What do most guitar players do when they play do they mostly memorize how to play a song or do they learn ...?

Question

how to read the notes? Just curious cause I'm thinking about learning how to play the guitar and I'm a little scared that I might not be able to get it. And thats alot of remembering hand movements playing just one song.

Answer 1

You can learn new songs by reading music notation, or by reading tabs, or by listening and figuring it out by ear, or by some combination of the three.  Ideally, you should be able to do all three as each learning method has its own pluses and minuses.  Some people are very visually oriented and learn best by having something in front of them that they can look at, so for them, notation and/or tab works well.  Other people are more auditorally oriented and learn best by listening and playing along by ear.  So its a matter of what works best for YOU.

But no matter how you learn a new song, eventually you have to memorize it in order to be able to play it proficiently and up to speed.  If you watch any of your favorite guitarists on stage or on TV, you'll notice that none of them are ever reading off of music stands, LOL.

It may seem scary to think of memorizing a whole song, but you're not memorizing a sequence of separate, unique and distinct hand motions.  To start with, you're memorizing a sequence of chords --each of which you've already learned the fingerings for and practiced until you can grab the chord in one automatic motion without having to think about placing each finger individually -- and many, many songs only use 3 or 4 chords repetitively throughout the entire song.  When you learn guitar, you learn a basic library of chords, and those chords get used again and again in lots of different songs.

Then you're remembering a right hand rhythm strumming or picking pattern, which usually stays the same throughout the entire song.  If you're playing a melody, or a solo that you've memorized, that does require a bit more memorization.  But if you've spent some time learning scales and getting to know which notes go with which others in different keys, it greatly simplifies the learning process for picking out solos or melodies.

And keep in mind that  playing music is about creating SOUND, not just memorizing finger movements.  So when you learn a song, you've (hopefully if you want to play it correctly) got a clear idea in your head of how the song is supposed to sound, and that is what's helping guide your hands and fingers to the right notes and letting you know when you've hit a wrong note.

sorry for the lengthy answer but I hope this clears things up for you.

Answer 2

Yes decent guitarists do learn how to read notes, but we also have to memorise the song...anyway, it's 10 times easier with being able to read notes. And reading notes itself is pretty easy.

Here's a link to a question about reading notes...my answer explains it and I gave a web link as well. It also explains why tabs are useless when it comes to playing a song you never heard before. Only real musical notation can do it.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Learning and knowing theory and training in improvisation is another essential part and makes playing, learning and progressing another 10 times easier.

So just stick to the honest way and you get great results in a few weeks. Do it for a few years and you're Jimmy Page.

Good luck.

Answer 3

learning to read music is a great thing. In the meantime try whats called tablature. It's easier. Both teach you how to play stuff you've never played before. Playing by ear is good, but has to come with time. Tab and readin music comes faster.

http://www.folkofthewood.com/page130.htm

http://www.ehow.com/how_2108641_read-gui...

Answer 4

Well, you have to memorize the notes you read, otherwise you can't play anything.

Answer 5

all the best guitarists know how to read music, but plenty of good ones dont.  99% of all guitarists don't know how to read music, and of the ones that do, 99% don't learn how to read music until after theyve been playing for a while and they realize that its only to their advantage.  that menas that only .01% of guitarists start out learning to read music.  Just start with tabs for now if you feel intimidated by reading music, and then learn reading music once youre comfortable with the guitar.

those statistics are all amde up, but theyre relatively true.

Answer 6

When you are just starting out, it takes NO MORE EFFORT to learn how to read REAL music than to use those stupid TABs... and the plus side of being able to read music is... you can pick up ANY piano score and play it on the guitar... and you don't have to rely on someone else to transpose a piece you like into TABS.

Also, when you can read music, it makes things much easier later on when you want to play SOLOS because those are hard to play if all you can do is use TABS.

You see those people on here all the time who complain they are stuck and can't improve or they are bored with the guitar and they want to play music that is too hard for them... for the most part, those people are SELF TAUGHT... and LEARNED FOR FREE from the Internet... they can only use TABS because they were too lazy to learn how to read music when they first started... and those same people get upset when you point out to them that they DIDN'T LEARN THE BASICS

If you are just starting out... HIRE A TEACHER and have them help you.  If they are any kind of a teacher they will insist you learn how to read and play REAL MUSIC and it's for your own good.  BUT... at the very least GET A GROUNDING IN THE BASICS... if you don't do it now... you will suffer later.