a fantastic, logical, and fairly intuitive system of instructions for how to play a given piece.

But it is fairly specific to the guitar, and so the possibility of learning pieces originally written for other instruments is significantly reduced unless you can somehow get your hands on a tab for it. You could always use your ear to figure it out (which is another incredibly valuable skill), but that is much slower and not necessarily as precise.

Being able to read music means you are free to explore whatever music you like, regardless of which instrument it was originally composed for. You may encounter some difficulty in tackling music intended for transposing instruments, such as saxophones, clarinets, or trumpets (these instruments do not play at the written pitch, so a C might sound like B flat, for example) but with some additional study it is possible to get around these issues.

Besides, there is more than enough music out there to get stuck into even if you discount these instruments – violin and flute repertoire is a great place to start, for example.

Not only is there a wealth of incredible music out there, but the unique technical challenges presented by music that wasn’t written for the guitar can be a fantastic way to develop your own playing beyond the obvious. And as you gain confidence you may even want to try branching out into ‘cello music and getting to grips with the bass clef. A six-string guitar in standard tuning has a range of almost four octaves, depending on how many frets it has, so there are very few limitations as to what you can take on.

If you’ve been convinced to start honing your music reading skills, I salute you. You can do it. But as you do, here are some important things to keep in mind along the way:

• Depending on your ability on the guitar, you will probably need to start by playing music which is far less complicated than what you might ordinarily play, otherwise the challenge of reading it will be too great. This can be frustrating and demoralising but progress comes from patience and perseverance
• The guitar is a transposing instrument of sorts, in that it sounds one octave lower than written. The E note in the top space of the stave is our open first string, but the same note at ‘concert pitch’ would actually sound like the 12^th fret on that string. It shouldn’t really affect anything that you play but it can be worth being aware of it for the avoidance of any confusion.
• This will not make you a better player. Maybe it should go without saying, but I’m sure you know by now that there is no magic silver bullet for overnight virtuosity on the guitar. Reading music is just another string to add to your bow (if you pardon the pun…) and although it is a very worthwhile skill that will hopefully open many doors for you, the only way to get better at playing the guitar is to practise playing the guitar. A lot.