Is Reading Music Worth Your Effort? [Story Time!]

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Information Is Reading Music Worth Your Effort? [Story Time!]

Title	:	Is Reading Music Worth Your Effort? [Story Time!]
Lasting	:	17.53
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There are lots of people who can sight read well or even very well when playing a piano that can't do so when playing a guitar even when equally acquainted with both instrumentsThe vast number of fingering options on a guitar add an extra layer of abstraction between the sheet music and the guitar that isn't there for the piano (or many other instruments) It's fairly easy to convert a score to tab on paper (and even easier on a PC) and resolve the fingering options at that stage For much of the guitar music of the last 60 or so years tab has the advantage that it has ways of describing bends, hammer-ons, pull -offs etc in all their variation in a way that is not well matched in a conventional notation score Its all very fine to look down on tab as if its not real music but lute tab has been used extensively in the Renascence and Baroque eras
Comment from : @ColinMill1

Great advice! Thank you 😊
Comment from : @Benhaynesmusic

Hey can you make a video on how to find the melodies of a song like whenever i want to play a song i have to memorise the tab of the song but my some friend hears a new song for the first time in their life and after hearing for 2 minute they find out the correct tab of the song idk how did they do some say its very easy to find melodies of a song in terms of tab can you make video on how they did it and teach us how to find tab of any song ????????????
Comment from : @KhirodBlanco

If it's not Scottish, it's CRAAAP!
Comment from : @HartGrallocher

Everyone should learn to read music period
Comment from : @jacksonvalad8012

Hi Justin, I am curious about your froggybottom I own a Froggy M cutaway myself since 2008: lovely instrument Cheers
Comment from : @robertpaquet755

would you say having a highly difficult piece to crack at helps in practice Maybe not a lot but I guess take a bar at a time of a hard piece and try to see if you can push through little by little?
Comment from : @indigo0086

You can learn to read music pretty quickly with a small time investment Sight reading is another story Being anle to read will allow you to expand your learning resources
Comment from : @Kevinschart

Hmm You are making me think I’m only 6 weeks in and starting in a book to read music for guitar I used to play piano and I keep wanting to translate guitar chords into notes I’m familiar with I remember so much about standard notation that I think it will make reading for guitar easier But yesterday it occurred to me how complicated a chord with all 6 strings would look when printed in standard notation and how simple the same thing would look as a tab
Comment from : @markwillride

When i llearned to use the Circle of 5ths, it became very valuable Tool along with ear training to identify Notes & Chords, this along with the Circle of 5ths aided me to ID the correctt Chord progression of the songs i'dd like to learn
Comment from : @SamLAB-y2x

I feel like if i really wanna progress as a guitarist i need to go into either jazz or metal or progressive or smth and i hate this realisation with a passionbrSo i d rather summon my full latent potential for denial and get my sight reading to concert player level instead lol
Comment from : @unwaveringdiscipline5489

wish we classical guitarists had this option of not learning standard notation but sadly our music is so superior and advanced that we just wish we could be musically illiterate like you guys , cuz sometimes it gets unbearably hard
Comment from : @NylonStrings83

For me, learning to read music notation is like travel with a map You can get to the destinations without a map but it’s far more easier with a map, because you don’t need to memorize everything
Comment from : @ViraDrama

Big thumbs down from me mate You make it sound like an, either or, type of thing There is no reason whatsoever you can't do all three, by ear, by tabs and by notation I've been doing it for years now and it has served me very well
Comment from : @Redserpent2000

I agree with you 100 Thank you from TExas!
Comment from : @COMB0RICO

After starting to learn to read guitar music notation late in life I agree with you Justin The progress is just too slow to be worth it and the same time could be used in learning the fretboard, rhythm notation and learning favourite songs by ear Being able to sight read must give you a lot of satisfaction but if it's not coming easily, the big question must be asked: What do i need it for? Just for the satisfying feeling that I can do something hard or can it be of any actual use? Thanks for the advice I think I'll change my direction!
Comment from : @J101191514

Superb in every aspect And full of sympathy through all Octaves Thankyou from Munich 🌻
Comment from : @aureliobrighton1871

to bring guitar to the next level you need to learn notation There is no easy way out of this
Comment from : @ntulini1

