A Modest Reading Manifesto

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 1 Dec 2005 6:13 am

There is a popular thought that can be summarized as: “Because it’s potentially sort of hard to read music on steel, there’s no point in even bothering to try.”

There is a corollary to this thought, “If I can’t sight-read everything perfectly the first time, in the right octave, in the right clef, in the right key, without making any mistakes at all, all written music must be totally worthless to me, forever and ever.”

Fine! Great! Please stop reading this post, it’s just a waste of your time. You’re gonna need all the time you can get to work on your ear-training, so you can play like all those big stars who can’t read music either.

Q: WTF?
A: SIMPLIFY

I can sort of read music on steel as long as it is in the key of C, because I can easily match the written notes in the key of C to the scale numbers, and I know how to get all the numbered scale notes on steel at the C fret in the open pedal position.

I took a piece of music paper and wrote in the notes on the top eight strings at the open fret, and the notes on the top eight strings at the 7th fret. (C6th tuning) This sits on my music stand. http://www.lib.virginia.edu/dmmc/Music/Musicpaper/ http://www.guitartips.addr.com/musicpaper.html

YOU DON’T NEED TO WRITE IN ALL THE NOTES. If you can find the “home scale” of a melody (I hesitate to use the “M” word here) you will find that the notes in between other notes in the melody correspond to dots on the lines in between the other dots on the lines, the ones you did write in. Large parts of many melodies consist of either chord tones or fragments of scales climbing up one note at a time – you’ll figure it out faster as soon as you get started.

For melodies, you can pick up a beginner’s piano book of Christmas carols really easily, nursery rhymes are good too – anything you have stuck in your head already. Shop online or pretend you have kids to avoid the shame. Forumite Mike Ihde sells a CD with 12 fakebooks on it, 1000’s of popular and jazz tunes, I think forumite basilh also posted some files online? I have a cool book called the “Classical Fake Book 2nd Edition” from Hal Leonard that has the “Blue Danube” and Beethoven’s 6th “Pastoral” theme and all the other stuff from Bugs Bunny cartoons and TV ads that are stuck in your brain already.

BLOW OFF ALL THAT “CLEF” NONSENSE. Don’t worry about all the “8va” and “8vaa” stuff either. Just write everything in the treble clef and play it where it feels comfortable on the neck. The other stuff will take care of itself at the appropriate time.

ABOVE ALL, BLOW OFF THE PEDALS FOR NOW. Just ignore them. You don’t need them. Your life is hard enough as it is, O.K.? YES OF COURSE YOU CAN PLAY THE SAME NOTE IN FOUR DIFFERENT PLACES – just don’t DO it. You can dress yourself in a dozen different shirts every morning too, but YOU DON’T WEAR THEM ALL AT ONCE – do you? (Hint: the other stuff will take care of itself at the appropriate time.)

But if the written music is in another key, I'm not good, because I can't easily associate the written note with the numbered scale in all 12 keys. Maybe I could handle G or F, with only one flat or sharp each.

Right, and then you can handle D (##) and Bb next, and then A (###) and Eb, etc. (Hint: the other stuff… oh, never mind.)

This is the crux of the problem. You have to know all the scales and be able to instantly recognize them in the written music.

Who said anything about “instant?” Not me! I wish. Were you born “knowing” how to type, or drive, or tie your shoes? (I don’t think you really have to “know” any scale at all, either – you’re just supposed to play what the page says, right? “Vee haff vays uff makink you play…”)

(Certain quotes stolen from David Doggett strictly for the purposes of narrative drive)

SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATION: A method for estimating the value of an unknown quantity by repeated comparison to a sequence of known quantities.

Before you post even one little answer, ask yourself, is what you’re about to post offering up even one more teensy little excuse to not even try to start? Have a GREAT day, too!!!

Jim Eaton · Post by **Jim Eaton** » 1 Dec 2005 8:54 am

GREAT POST!!!! BRAVO.
JE:-)))>

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 1 Dec 2005 11:38 am

Learning stuff makes my head hurt

richard burton · Post by **richard burton** » 1 Dec 2005 11:44 am

Great post!!
What's it about??

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 1 Dec 2005 9:25 pm

It's about me and hundreds of other steelers being too lazy to learn to read music on our instrument. Heck, I can't even read tab very well.

