August 24 2007
Why Most Guitar Players Don’t Need to Read Music, Ever!
Right off the bat, let me say that the purpose of this article isn’t to incite a riot with those of you who believe strongly in the value of reading standard music notation. This article aims at giving the beginner guitar player, or the average experienced guitar player who doesn’t know how to read music well (like me) some peace of mind, and the specific knowledge of why it’s just not necessary anymore.
If you’re a guitar player, or thinking about becoming one, this article is for you if you have ever:
- Felt guilty for not knowing how to read standard music notation, or read it better. (Don’t feel guilty–I don’t.)
- Heard that in order to learn how to play guitar you must learn to read music. (It’s just not true.)
- Thought that without learning h0w to read standard music notation you are very limited as to what you can learn to play. (This used to be true.)
- Felt that standard music notation is not intuitive, takes years to learn, and is too complex. (This is true! And in a moment we’ll see why it’s just not necessary.)
Why Standard Music Notation is Unnecessary for the Guitar Player
Let’s not waste any time. The reason that standard notation is unnecessary is multi-fold:
- Tablature existed before standard notation for stringed instruments and it is easier to learn and read. There’s no guessing. Typically standard notation leaves you guessing which notes you should finger because all you get is a note, not the specific string and fret to play. You have to memorize what each of those black dots means, and then do it in multiple keys! This might be okay for piano, but it’s unnecessary for guitar.
- Tablature is more robust, and communicates more about how to play a guitar than standard notation. For example standard notation has no provisions for notating slides, note bends, or artificial harmonics. Nor is it very good at displaying muted notes, whammy bar effects, or the exact location your fingers should be on the fret board (as mentioned).
- Tablature is now plentiful with the growth of online tabs and incredibly wide selection of tablature books available. 20 years ago, tablature for guitar wasn’t as plentiful as it is now and you had to learn to read standard notation to play a wide range of music. Not anymore.
The One Area Where Standard Notation Has an Advantage Over Guitar Tablature
Standard notation has a very complex and thorough structure for conveying the duration of notes. Unfortunately with guitar tablature it is typically harder to convey time.
One common method to help display time is to space the notation fingerings farther or closer apart depending on how long they are to ring out. And, often standard notation will be displayed above tablature, and this is just about the only time I look at the standard notation is to read the duration value of the notes.
I have also seen tablature that uses a hybrid method of displaying time by putting standard notation note stems on the tablature fret numbers. This is similar to drum notation.
So here are some options to tackle this issue:
- Get used to and learn to read just the timing aspect of standard notation
- Just listen to the song to hear the timing and then play along using the tablature
- Pay attention to the space between the tablature fret number notation AND listen to the song to hear the timing
Personally I try to do the last option as much as possible and fall back on the first option above when I really need to understand the timing in detail.
Now Don’t Get Me Wrong…
Of course learning to read tablature isn’t something you can do over night, but it does take significantly less time to learn to read tablature proficiently than it does standard notation. If you already know how to read standard notation, then more power to you. And, if you can read standard notation, don’t overlook learning to read tablature efficiently because in the end it saves you time, and it’s a better fit for the guitar.
I hope this article has been helpful to you and maybe relieved some of the feeling that you’re missing out my not learning standard notation. Now-a-days, it’s just not important.
If you’re one of those folks who believes that not knowing how to read standard notation is a huge disadvantage, let me know why below. Likewise if you think tab is all you need to know, share a comment below.
UPDATE: I’ve added a poll on this topic to the left hand column of this page. Just scroll up a bit and you’ll see it.
Not only is this website completely wrong but it’s also pointless. Below are several reasons any guitarist should know how to read music.
1.) it’s easier to learn than tabs.
2.) notes appear on the fretboard many times for example:E…
e-0—————————————-
b—–5————————————
g———-9——————————-
d————–14————————–
a——————————————
E——————————————
3.) knowing notes gives you freedom to reinterpret music by changing fingerings, reharmonizing, and transposing. How many guitarists know how to reharmonize a tab… it’s hard to do isn’t it?
