 It's the great debate for guitar students around the globe.
If you are taking guitar lessons or if you play guitar but do not know how to read music, I'm sure you've thought about this before.
Guitar students often ask:
"Do I really need to learn how to read music? There are so many great guitarists who do not know how to read music, why should I?"
It's true there are many talented guitarists in the world who never learned to read music. But as great as they are, those guitar players will have suffered greater challenges in their musical development because they did not know how to read music.
If you learn how to read music, you will become a better musician in the long run.
Four Good Reasons
Here are some reasons why I think it's worth while for guitar players to learn how to read standard music notation:
1. You'll be able to pick up any sheet music in the world and just play it. If you don't read music, you can only learn by one method -- by ear. But if you can read music, you can learn new songs using two methods -- by ear and by reading. So the amount of music available to you is much greater, and you can combine both methods for learning things faster.
2. Knowing how to read music means you can also communicate with fellow musicians faster and easier. I've played in bands where no one reads music (except me, of course). In those bands, it takes longer for everyone in the band to learn a new song. If someone could just write down the notes and hand them out, you'll save yourselves a lot of time.
3. It's actually a lot easier to read music than you think. Imagine trying to learn a new language like Spanish. Think of all the new words and grammar you would have to learn! Well, music only has 12 "words" (A, B, C, D, E, F, G and all the sharps and flats), and just a few "grammar" rules to understand rhythm (whole notes, half notes, quarter notes etc.), which is really just basic math that you will have learned in elementary school already. Easy peasey!
4. You'll get tons of respect from other musicians if you can read music. And who doesn't want that?
Goals
Think of all the time that guitarists spend debating whether or not they need to learn how to read music. Imagine if they spent that time learning to read music!
It's up to everyone what their goals are when learning to play an instrument. Of course, not everyone desires to become a professional, or even perform outside the privacy of their own home. So it's up to each person to decide what they want to learn and how far they want to go with music.
But no matter what your goals, you will go farther, faster, if you can read music. And with the right guitar teacher, you'll be surprised just how fast you can learn how to do it!
Did I mention I offer guitar lessons in Vancouver?
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