Justin, I owe you a massive thank you I quit guitar after a year of 'playing dots' at 10 years old I bravely picked the guitar up again 5 years later and started learning with your videos (13 years ago!) i stopped pretty quickly because I watched your 'most important lesson' video on your website which was about learning songs by ear I proceded to do that and haven't stopped playing since brbr(I'm now learning to read after all this time because it makes sense now) Thank you for putting me on a good learning path, without you i may never have kept this calling
Comment from : @langerofficial

One of the best jokes on the whole chanel by you is here 11:55 on-wards
Comment from : @Dhruv-_-0

Playing from a tab is one thing, but the rhythm information is missing So standard notation on a line above the tab is a help, but I still find the standard "dots" get in the way for me
Comment from : @Dogtagnan

i had to learn braille music along with normal braillebrit's not easybrthe repeat symbols OMGbrthe in-accord symbolsbrcounting the beats adding them up just to make one chordbri'd think sight reading would be pretty easy to learnbrdo it because PPL will be amazedbri've sat in on students playing classical guitar and they sight read
Comment from : @melonhusk-kt5ys

u have litterally saved my from pure head aches and frustrations Im inside panicking thinking how the hell am i going to learn all this theory work I cant get me head around it this is after my first paid lesson The tutor offered me tab or notation I said notation as i thought its much better but mindfully its not U have nailed everything i was thinking and so im going on board with your thoughts tab it is i cant tell u how much of a lift this video has given me soooo much weight of me shoulders Thank u A true rock star
Comment from : @stephenmorgan7082

I love how you told your story I can relate 🙂
Comment from : @Mars_Fortune_Music

The psin of falling into one if those thing Ill just go practice ughh 😭
Comment from : @tinyrobot6813

I like reading notation and believe it to be beneficial ! A lot of guitar notations has the tabs displayed beneath so one gets the best of both It’s great 👍
Comment from : @lohndavis3794

To me it’s not about “needing” to read music on the guitar I simply enjoy doing it
Comment from : @Bren71319

As a young bloke living in regional Australia I too left my home town to study music at uni I could not read a note but I played guitar by use of tab At Uni I managed to get into the course I aspired on the back of my degree in education but not with guitar but piano My entire course was based on learning classical piano 43 years later would I learn piano to be a better guitar player? The answer is, I have no doubt that I am a better guitar player because I studied piano I still play guitar every day & I play piano every day I am an infinitely more capable as a a better musician than I would otherwise be I am so eternally grateful for being given that chance
Comment from : @michaelnewsomegreen5500

do you have a video on learning rhythm and what exactly it entails?
Comment from : @WarIsOver-ifyouwantit

My only contrary opinion is this There are scores of very mediocre piano players who read music fine and can play most any tune in a book while the most expert guitar players in the Anglo-American world can’t read music well enough to play a simple tune While I think the point your making is totally on point about learning guitar… I think every person who wants to be known as “A Musician” should learn basic fluency in sight reading That is required to not be illiterate in the music business
Comment from : @michaelgaurnier3108

Very good
Comment from : @patmcdonagh748

Thank you, Justin, for this very important talk I started my musical journey on recorder, and learned to read standard notation, but learning guitar the three elements you stress, reading tab, knowing the fretboard, and rhythm are right on
Comment from : @jamesreardon6819

Read music notation is like "Read by ear", and you know what you are playing brIf it's important to use your ear, there is no reason to read on something that doesn't make much musical sensebrAs you said notations can be placed in different positions on guitar, but at same time it gives you various choices to choose from, brand most importantly, you will understand guitar as an instrument better than ever before through the processbrIf your goal is purely for art and have no intention to show off, and you are willing to put a lot of time and effort, music notation is definitely the way to go
Comment from : @Touk1-u7i

Thanks for a great insight Justin I think your points are really important and that it puts many things in context Music is so akin to languages that it's fair to say that a good story teller doesn't necessarily need to be able to read the words on a page Reading is a useful skill in language learning (just as grammar is useful) and it can give the learner more confidence once acquired But, speaking comes before reading and grammar in the same way that playing should come ahead of learning notation and music theory If all of them can be learned so much the better but the essence of speaking is to speak and the essence of playing music is to play 🎶
Comment from : @johnradin1273

Back on 1995 I taught myself how to read sheet music notes in 2 to 3 week's An tab a little later
Comment from : @lawrencecarver4233

My better half plays classical flute and reads music fluently, but when she looks at by pages of TAB she shrugs and says it's just another language to learn, neither method is easy and both take effort However, the effort is worth it whichever method you use to read/play
Comment from : @philhitchings