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 1 Dec 2005 9:35 pm

I understood maybe 1/3 of what he was talking about. 8vaa? Errrr, OK, I guess I can ignore it since I've never seen it.

I'm one of those unfortunate souls who just "lock up" trying to read. Too much like math, and I have been a lifetime member of the "math phobic" club. I look at a fake book and it's total sensory overload - looks like a blackboard full of equations, and I simply black out....

No excuse - just reality. It was a nice post, and I hope at least one person gets motivated by it. It won't be me.

One dumb question - "YES OF COURSE YOU CAN PLAY THE SAME NOTE IN FOUR DIFFERENT PLACES – just don’t DO it. "

Ok. So how do you pick the one you DO use? It's great to be idealistic, but that statement removed most of the practicality.

ed packard · Post by **ed packard** » 2 Dec 2005 7:02 am

To read, or not to read, that is the question!

Learning to read a piece of sheet music is much learning to read text...You start by seeing the alphabet (notes)...then progress to sylables (measures)...then to words(several measures)...then to phrases(clusters of measures)...then to sentences, and so on.

Like reading text, the more you do it the better you get. Soon you see common groupings of words/phrases (notes/intervals)...then you learn not to stare at a single note/measure/etc.) but broaden your gaze to larger areas...this way you see context(common musical progressions and musical cliches).

For the math' inclined...the staves were once all run together = the GRAND STAFF. That was too complex to speed read (like tab for 14 strings) so they were split apart. The sheet music thing is just a graph with time going horizontal, and frequency (fundamental) going vertical. The fly specks just show the curve being drawn (melody or ?).

Tab using the fret/string fraction for the notes on a 5 line staff works for any number of strings and looks like sheet music = learn to read music on the PSG without really trying.

I am off to Oceanside Ca. and Jim Palenscars shop to do FSA profiling on a number of PSGs, including a 1966 Emmons.

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 2 Dec 2005 7:40 am

Interesting discussion. For me, there are a couple of issues: Being able to read music and being able to sight read music. I think people confuse the two. Sight reading is its own skill, but rarely (basically never) am I required to sight read music.

But just reading music? I don't see what the problem is. If I asked you to play a C note on your steel, could you do it? I would imagine yes. Third space up on the Treble cleff is a C (the old FACE and Every Good Boy Does Fine). When you see a note there play C. What is the problem?

More important to me is understanding the underlying theory behind the chords being played so that I can apply the proper scale pattern during an improvisation. This is the hard work for me. But reading music is like falling off a log, as long as I don't have to sight read it.

As far as which C to play, it doesn't matter as long as its in the right place above or below middle C. A C is a C. the question is what is the next note and the note before. That determines which C you play because you want to play the C that gets you the closest to those other notes. That is why sight reading is hard. It may take you a moment of study to determine the best place to play the C based on the context of what ever else is going on.

But I think people make a bigger deal out of plan reading than it needs. It is not a difficult thing. Understanding the theory behind what you are playing so that you can be interesting playing what's not on the paper: that is hard.[This message was edited by Bill McCloskey on 02 December 2005 at 07:46 AM.]

Bruce Clarke · Post by **Bruce Clarke** » 2 Dec 2005 8:04 am

Quote; Learning to read a piece of sheet music is much learning to read text...You start by seeing the alphabet---
True, but there are only 26 letters in the alphabet, whereas the signs and symbols in written music number many more. I started reading music (piano) at age 5, and by age 12 I was pretty good at it, and by age 20 I was better,and by 30, well you get the idea. One tip for beginners, after the first couple of lessons. DON'T think note names, relate the dot on the paper to the position on the fretboard. Start in key c, then add the sharp and flat keys one at a time. For example.get familiar with key G (one sharp) before progressing to D (two sharps)and so on.

Darryl Hattenhauer · Post by **Darryl Hattenhauer** » 2 Dec 2005 8:28 am

Some old banjo player was asked if he could read music, and he said, "Not enough to hurt my playing." Another one said, "There are no notes to a banjo. You just play it."

That's the opposite of my attitude, but funny anyway.

