Home › Forums › Music Theory › On Guitars and Musical Notation
- This topic has 10 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 1 month ago by Don D..
-
CreatorTopic
-
February 17, 2017 at 4:00 am #63104
http://www.woodpecker.com/writing/essays/guitarnotation.html
interesting article, makes me feel a little better about my stumbling blocks on reading sheet music
-
CreatorTopic
-
AuthorReplies
-
-
February 17, 2017 at 5:49 am #63115
Interesting article, will have to finish it later. Standard notation doesn’t offer what tab does for fingering.
Don D.
-
February 17, 2017 at 10:42 am #63136
That’s interesting. Never thought of needing a three dimensional system for guitar notation! Yesterday I started in on a new jazz piece which was in standard notation. I watched a couple of youtube versions and each was played in different positions, probably due to individual choice on where to play the notes. I was not looking forward to figuring out where to play the notes. Eventually found a tabbed version.
Bob -
February 17, 2017 at 11:12 am #63139
I don’t really buy his theory of why guitarists are often poor sight readers (just my opinion). The fact that most notes can be played in different positions admittedly complicates reading for guitarists, but good sight reading is certainly achievable, helped by fingering and position indications. Leading classical guitarists are usually pretty good in this area I believe, and I know that John Williams is very good.
-
March 7, 2017 at 8:41 pm #64896
I wish or if someone could let me know, where do you start on the fretboard? I used to play woodwind instruments and it was easy to sight read but you only have a couple octaves and the a C is the same fingering. ON the guitar I just get stumped on where on the fret board to start, it’s almost like it is a big secret and if we are told the universe will collapse. Kind of ranting here but this is my biggest pet peeve about music teachers but if they don’t know how can they teach it?
thanks for hearing me vent
Tim -
March 8, 2017 at 12:14 pm #64939
You start in a position. For for reading, generally speaking the most common positions are open. 2, 5, 7 and 10. The numbers are the fret where you put your index finger. You need to find c in each position.
-
March 8, 2017 at 10:45 pm #64978
I was in a rush before. In open, and 2nd positions, c is third fret fifth string. In 5th and 7th, it’s on 8th fret, sixth string. In 10th position, you have the higher octave c, which is 10th fret, fourth string.
In each position, you have a range of just over two octaves. There’s a ton that you can do in that range.
-
March 8, 2017 at 11:29 pm #64982
All I can recommend is watch good instructional basic theory tutorials, eventually you’ll get the picture, until you memorize basic open chord patterns, and the notes and intervals on the first two strings to understand the root of the matter you can’t picture much until you do. youtube Dario Cortese, i like a lot of his free tips explains it well enough,, learn your open chords 1st position and understand the CAGED SYSTEM.
-
March 8, 2017 at 11:29 pm #64983
-
March 8, 2017 at 11:31 pm #64984
I have all the chords and caged system but I just have trouble wrapping my head around how to just look at sheet music and say ok I start here, where is here?
-
March 9, 2017 at 6:23 am #64993
There are choices, but not THAT many. It depends on how many strings you want to put the song on and how the chords go.
If you start by finding the lowest note in the melody on the lowest string and the highest note on the highest string and chord shapes that have the root or the 5th on one of the bottom two strings, you’ll have a good idea where you’ll be playing.
You don’t have to be all over the fretboard to play great music. In some songs, Albert Collins put the capo up on the 8th or 9th fret and didn’t go much above the 16th or 17th.
Once you have something in one position, move it up an octave. You can also try moving it up a fourth or a fifth, that often gives you something cool.
I hope this helps.
Don D.
-
-
AuthorReplies
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.