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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Who can read sheet music ?
    Posted: March 23 2005 at 14:11

Shame on me

I have played the guitar for about 40 years now, but still cannot actually read sheet music.
I admire those who can...especially admire those who can actually compose / write it.
[...Or is "writing" it old fashioned, with today's sophisticated software that can do it for you ?]

Seems like keyboardists are "better" when it comes to this question...Every keyboard player I know can read sheet music.  Most guitarists I know cannot (in fact some of them can't play guitar all that well in the first place ). And I'm not talking about  "guitar tab" music...

OTOH, I am learning to read sheet music. I guess I could have learned it a long time ago had I applied myself more when I was younger.








Edited by utah_man
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 23 2005 at 14:45
Ive actually learnt it twice, and forgotten it twice, im thinking about re-learning it and having it stick this time.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 23 2005 at 15:27

Writing is good, if you want to write - depends on how quickly you can translate those thoughts into dots. I learned at an early age, so it's practically a second language.

 

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 23 2005 at 15:50
Folks, We'd better learn how to read "Sheet Music"
Otherwise we're all in trouble.
After all, music is not just a haircut.
It's all about the basics.
Learn them and then make your own rules.
Wearing feelings on our faces when our faces took a rest...
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 23 2005 at 16:51

Originally posted by synthguy synthguy wrote:

Folks, We'd better learn how to read "Sheet Music"
Otherwise we're all in trouble.
After all, music is not just a haircut.
It's all about the basics.
Learn them and then make your own rules.

THAT's what it's all about - learning the rules then interpreting them your own way!

Simply breaking the rules isn't enough, if you don't understand the rules in the first place.

 

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 23 2005 at 17:20
Yep, sure can, due to many years training as a tuba player (treble and bass clef)
We Lost the Skyline............


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 23 2005 at 20:50
I can read and write, but I'm just too lazy to do it. I'm more of an auditory kinda guy.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 23 2005 at 22:10
I can read bass clef, but I'm beginning to learn treble clef (the other ones confuse me).
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 24 2005 at 08:47

The others are easy - the Treble Clef looks a bit like a g, and has G on the second line from bottom, the Bass clef looks a bit like an F, and has F on the second line from the top - the rest all look like a C, and have C running through the middle of the clef itself (the line may vary).

As a pianist, they still confuse the hell out of me when I'm playing from them or writing in them, tho'

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 24 2005 at 12:47
I can read bass clef easily, and the others more slowly (I can't remember which of the C clefs I use ; it's the one a 5th above bass clef) on 'cello, bass guitar, double bass and godawful keyboard (my playing, not the instrument). I can read guitar tab on guitar and bass (and slowly on keyboard, oddly).
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 24 2005 at 16:31
I can barely read music. I am a TAB man myself. I am hung up on the key signatures--I can never remember them!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 24 2005 at 17:57
Originally posted by Crimson Prince Crimson Prince wrote:

I can barely read music. I am a TAB man myself. I am hung up on the key signatures--I can never remember them!


Just remember the order of sharps and flats:
Flats: Before Eating A Donut Get Coffee First
Sharps: Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Bugs
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 24 2005 at 18:02

Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle

Battle Ends, And Down Goes Charles' Father.

 

Never found them any use whatsoever but they certainly stuck in my mind.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 28 2005 at 21:57
I can read it for keyboard fairly well, but it's slow going for me when it comes to guitar. That's why tab was invented: it is a much more accurate and logical method for transcribing guitar and bass (and maybe violin and other string instruments, I don't know). Best is the tab/sheet music combination, so you can read the notes from the tab and the rhythms from the sheet.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 29 2005 at 01:48
Well it took me awhile, but I can read sheet music basically. Although all this other latin word and odd symbols on how to emphasize certain notes still bug me and confuse me; kind of pointless if you want to play a piece and make it your own. Plus I'd be the one to believe that every musician should play songs even if they are covering it; though one would argue that punctuation in literature is as needed as the "mp" symbol for mezzo piano.

I try to ignore sheet music when composing songs, but I mean it gets hard to remember the bloody notes you were playing anyhow...just can't escape it .
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 29 2005 at 02:26
Originally posted by synthguy synthguy wrote:

It's all about the basics.
Learn them and then make your own rules


Absolutely, SG

Originally posted by goose goose wrote:

Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle

Battle Ends, And Down Goes Charles' Father


That's a different one - I was taught:

Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit (treble clef)

Great Big Dogs Frighten Aunty (bass clef - I love that one )

Originally posted by certif1ed certif1ed wrote:

As a pianist, they still confuse the hell out of me when I'm playing from them or writing in them, tho'


You should try organ - three staves to work from; right hand, left hand & left foot (not to mention right foot on volume & having to switch Leslie speeds with the left hand as well - it's like driving a car sometimes )

18 months ago, music was just a lot of lines & dots; I've been lucky in my choice of teacher - one of the old school; he was starting me using three of my four limbs on the first lesson, and teaching me to sight read at the same time; damned hard work, but slowly (oh, so bloody slowly!) paying dividends - I even managed to transcribe 'Theme 1' by VDGG to blank staves a while ago.

Why, oh why did I not start this years ago...?



Jon Lord 1941 - 2012
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 29 2005 at 07:24

Originally posted by Jim Garten Jim Garten wrote:


Originally posted by certif1ed certif1ed wrote:

As a pianist, they still confuse the hell out of me when I'm playing from them or writing in them, tho'


You should try organ - three staves to work from; right hand, left hand & left foot (not to mention right foot on volume & having to switch Leslie speeds with the left hand as well - it's like driving a car sometimes )

I've never had a problem playing the organ...

 

...I used to play the organ in my local church.

 

Not that one, silly... the one with the big pipes and bellows and rows and rows of stops - 3 levels of keys and all the trimmings.

Of course, the first thing I learned to play properly on that baby was Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in D minor

A bottom D through a 32' pipe has to be experienced from the "control center"!!! I'd just like to get my hands (or feet, rather...) on an instrument with a 64 footer...

 

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 30 2005 at 02:20
Jealousy is a negative emotion, Jealousy is a negative emotion, Jealousy is a negative emotion, Jealousy is a negative emotion, Jealousy is a negative emotion

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 30 2005 at 05:34
I can read and write sheet music.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 30 2005 at 12:30
Yes'm, I can read and write sheet music.

I hate these music theory classes they have out there... they always teach music theory from the classical perspective. Honestly, they teach melodic, harmonic, and natural minor scales/key and never teach dorian. 99% of contemporary music that you hear on the radio that employs a minor scale employs dorian minors. Just kills me. If you want to learn comtemporary music theory, LEARN JAZZ. Major, dorian minor, and dominant keys are crucial, for composing and improvising. The best composers are master improvisers, take my word for it.
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