That musstve been brutal! U must've known the notes on your fretboard to pull that one off!😂😂😂😂
Comment from : @christineberge9324

I think I'm going to order your Rhythm Reading book to add to my "Justin shelf" Many thanks Justin
Comment from : @ronniedaruvala5834

Thar is one proud kangaroo to Justin's left (lol)
Comment from : @postatility9703

I was eerie of learning a song off tab so i came back here and when you said knowing what the notes are on the fretboard (which i do) makes more musical sense relative to the chord you're playing it made all sense to learn tab but know it as the note
Comment from : @GabeCundari

I can read music (play piano) and I find trying to play guitar from sheet music to be incredibly, well, impossible
Comment from : @dereklong801

Exactly! so very true and as said "its very important to read music" it can help to being in very unexpected moments in life to make a living and otherwise also thanks for the advice JustinGuitar
Comment from : @arabianseagull

I learned to read music really young, and think it's useful for learning chord structures and how keys work, especially if you go beyond major/minor keys - but really agree its not as relevant either to more contemporary instruments like guitar or percussion; especially as both chord sheets and tableture notation is way more practical and logical I played multiple instruments before I started playing guitar as a teenager (piano, and a number of brass instruments) so it gave me a head start, but technique and rhythm can't really be 'read' so it has limitations brbrAlso, as someone who also took music through most of high school, I have to say that much of the curriculum is garbage and really discourages people from learning to play too My teachers spent an inordinate amount of time on learning dynamics, obscure notations (rallentando anyone?!), analysis, and 'fringe' styles of music like music concrete rather than trying to give us a feel for technique or practical skills, which no doubt would have lead a lot more of my classmates to enjoy the subject Those theory heavy approaches should really be left for either final years of HS or college/University, when someone is already dedicated enough to want to learn deeper
Comment from : @NFMorley

Thank you🙏
Comment from : @N4lin9

come together lol, such a joyous pun
Comment from : @michgingras

Sick, now I know a skill I'm not going to bother with lol
Comment from : @r__b6095

I think I would have made more progress learning piano if I'd learned more how to play by ear & more contemporary music! What had motivated me to learn was my dad bashing out "In the mood" on our old piano! That was terrific!- seemed the whole house shook with the beat My piano lessons were classical piano I enjoy classical music but it was and is a slog for me to learn Eventually I bought some of David Carr's boogie woogie books which remotivated me for a while 👍😁
Comment from : @rockykoast7065

I went to piano lessons for maybe a couple of years or so & learned to read music but I was never any good at sight readinglearnt next to nothing about playing by ear but managed to more or less pick up Bonnie & Clyde, partly from a friend of my older brother ( he could play absolutely anything by ear after 1 or 2 listen throughs!) A few years ago I got myself a ukulelenever had any formal lessons; just what I could find on YouTube, made quite good progress & learned a few songs ( discovered I have a crap memory for lyrics! :|) Trying to learn guitar the same way but I'm also fighting a neuropathy which makes it hard to keep my hands working ( pushing my wheelchair or hanging onto a pair of walking sticks saps some of the remaining strength in my hands) but still have a bit of drive to learn something!! brWe all learn differently I think, so its important to go with what works!
Comment from : @rockykoast7065

I am one of those players whose earliest lessons consisted of learning to read music and plinking out simple note melodies (which sucked)brThe end result was I did learn how to read music but I was a terrible guitar player because it was frustrating and I lost interestbrOne point of solace for me was that years later when my daughter wanted to play keyboards, I was able to help her learn because of my prior learningbrThe end of the story is that I picked the guitar back up 5 years ago after a 30 year layoff and thanks to Justin's beginner and intermediate course I am now a proficient player who is happily enjoying my guitar again and will be now for the rest of my life
Comment from : @charlie-obrien

This is very good advice I remember my dad coming home from his first guitar lesson having to learn twinkle twinkle little star and it was awful?!😂
Comment from : @Deadhansome

HI Justin I learned music theory & classical piano at the school of music I didn't like the classical piano though I also took the RGT courses up to grade 5 in 1996 but due to circumstances was unable to go any further now I'm revising it all again Can't believe how much I had forgotten I love your channel it has helped me a lot thank you
Comment from : @gloriathompson1234

So, Any hints on how to learn the notes other than just by rote? Very nice lesson
Comment from : @keithamberg6392

Great video, echo some of my own experience Going to have to spend sometime learning the fretboard What method / examples do you recommend when learning the fretboard ?
Comment from : @sssquarkyyy

