Piano or Guitar? Two Questions
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- C. E. Jackson
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I was taught to play by tab first, then to read music,
and later learned to play by ear. Just lucky, I guess.
C. E. Jackson
and later learned to play by ear. Just lucky, I guess.
C. E. Jackson
My Vintage Steel Guitars
My YouTube Steel Guitar Playlists
My YouTube Steel Guitar Songs
A6 tuning for steels
My YouTube Steel Guitar Playlists
My YouTube Steel Guitar Songs
A6 tuning for steels
- Dom Franco
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- Location: Beaverton, OR, 97007
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My first instrument was piano, second flute and 3rd percussion, so i can read treble and bass clef well, alto clef w/ some practice. I can read/play single note lines standard notation on mandolin and bass guitar, i.e. instruments tuned in 4ths/5ths but basically not at all on 6 string guitar or PSG. Chords are tough on any string instrument, they're basically memorization.
But i think learning to read and learning theory/harmony are like learning any other skill, you just have to start your metronome slow, even ticking off half notes, and get a piece with clear recording or DVD/ video, then listen, read, play or something like that
But i think learning to read and learning theory/harmony are like learning any other skill, you just have to start your metronome slow, even ticking off half notes, and get a piece with clear recording or DVD/ video, then listen, read, play or something like that
- keyless Sonny Jenkins laps stay in tune forever!; Carter PSG
- The secret sauce: polyester sweatpants to buff your picks, cheapo Presonus channel strip for preamp/EQ/compress/limiter, Diet Mountain Dew
- The secret sauce: polyester sweatpants to buff your picks, cheapo Presonus channel strip for preamp/EQ/compress/limiter, Diet Mountain Dew
- Gene Wilcox
- Posts: 45
- Joined: 19 Nov 2003 1:01 am
- Location: Kingman AZ USA
I started on piano, by choice. I thought that gal on Lawrence Welk, Jo Ann Castle, who played all of that boogie and ragtime was the best thing I had ever heard.
I was 8, 1966. Parents sent me to a classic teacher, Had to learn scales, arpeggios and sight read. All of the theory really has helped alot going forward. I don't read very well anymore, the ear is much faster. When I gravitated towards guitar, all of the chord building, circle of fifths and other bits of theory made it easier to learn.
No regrets.
I was 8, 1966. Parents sent me to a classic teacher, Had to learn scales, arpeggios and sight read. All of the theory really has helped alot going forward. I don't read very well anymore, the ear is much faster. When I gravitated towards guitar, all of the chord building, circle of fifths and other bits of theory made it easier to learn.
No regrets.
- David M Brown
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I've worked in pro situations where sight-reading is a prerequisite for getting the gig, like shows, theater, orchestral work, etc.Ian Rae wrote:So Buddy might have got more gigs if he could read, but I don't feel that his career exactly failed as a result. No-one can do everything
Likewise, the rock, folk, country and other styles of music have rarely if ever had any sheet music beyond a "cheat sheet" with chords or something, and that was not used live...much.
Some genres are still "by ear", as is most of the music of the world.
Still, I'm happy to know how to read and write staff notation.
- Fred Treece
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- Location: California, USA
Exactly. Buddy’s business was creating music on the spot in as few recorded takes as possible, like most of the great session players whose work we know and love. Sight reading is not a necessary skill for that approach.Ian Rae wrote:So Buddy might have got more gigs if he could read, but I don't feel that his career exactly failed as a result. No-one can do everything
LOLSheet music is tab for piano.
- Erv Niehaus
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- Location: Litchfield, MN, USA
- Fred Treece
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- Joined: 29 Dec 2015 3:15 pm
- Location: California, USA
Your qualifier to the old cliche reminded me of a project I once thought up.Erv Niehaus wrote:Sheet music is a universal language.
Erv
I have a book of Ragtime Piano pieces that I thought I would one day transcribe for guitar. This book is over two hundred pages. There must be a million notes in both clefs. If sheet music is the universal language, there is no hope for intelligent mass communication.
After about a month of trying to work out Maple Leaf, I quit and found an already existing (but disappointingly simple) guitar transcription.
There is definitely value in being able to read music, because the intricacies and subtleties of pieces like that are very difficult to learn by ear for lesser humans like me. And after a while, you can start hearing in your head what the notes are going to sound like. But I would much rather play than read, so I think I have to disagree your qualifier.
- David M Brown
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- Erv Niehaus
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- Joined: 10 Aug 2001 12:01 am
- Location: Litchfield, MN, USA
Music is a universal language. Writing is one way to communicate it. Today, written lyrics with chord names are used much more than sheet music. But the sound of the music itself trumps all, now that we can record it. Musical sound is truly a universal language. You don't have to be a musician to understand it.Erv Niehaus wrote:Sheet music is a universal language.
Erv
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- David M Brown
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Even though I love using staff notation in the right situations, what you say is so true.b0b wrote:Music is a universal language. Writing is one way to communicate it. Today, written lyrics with chord names are used much more than sheet music. But the sound of the music itself trumps all, now that we can record it. Musical sound is truly a universal language. You don't have to be a musician to understand it.Erv Niehaus wrote:Sheet music is a universal language.
Erv
Music is an ephemeral aural art. It only exists in live performance - and now, the audio or video performance which as you say, trumps all - but for centuries Western art music has reaped the benefits of a notation system that preserved music and allowed composers additional options when writing.
But as you say, notation on paper is no more a musical performance than a script of a play is the actual show.
"Musical sound is truly a universal language. You don't have to be a musician to understand it."
In one sense, I agree completely.
However, I've played music with enough non-Americans like Afghans, Greeks, Persians, Cantonese, etc. to know that music is not quite as universal as you assume, in that we may understand the music we grew up with but not necessarily the music of other cultures.
Finally, "understanding" music is not the same as emotionally enjoying it.
Most audiences enjoy music - I am not so sure about the "understanding" part!