How can i read sheet music?

Question

how can i read sheet music for guitar?

i started learning guitar, i know about 10-15 chords now, i learned 2 scales(major scale,blues sale)

how can i read sheet music?i already know how to read tabs, but tabs are useless

Answer 1

You're about tabs - they're useless. Try playing a song you never heard from tabs...you can't do it cause there's no rhythm in tabs - you can do it with sheet music of course...to answer the above post...that's why their useless, plus, most of the tabs on the net are wrong, full of errors.

About reading music, this site explains it well:

http://www.smu.edu/totw/toc.htm

Sections 1-4 of part one deal with it. Section 5 then goes through scales, you don't need it for now.

The most important thing to learn is:

1, the way pitch is written (by the position in the staff)

2, the way length (rhythm) is written - the thing tabs lack

These two tell you how long and how high/low to play.

What you need to know is how loud as well (this won't be important mostly in rock songs though). It's indicated by symbols under (rarely above) the staff (from softest to loudest):

ppp - piano-pianissimo

pp - pianissimo

p - piano

mp - mezzopiano

fp - fortepiano

mf - mezzoforte

f - forte

ff - fortissimo

fff - forte-fortissimo

Other symbols include (s)forzatto - sfz (suddenly the loudest possible), crescendo (gradually louder: <), decrescendo/diminuendo (grad. softer: >).

Dynamics (these symbols...loudness) are provided here just so that you know what it is if you accidentally (improbable) run into it in rock.

Then you need to understand tempo (speed). It is indicated in the beginning of the song above the staff (sometimes inmiddle the song if the tempo changes throughout the song...a good example of such change is Megadeth' Holy Wars...after Marty's clean arabic-like solo it slows down). Tempo can be indicated by the BPM (beats per minute) or by special expression (Italian in classical, English in modern).

Here are they:

Prestissimo — extremely fast (200 - 208 bpm)

Vivacissimamente — adverb of vivacissimo, "very quickly and lively"

Vivacissimo — very fast and lively

Presto — very fast (168 - 200 bpm)

Allegrissimo — very fast

Vivo — lively and fast

Vivace — lively and fast (~140 bpm)

Allegro — fast and bright or "march tempo" (120 - 168 bpm)

Allegro moderato — moderately quick (112 - 124 bpm)

Allegretto — moderately fast (but less so than allegro)

Allegretto grazioso — moderately fast and with grace

Moderato — moderately (108 - 120 bpm)

Moderato espressivo — moderately with expression

Andantino — alternatively faster or slower than andante

Andante — at a walking pace (76 - 108 bpm)

Tranquillamente — adverb of tranquillo, "tranquilly"

Tranquillo — tranquil

Adagietto — rather slow (70 - 80 bpm)

Adagio — slow and stately (literally, "at ease") (66 - 76 bpm)

Grave — slow and solemn

Larghetto — rather broadly (60 - 66 bpm)

Largo — Very slow (40 - 60 bpm), like lento

Lento — very slow (40 - 60 bpm)

Largamente/Largo — "broadly", very slow (40 bpm and below)

Larghissimo — very very slow (20 bpm and below)

Don't learn them!! It's redundant...I think you will mostly see the BPM indication.

The last important thing is meter. It indicates the overall rhythm feel (waltz, rock etc. use their typical meters).

Check the website I provided for the symbols and explanations...you need to know this only:

1, meter

2, rhythm

3, pitch

And now one thing that the site won't tell you, a thing applied specifically to guitar. Guitar belongs to the instruments that are written an octave higher that they actually sound (ex. when you strum the low E, E2 sounds, but E3 is written).

I think that's all you need to know. Try to read every day so that you become at least mediocre at it. Two weeks should be enough to become trained enough...15 minutes to understand the principle of notes.

One more thing!! Get the Guitar Pro 5 software for guitar! I've free download links for you here:

http://worldwide-forum.be/forum/index.ph...

Download the software and RSE packs. It'll help you become trained in reading and also it is the most wide-spread format for sharing notation. You can find tons of notes for countless songs for GP5.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Why are tabs useless?

I'm a fellow guitar player and tabs are the best way to get the "feel" of the song, but I know how you feel because tabs are no means a way of "reading" music.

When you play sheet music for guitar, it's usually music w/ chord progressions and if it's a melodic line, then it helps if you know a little about piano (I took 2 years of lessons) so you can figure out what frets are sharps and flats.

(also depends on what kind of music you play most)

Also, with chord progressions, you can make up your own picking/strumming patterns. Improving and such has to be self-taught. hope this helps

Answer 3

Do you already read sheet music otherwise?  If so, use the tab to learn which note is which, eg 5 on the first string would be equal to A on a treble cleff.