4.) You have much more creative freedom to play guitar in many keys with more creativity with note reading.
5.)Tabs should not be an alternative to standard notation merely another tool.
Gerry, while I appreciate your opinion, I respectfully disagree with you. I believe for most of us tabs can pretty much completely replace standard notation whether we’re playing music or composing it.
For someone who is not very serious about music, tabs are fine. You can find a tab out there online for pretty much any remotely popular song. However, if you want to go beyond that, reading standard notation is definitely required if you ask me. Here are the two main reasons I think you should learn to read standard notation over tabs.
1. Communication with other musicians. Not everyone plays guitar. If you want to play with a pianist or any other musician who doesn’t play guitar and communicate in any meaningful way, tabs aren’t going to work. However, you can communicate to any competent musician via standard notation, it is the universal language. Imagine the confusion that would result if every instrument had its own specific notation system.
2. Overall musical understanding. Memorizing numbers on a fretboard is not very musical. You will learn very little of scale structure, intervals, chord theory, and all the things required to become a competent musician who UNDERSTANDS what they are playing.
On a side note, you claim that standard notation has no markings to indicate slides, mutes, or artificial harmonics. This is well… simply not true. Slides are indicated by a straight line connecting note heads. Mutes simply replace the note head with an X. Artificial harmonics replace the note head with a diamond. As for whammy effects and note bends… well… who cares.
Zac, thanks for the input. Actually, everything you’re saying makes perfect sense to me, but I think that the point is missed here. I started this article by writing that I didn’t want to incite a riot by those who feel strongly about learning standard notation, and that this was written for the vast majority of guitar players out there that don’t need to have this level of understanding of music to enjoy it. Very few performing artists, rock bands, pop groups, folk artists, etc. can actually sight read standard notation proficiently or think about their music in the terms you’re outlining. For most of us it’s just not necessary. I’m not advocating that you know nothing about reading standard notation or understanding music theory, but for most of us to enjoy the instrument to write our own songs, it just isn’t ever necessary. I knew I’d get some flak for this so I appreciate your honesty.
I checked into your comments about standard notation having some guitar effects and indeed it can be written this way. Thanks for pointing that out.
I agree there are issues with notating guitar music, but I disagree with your assertion that it’s easier. Standard notation provides two pieces of information: the harmony and the rhythm. With tab, you have two pieces of information as well, but both relate to the harmony, making it necessary to refer to a recording in order to understand the rhythm.
I think tab provides an instant gratification approach to reading music, that is a real pitfall and actually creates a lot of problems for students wishing to move beyond it.
Respectfully, your point regarding the abundance of tab content out there is moot since the quality is generally very low.
Joel, thanks for your fair input. I agree that the rhythm of the music is not as well represented in tab, however I do feel the options and work-arounds I outlined our very reasonable for your average guitar player.
If you are looking to move far beyond tab you probably aren’t an average guitar player but someone who is looking to work in a professional situation. I would agree for example that a session guitarist will indeed need to know how to read standard notation fluently and there’s a real advantage to that.
I should have emphasized in my article that I’m speaking much more of your average guitar player and not the much smaller percentage of pros session musicians or very serious composers. For most of us we’re looking to play more accessible music, and there’s many life times of music that can be learned and played from tab without ever the need for fluency in standard notation. So I do agree with you on this point with the noted exception
Regarding the quality of tab. I also agree the free tab out there is overall a poor quality, but that’s certainly not what I had in mind either. I am speaking of the professionally published tablature books of which there are hundreds if not thousands. Music wasn’t always so well transcribed and published to prolifically, especially not in the tab format.
Joel again I really appreciate your feedback. And thanks for giving me a chance to clarify.
I agree pretty much with the article to be honest. Tabs are fine. With respect to the comment reagrading understanding scales etc, I don´t believe that this has anything to do with reading music. You can understand scales, chords etc without reading a note.