You're a good music teacher
Comment from : @soniaodi2381

Haha, your process basically took you through engineering school I learned to read from the beginning and have used it all my life I'm grateful that TAB wasn't around when I started I would tell any of my students that were interested in going pro that if they learned to read they could eliminate 50 of their competition Skills equals hire-ability Music theory is much easier to understand and put into practice if you can read
Comment from : @TomStrahle

very informative! Thanks again for your efforts!
Comment from : @stoyanovasparuh4990

Hi can I ask If i already finished all your modules in your app does that mean I'm done with it and ready to write my own song
Comment from : @yoannardc2160

Absolutely the BEST story about learning guitarbrJustin Your reasoning and explanations are superb and I get what you are sayingbrTHANK YOU SO MUCH !!!
Comment from : @mrjohnpmuir

Good stuff Maynard!
Comment from : @perryjude1230

Too lateI would have liked to have seen this video x3 years ago;)
Comment from : @carlaazevedo4687

Great story, Justin I love hearing about your musical journey to understand how you got to such a level of guitar masterybrI started playing two months ago, you’ve got me playing several songs, learning many chords, and now I’m learning to utilize the scales to tap into my creative side on the guitar Thank you, Justin You are literally teaching the world to play
Comment from : @lavarball3265

Silly question People that can read music will have greater access to tunes because, big shock, not everything is written in guitar tabs
Comment from : @johnjriggsarchery2457

As an amateur I think it never harms to try everything, as long as you can make progress and it gives you joy (and therefore motivation) when you do it I had 20 years of fun learning classical guitar and reading simple tunes, but in the end I plateau - d out on the sight reading side and memorised the more complex classical pieces It didn't exclude me learning rock and folk guitar and training my ears at the same time, no harm there Now I'm learning to sight read on the piano I couldn't agree more that reading music on the guitar is much harder, I'm not sure if I would ever have got really fast enough at it on the guitar The catch comes if (like me) life leads you away from your instrument, so that now I have lost memory of the complex pieces I memorised I can't read well enough on the guitar to get any of them back without the same immense effort Memorisation has another catch too, if like me you get sick of playing the same tunes After three years learning keyboard, the number of pieces I can sight read (largely pop using an app) is growing exponentially, and it is awesome to be developing a transferable skill I would just like to say I had the same dream of fast fluent reading new pieces on the guitar, but never made it, and now it's fine on the piano Might just be my awesome piano app with a repertoire of so many of my favorite pop tunes, but yes the guitar sight reading is definitely harder too
Comment from : @robert_275gQxYT04

Nice T-shirt!
Comment from : @rvanderh

Thanks for your advice, I have mastered the first n sixth string but still need to work out the others
Comment from : @RockinJohnnyaitken

Justin you're a sweetheart you're charming I bet the ladies are all over you Hahaha they very well may be this is a great video very informative and great perspective from your life I love it
Comment from : @arieswaters

Mr Justin good morning you should do the acoustic version of Colin Hay who can it be now I would like to hear you sing the whole song of be cool
Comment from : @arieswaters

The really basic theory you should know, which is the true 'magic key' to navigating the guitar neck is the 'Chromatic Scale'-this can be learned in a few days and goes like this: E-F-F#-G-Ab-A-Bb-B-C-C#-D-Eb-E One octave We know that each fret is one semitone, so we can determine every note from this This takes a while to assimilate, but it is worth your time
Comment from : @practicallyenglish

Great teacher 👍🏽
Comment from : @KowboyUSA

I learned to read music when I was studying cello as a kid, but never got fluent reading it for guitar I do vastly prefer tabs IF it also includes the rhythm along with it which is unfortunately often missing from tabs
Comment from : @droussel7359

Music lessons would have been great but like most of us back in Liverpool 1960s I learned to play by ear Chords and rhythms but left lead guitar to others Still find some "official " chord arrangements different from what I hear and play Thanks Justin
Comment from : @A65Bill

Merci Justin ! I'm still trying to train my ears at nearly 80 years old ( wish me Happy birthday beginning of March) my ears are getting bad (so is most other things except for basic music theory ) I learnt a lot from you
Comment from : @sofarsogut

Early teens I learned to read music and play simple songs Got bored with it and put the guitar down 50 years later, now retired and learning to play again but with chords and your lessons Still can read somewhat But at least I'm having fun, just wish I was progressing a little faster
Comment from : @glen7999