------------------
"Elmore James kept playing the same licks over and over, but I get the feeling he meant it." Frank Zappa

David Wren · Post by **David Wren** » 2 Dec 2005 12:54 pm

I go through periodic phases of getting serious on both theory and reading abitities. Each time I'm reminded of the failing math student who was told by his mother, "Get in your room and do your Math homework or I'll give you a beating!", and the student replied: "Can I just have the beating?". (:>)>=[

------------------
Dave Wren
'95Carter S12-E9/B6,7X7; Session500; Hilton Pedal
www.ameechapman.com

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 2 Dec 2005 2:24 pm

" "Get in your room and do your Math homework or I'll give you a beating!", and the student replied: "Can I just have the beating?"

Yep, that's me.

Thusly, God created a college major in Speech Communication.

Ralph Willsey · Post by **Ralph Willsey** » 2 Dec 2005 7:41 pm

When I was more of a beginner than I am now, I put Scotty's E9th chord chart on the wall above my guitar and put a fake book in front of me with a tune I knew to hear but not to play. Reading the chords and finding the chord position on the chart allowed me to approximate the song as it was supposed to sound.

The chart shows at least three positions for each chord in each octave and by picking the ones that flowed together best, I could make the tune sound like it should, or I could play it a bit different each time through.

If you do this you can accompany a soloist in a variety of ways, or you can figure out how to make the melody come out by yourself without necessarily reading the melody notes off the staff, (although if you know where your roots and 3rds and 5ths are on the guitar it's not that hard to pick them and the notes in between off the treble clef.)

This only applies to sheets with guitar chords above the staff(like fake books) but if you're just trying to figure out a song off a sheet, it works, and quickly. (If you want to read a symphony note by note, that's tougher. Better to use a classical fake book than
go through all that.)

I still do this, but I don't have to look at the chart as often, and yet sometimes it can still reveal an easy move from one chord to the next that I might not otherwise have thought of. This process releases you from dependence on tab, presuming the tune you want is in a song book you can put your hands on.

RW

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 2 Dec 2005 10:31 pm

ABOVE ALL, BLOW OFF THE PEDALS FOR NOW. Just ignore them. You don’t need them.

With all due respect, I beg to disagree. The pedals are integral part of this instrument, and I think it's necessary to learn how to use them when you read.

My approach to this is to look for the notes in a chord in any given passage. (Note- in order to do this, one must have all the chord spellings memorized.) Then when I know what chord is outlined, I get into that position, using pedals more often than not, and proceed to manipulate the pedals and/or bar to hit any non-chordal tones.

Take the note E If you only see that note, you don't know whther to play it on the open 4th string, or on the 5 ftre of the 5th string, or the 3rd fret with the pedals down, or whatever. But if you see that there is a G# and/or a B in the same measure, you know it's an E chord, so you make one of the various E chord positions. Or, if you see a C and a G, you know it's a C chord, so you make that chord.

It's all about the chords. Even if you're playing only single melodic notes, if you find the chord and get into the appropriate pedal and bar position, you'll find all the notes, even the non chordal ones. [This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 02 December 2005 at 10:32 PM.]

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 3 Dec 2005 12:23 am

I agree with Mike; and now we are getting somewhere. If you want to pick out Mary Had a Little Lamb as a single note melody, then you can find the right starting note anywhere on the instrument, and find the other melody notes at nearby frets on that string or an adjacent one. Just slide around, they're all there somewhere.

But if you want to play the instrument the way it is meant to be played, with chords and the scales the pedals and levers provide, you need to do much more. You need to recognize the appropriate chord in the written music and go to that chord on the instrument. If the note is a G, and the chord is a G chord, then you go to the 4th or 8th string at the 3rd fret. With pedals and lever you can play the entire G scale at that fret, and several accidentals, and so find almost any note in the melody. But if the G is the b7 of an A chord, then you go to the 9th string at the 5th fret; or go to the 2nd string and use the lever to lower it a half step. So you have to recognize chords in the music, in all the common keys, and choose one of the several places the chord can be played on the instrument. That means you have to know quite a bit of theory, and also know the chordal possibilities of the instrument well before you can even start to learn to read music properly on the instrument. This is why so few people do it.