I play bass aswell as guitar and I think tabs are a great way to get started. They teach you how to play songs without having to spend hours learning to read music. I think notation has it’s place but it can easily scare of a beginner.
I’m a professional musician in New York. Commercials, concerts, plays etc.. No arranger, composer or lyricist has ever given me TAB. If you plan to do this for a living, learn to read.
Ive never seen a rock guitarist on stage reading sheet music most people that are starting out playing the guitar are playing rock music. You write and play music from the heart. In a fact most great musicians(rock,blues,country,ect)Dont ever read music of any kind. Maybe when they were 9 years old and mom made them take piano lessons. They learn songs by ear!! Music is not something that is on paper. It is sound. It is expression. All you need to know is a few simple chords and your in business.Tab is an excellent guide for starting out and reading sheet music is barking up the wrong tree.Maybe learn sheet music after you have an understanding of chords,scales, and music in general.Still a waste of time in my opinion.I am not talking about about classical composers or guitarist playing with an orchestra.Jimi Hendrix was a professional musician. He probably lit his sheet music on fire!
wow. this issue is very hot IN MY HEAD. i’m very interested in guitar…and yes somebody said about notesheet and notes scare beginners. i so agree to that because im a beginner myself. and tabs are the simplest way to follow and understand the nature of guitar playing.
i learnt quite a lot in tabs. i learnt new terms such as bending, tremolo. then i go about searching those words in the internet. ive never really take a look at notesheet (is that what they are called?) but have took a glance and woo, made me blur.
though yeah i too believe in notes being the universal language. u cant give tabs to pianists. and yeah in the long run, notes will prove useful for musicians.
I can read standard notation as well as tabs, and I see them both as useful means to learn things about guitar and music.
tabs are a good way to get scale patterns and chord patterns under your hands specifically for guitarists. I hate musicians that are snooty about what “real” musicians are supposed to do.
A persons lack of skill with notation says nothing about their understanding of harmony. It only shows that they cannot express music through that single specific system.
Things were heard before they were ever written down.
I think one thing that’s been entirely missed is the distinction between sight-reading, and learning songs. I could sit down and decode staff music with no prior knowledge as long as I had a reference to learn from. From that perspective, tabs are definitely easier to learn from. However, if you want to look at a piece of paper and play it, tabs are the wrong way to go. Any sight-reading guitarist would be an idiot not to sacrifice fingerings for detailed rhythm, key signature, and most of all versatility. Tabs may help you find notes on a neck, they say nothing about MUSIC
Tab and standard notation serve different purposes and communicate different things. Tab is an excellent way to describe exactly how to play a specific song on guitar.
Unfortunately, most folks that are serious about guitar hope to get past learning how to play a bunch of songs. While most guitarists don’t spend a lot of time reading standard notation while playing, a knowledge of it helps them learn about keys and theory Most folks that are serious about guitar want to be able to jam and solo with others. You need to know some theory to change keys or solo.
what a crock !
The rest of the musical world speaks the same language, standard notation. If you want to remain unable to communicate with other instrumentalists then keep on with your tab. Be a musician 1st, and a guitarist 2nd ! Any argument for the alleged superiority of tab is merely rationalizing laziness and ignorance. When the pianist or sax player writes a song, he’s not going to give you tab, what are you going to do? When you try to land a studio gig or any other proffessional gig, whatever charts you get will be standard notation.
Sorry to bust the bubble.
by the way… someone upstream mentioned Hendrix… late in his life he was approached by Miles Dave to do some collaborating, Hendrix was given some charts to look at and had to say he couldn’t read. What a missed opportunity. It’s well known that Hendrix had expressed that he was in a creative rut toward the end, that he felt he was going in circles. I think it’s fair to assume he probably wished he COULD have read Miles’ charts.
Just got my guitar, and trying to learn, don’t know where to get started, Thought I would probably go with learning Tabs. Will I also need to learn Scales?
Thanks I need a lot of help.
