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Reading Music


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Posted

Hello, i'm new to this side of harmony so hello all.The reason i'm here is that i would like to learn the fretboard. I have heard that learning to read music is a big help and also beneficial. So are there any good sites that help someone to learn how to read music? Thanks, maybe if i stayed with piano this wouldn't be so hard lol. :D

Posted

I don't know of any sites I can give you, but here are a few simple tips:

1) Learn the note names of the fretboard. Easier said than done, but this is essential to reading, and it makes understanding everything from theory, scales, chords, melodies, reading, etc, easier to understand and play.

2) Start with simple single note music (as opposed to chords) and read often. 5-15 minutes a day is all you really need to keep up solid reading chops.

3) The music you read doesn't have to be for guitar. You can often buy method books or exercise books for clarinet, trumpet, flute, violin, etc, at any music store for just a couple dollars. This material is excellent for reading. For reading chords, check out some classical guitar books to get you started. Matteo Carcassi's "Melodious and Progressive Etudes" and Fernando Sor's "Twenty Studies for Guitar" standard beginner's books and full of easy music that's all reading.

In fact, I just remembered that there is a website with loads of classical guitar music as PDF files, including the two method books I just mentioned.

http://www.eythorsson.com/en/index.html

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Posted

Thanks for the reply, i'm mainly looking for a place that tells me how C or F# for example would look on sheet music(i'm a beginner). I found a place that showed what the signs meant and but he didn't have a complete graph of how the notes look. Thanks

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Posted

About reading... this may not be the best tip in the world but it's worked well for me so far. I got Band In A Box, a notation program. I copy songs and slowly I have learnt to read too. Now I can write down simple riffs and melodies than I come up with.

Posted

Originally posted by Ginosko



Thanks, this should get me started on notation. One more thing how do sharps and flats look on notation? The website only shows whole notes.

 

 

# = sharp

 

b = flat

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Posted

Sorry if i'm not stating this correctly, but on this Website it only shows whole notes not how a flat or sharp would. How sharps and flats not used very often? Since i can't find them :confused:
Thanks

Posted
Originally posted by Ginosko

Sorry if i'm not stating this correctly, but on this
Website
it only shows whole notes not how a flat or sharp would. How sharps and flats not used very often? Since i can't find them
:confused:
Thanks



I find it odd that there isn't any discussion of accidentals (flats and sharps and natural signs) but just about every notation issue is covered. Although, if you look under the section on 'bends' it shows a couple sharps.

Sharps are used quite frequently. The key of C has no flats or sharps, but there are 11 other keys, 13 if you include enharmonic keys, that all have varying ammounts of flats or sharps. Plus, when in a key a note can be altered chromatically (i.e. even though the key of C doesn't naturally have any flats or sharps, you can still see them, and they are common).

By the way, 'whole notes' are just a rhythmic value. There are plenty of other rhythmic values on that page too. Flats and sharps have to do with the pitch of a note.

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