I'm not trying to be defeatist, just realistic. Learning to read music on a piano is a piece of cake compared to pedal steel. You don't have to know any chords or scales, either in the written music or on the instrument. You see the note, you play the note, and there is only one place to play it. And yet it takes several years of daily practice to learn to read music on a piano.

I know, I know - "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." But pardon me while I get my affairs in order before starting this journey, like rotating my tires, getting a couple of root canals, cleaning out my basement, and getting that colonoscopy out of the way I was supposed to have back when I turned 50.

Pat Kelly · Post by **Pat Kelly** » 3 Dec 2005 1:05 am

I can sight read to fiddle in the three or four regular keys. I am light years from being able to read to steel. What I do though is create my own tabs from sheet music. My better numbers are from my own tabs. I can learn a piece unheard from sheet music (via my tabbing). I am generally lost approaching some one else's tab if I don't know what it is supposed to sound like. To me that is the benefit of being able to read (or at least interpret) musical notation.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 3 Dec 2005 2:49 am

I certainly wouldn't advise a 6-year-old piano student to blow off learning to read different clefs and octave indicators; I also seriously doubt that any steel guitarist is going to be able to keep his feet off the pedals for very long. I'm just trying to make the point that it's easier to either read music, or not, with a piece of music in front of you than it is to make that choice without a piece of music in front of you. If it's music that you really want to know how to play, the idea that those dots convey meaning is a really neat discovery - once you start, you won't want to go back. And, as in my case, you might find yourself wishing you had started pursuing it earlier - now's still better than some amorphous "later" or "soon."

However, when I hear that you have to know all your chords, all your theory, the use of each and every pedal in every position, and already have osmotically-obtained the ability to guess the perfect starting positions before you can possibly be expected to even begin to read even one little note, I question whether this is really applied logic or something else entirely. Did all the people who read music start this way? Hmmm.

I don't really ever expect to be much of a sight reader my own self, but the types of things I want to play and the theory I want to learn just CAN'T BE FOUND in standard or steel guitar tab so I'm forced to chase after the little dots. Trying to translate everything back and forth between numbers, tabs, dots and actual noises is making it more complicated, not less. AGAIN: If you are completely satisfied with your playing and your knowledge and application of theory in all ways, and your ability to play every type of music that you like or that you've ever wanted to play is already perfect, then right-o, there's no reason whatsoever to even try to read music. What a goofy waste of time!

Rick Nicklas · Post by **Rick Nicklas** » 3 Dec 2005 4:11 am

Face it gentlemen.... Steeler's are the "Kings of Improv". We don't have to play the exact melodies and listener's still think that we are genius's just by the cool sounds that the steel emits. Most steelers I have heard may give you a few measures of the correct melody and then they are off into LaLa Land following the chord and rhythm patterns while playing where ever their minds and experience takes them. Most people and musicians I have talked to are just amazed that anyone would step forward to the challanges of the steel guitar. I think most of us cannot see it anymore but it is very intimidating to see that all parts of your body and mind are called upon just to make it work correctly. We have specialists in every field interested in the steel and trying to improve on it's performance (amplifiers, mechanics and logics). Every instrument I can think of normally starts out with someone playing sheet music to learn the darn thing but the steel guitar is like someone handing you a ball of clay and you just want to push it and pull it every which way to make something new with your own style. I wish I could pick up a music book and site read like I used to do with the trumpet but my natural tendency is just to put on a tape or CD and keep trying to put the puzzle together. Then, hope that the band plays the song enough times that I don't forget what I learned.

------------------
Rick
Kline E9th/S-12, Session 500, Goodrich L-10k

[This message was edited by Rick Nicklas on 03 December 2005 at 06:15 AM.][This message was edited by Rick Nicklas on 03 December 2005 at 06:18 AM.]

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 3 Dec 2005 6:21 am

Did all the people who read music start this way?

Of course not. But we play a unique instrument with special problems.

The traditional method of teaching by having the student read music won't work on a pedal steel guitar. We are in the strange position of having to learn the instrument first, and then those of us who want to read have to learn how to do it only after we've already learned how to play.

Like everything else assocated with this beast, it's crazy and convoluted and HARD.

But it's not impossible, and for those of us who are interested in playing new and different music, it's a very helpful and valuable skill.