Hey Monk, thanks for the question. When you’re starting to play guitar I think learning scales is good because it gets your fingers conditioned and strengthened. Later on the scale patterns you learned will help you to construct and improvise music, they even make it easier to figure out how to play music your listening to. My best recommendation is to pick up a copy of this book: Guitar Made Easy which I actually named this site after. See if that’s something for you. The other thing that you might find useful is this post Four Skills a Beginner Guitarist Must Learn First
I found this web site http://www.spytunes.co.uk Going through their self-eliminating practise routing makes tabs and sheet music redundant. I started a few weeks ago and it’s wicked. You get to learn how to use the guitar like a part of yourself. Like a singer uses his voice. You never really have to think about what you’re playing anymore.
Great stuff!
/klaban
I completley disagree with most of the statements you made. I think this article will not only limit yourself it may also may limit others who are reading it. Though, reading is not neccessary to play guitar it is fundamental if you want make a living from music.
I think you all have valid points. I voted for both are good, as did a majority. This is what I do, and it takes a little time to do it. I write the note next to the tab #. It is teaching me how to read notation. We learn by repetition, as you look at the # you also see the note name and your subconscious soaks this up, the more you play it the more it burns into your brain. Maybe someday this will be how all music is written. It would save me a lot of time, I do want to learn to read music fluently.
I have been playing guitar for about a year now and I am basically self taught. I took lessons for 2 months or so and my teacher only taught me to read TAB. I am taking lessons again in my school, as they offer it for free as an elective. Since I already play, I figured it would be an easy elective. Their method of teaching is learning to read music. To me, at least, its MUCH harder. I did originally take private lessons and they progress faster but it was only 30 minutes once a week. In school, its one hour every other day. Since the start of June, we have only covered 3 strings and 2 frets on each of them. When learning to read TAB, I learned to play on all six strings and about 5 frets in one month.
Anyway, I think it is important to read music, but if you just want to play guitar as a hobby or get a few people you know who play other instruments to make a band to have fun with, I don’t think its absolutely nessisary to read music. If you don’t really plan on making a career out of guitar, just learn to play TAB. You can progress at a much quicker place and you will be able to play songs from bands you like (my first song was “Never Too Late” by Three Days Grace) in less than a month.
These are just the opionions of a somewhat beginner guitarist. Feel free to disagree.
After 22 years of playing my reading is pretty poor but I can muddle my way through a piece. I think that as a guitarist there are so many areas that one can choose to focus on, that there is absolutely no shame in working with tabs or playing by ear. One of the issues that I think often gets way overlooked, particularly by music teachers, is sound, tone & style. Not that reading music and having great tone are mutually exclusive, but it just points out the fact that one should follow ones nose and focus on what’s most important to them.
Dave
The Gear Mall – Vintage Guitars & Boutique Amplifiers
well, for sure they can be linked together. standard guitar music nowadays has both standard notations and tabs. so, it’s a win-win for teachers as well as students.
Tablature is useful and i will grant you the fact that it makes it easier for the beginner. But just because something is simple doesnt mean its the best option. I have been playing for 6 years now and reverted to tabs and learning songs from teacher without music notation my first few years. I could play well and make my own music without knowing why it works. Playing chords that you dont know how to build is like using a SAT word that you dont know the definition for. I now play classical guitar at a SUNY college and at first it was hard to learn sight reading but the amount of time i spent learning how to read tabs could of easily been spent learning musical notation. Playing with big bands, guitar ensembles, and even my metal band has become 90 times easier with the use of correct music reading. Reading jazz charts and calssical music have increased the musicality (playing well not reading music) so much and when a student only learns tabs they are being cheated in becoming a better musician. I think every guitarist should atleast put some effort in learning how to read because it is useful for understanding music. I can understand using tabs but when a guitarist uses tabs only i see a very limited player. Making a healthy regiment of half time spent on sight reading and half time learning songs by bands was what i did with my 15 guitar students. On my last lesson with my last student he thanked me for having him sight read and have the help because he NOTICED his improvement. When he only learned songs he didnt improve on anything other than bad habit. Learning to solo comes much easier if knowing the theory behind it. also the point about fingering chords and not knowing how to play each note is false. In classical guitar music you are told which strings to use for which notes and how to correctly finger them. good guitar players are lazy (odd i know but ill explain) Reading tabs gives guitarist awkward fingerings that restrict the movment of the left hand. You want to use as little effort as possible so you dont waste time or energy. You want to be as relaxed as possible and use the limited energy with effeciency. Its like cutting through yard to get to your house instead of following the streets. It just works!
