Can you read notation?

[tseaver]

@merlyn

There are ways around those issues. First of all there is no ambiguity about which pitch notation represents. The guitar is a transposing instrument. Music written for guitar sounds an octave lower than written. Transposing instruments are a bit nuts.

Believe it or not, I know this is how classical guitarists read. But I never play classical music: instead, I'm playing in a jazz ensemble, where I end up with an "obligato" part in maybe 1 / 10 songs, and even then I end up asking the musical director where he wants it played. Most of my job is to arrange the part, often on the fly, based on what other instruments are playing at the time, and usually given only chords and the melody line. So, if I'm supposed play a counter-melody when the trombones have the lead, I play up the neck: at that point, I have at least three choices about which string / fret to pick for playing the "middle C", and then need to decide on which fingerings are appropriate.

[merlyn]

... Believe it or not, I know this is how classical guitarists read. But I never play classical music: instead, I'm playing in a jazz ensemble ...

It's not just classical guitar music that uses the 'sounds an octave lower than written' convention. Jazz guitar books, fingerstyle arrangements, and guitar magazines full of transcriptions of widdly-widdly solos all use 'sounds an octave lower than written'. Doing it this way means the range of the guitar fits on the treble clef. One of the tunes in The New Real Book is Wes Montgomery's Four On Six, written for guitar, and it sounds an octave lower than written, again to fit the range of the guitar onto the treble clef.

... at that point, I have at least three choices about which string / fret to pick for playing the "middle C", and then need to decide on which fingerings are appropriate.

If the tune has started it's a bit late. You probably want to sort these things out before the tune starts.

[tseaver]

@merlyn

One of the tunes in The New Real Book is Wes Montgomery's Four On Six, written for guitar, and it sounds an octave lower than written, again to fit the range of the guitar onto the treble clef.

As I noted, I'm playing "obbligato" parts (intended to be played as written out) super infrequently, and most of the time I have to be able to adapt them even so, based on what horns / vibes / keys are playing: arrangements aren't set in stone in jazz. So, flying them around the fretboard is part of my job. I even end up getting to transpose on the fly on occasion (e.g., when we get a vocalist in whose range doesn't fit the key as written).

If the tune has started it's a bit late. You probably want to sort these things out before the tune starts.

If I were playing a set arrangement (e.g., for a recording), then sure: but adapting on the fly based on the other musicians and cues from the music director are part of the job. Let alone the times that I'm improvising a solo based on the chord progression, plus what the other soloists have already played.

[onefang]

Waaaay back in primary and high school ('60s and '70s) I was studying music, singing in school choirs, and playing in school bands. Nothing I did back then involved chords - singing, flute, recorder, though handbells came close since you where responsible for two notes, one in each hand. Back then I could read fluently.

Late last year I got myself a MIDI keyboard, so since New Years Eve I have been relearning music theory, and teaching myself keyboard and drum pads. So chords are now involved. And also learning all this fancy new music creation software that didn't exist when I studied music last century. So now piano rolls and drum tracks are involved. The music I'm trying to do a cover of is guitar music, so now guitar tabs are involved. And MIDI events, but I used to design MIDI equipment and had written my own MIDI software in the '80s.

So after a month I'm still not entirely caught up on my music notation reading skills, but pianorolls and drum tracks are OK. The first guitar tab I read claimed to be in 4/4 time, but the first bar had four quarter notes and an eight note. I had already figured that part out by ear, and got very close. I blame early Pink Floyd.

Now I'm trying to figure out the drum part, haven't found any drum notation anywhere, but Nick Mason is awesome, with at least five toms and many other things in his kit, and I only have 8 drum pads on my keyboard. Plus in the song I'm trying to cover, "Set the controls for the heart of the sun" he plays his toms with mallets instead of sticks. Haven't found a drum instrument in Linux that sounds like that. So I'm now trying a combination drum sounds, but not in drum kit instruments, so I can play it on the keyboard section.

[merlyn]

@tseaver You started off by saying that sight reading on the guitar is difficult because of transposition, and the choice of fingerings and positions. What I'm saying is that sight reading on the guitar is possible, if you sort out how you're going to approach it, and the usual guitarist issues of transposing and fingering can be solved. It has its challenges, but you don't need to make out that it's harder than it is.