I understand all of the reasons you have given for why TAB is acceptable, and I agree that to an extent TAB is acceptable, but for serious musicians, standard notation is the only way to go. (I apologize in advance if anything I say is a repetition of older comments)
First, to say that standard notation can takes years to learn how to read is false. It can probably be done within a week to learn the major notes in the staff.
Second, to say that TAB offers a better way to see where notes are is also false, but only as long as you learn notation along with where notes fall on the fretboard. Any decent guitar teacher should know that.
Third, to say that there is no notation for sliding notes or other effects means you have not read a lot of notation. There are numerous symbols for effects, and if it comes down to it, it’s very easy to write in the word ‘whammy’ or what have you underneath a staff.
Fourth, TABs on the internet will only show you popular songs, and if you are just playing as a hobby, that’s fine, but if you want to play seriously, notation not only helps with being able to get your ideas to other non-guitar players, notation is the only effective way to get your ideas across.
While it’s fair to say that there are numerous famous musicians who don’t even know how to read TAB, those that do, or those that know how to notate are usually better musicians by far, and can stand on their own throughout an extended period of time. If you want to become famous for being good at what you do, learn notation
It’s probably George Bush’s fault.
Hey Music Major,
Thanks for your comments. Just a few things I’d like to say in response.
Regarding your point #1: You can learn how to read music pretty quickly, but not read it quickly and proficiently. Even tablature takes some time to read quickly, but in my experience not as quick as tab.
Regarding your point #2: Well, I do believe it’s easier to translate tab to the location of a note than it is to translate standard notation. Again my point is it is harder with standard notation making tab more efficient.
Regarding your point #3: You’re right, and this is something mentioned by a few other folks. It goes to show you I don’t read much standard notation guitar music!
Regarding your point #4: I agree with you. If you want to play professionally you’ll probably need to learn standard notation in many cases, especially if you’re doing session work or orchestration. Yes.
Regarding your comment “those that know how to notate are usually better musicians by far, and can stand on their own throughout an extended period of time. If you want to become famous for being good at what you do, learn notation”. I don’t agree that knowing standard notation makes you a better musician, if you think about it that’s really a great matter of opinion, but still I do agree that knowing standard notation would help you become a better musician. I just don’t agree that standard notation is for everyone, or for most people. For most of us reading tab proficiently is really enough–that’s because tab does it’s job well! Most guitar players aren’t pros.
Hey Matt, thanks for your thoughts. You are a hardcore dude and you obviously are not like most people who play music for a hobby. You made some points which I agree with and are interesting though they aren’t really on topic. If someone wants to learn music theory, and get into more advanced soloing and scale composition without knowing standard notation you certainly could. Especially just by mimicking great guitarists and picking up tips and mechanics. But I would agree with anyone saying that you’ll get a deeper technical understanding of music composition by learning standard notation and the music theory behind it.
Lex, nice point thanks.
Hey Gear Mall,
Thanks for your comments! You also make a fantastic point: “One of the issues that I think often gets way overlooked, particularly by music teachers, is sound, tone & style.” I’ve had probably about 10 different music teachers of various backgrounds through the years, and I don’t remember one ever teaching me much if anything on those points! My teachers weren’t Juilliard quality by any means, so I hope other’s have had better experiences. But that’s a shame. I have had to discover so much of that myself. I’d love to know your thoughts on how to approach learning those things. Maybe you’d write a guest blog entry on the topic?
“For example standard notation has no provisions for notating slides, note bends, or artificial harmonics”
Yes, it does.