The Importance of Guitar Sight Reading

Sight reading is one of the most ignored techniques by guitar players these days. The reasons for this are clear, one being that the types of music that most guitar players play do not require them to know how to read music. No styles of blues or rock will require heavy guitar sight reading, and because this is what most guitar players focus on, it becomes a waste of time for them to learn how to sight read. Another reason sight reading is avoided is because it is generally connected with more classical instruments and styles of music, and this may seem un-hip to many guitar players. Whatever the reason, sight reading for guitar has been pushed aside for players of this popular instrument. The purpose of this article is to illustrate what those who ignore sight reading may be missing, and why any musician who happens to play guitar should give learning how to sight read a second thought.

It does not take long to realize the benefits that come from guitar sight reading once you get started. One of the most obvious is simply the fact that you will be learning the basic language of music, and this will enable you to communicate properly with other musicians, especially those on different instruments. This means that you will be qualified for more gigs and more musical situations that may come along. You don't want to be stuck on the sidelines if some well paying gig comes up but requires sight reading.

Learning music does not just help your ability to sight read on the fly. Your understanding of theory, including harmony, rhythm, and melody, will be improved by being able to recognize their musical symbols on paper. This will help you integrate the theoretical information that may have seemed too abstract before. Trying to tackle higher level music theory is almost pointless without the sight reading skills to go with it, even on the guitar.

Another important benefit of learning guitar sight reading is that this will give you a lot of help in learning the notes of the guitar fretboard. Learning the fretboard is a long and difficult task for many guitar players. There are a lot of frets to memorize and they are not all evenly patterned. This makes not only learning theory and chords on guitar more challenging, but it also makes sight reading a uniquely difficult task on the instrument. However, starting with sight reading in addition to some other memorization techniques is going to be the best way to get all of the notes of the guitar fretboard under your fingers. You need to be able to do more than just be able to point to a note and name it, your fingers have to know where each note is in order to properly sight read on guitar.

This brings up the next point. One of the most underrated benefits of learning how to sight read is that it will help you get used to playing the guitar without looking at your fingers. It is extremely important to get used to playing the instrument based on feel instead of vision. Sight reading forces your eyes onto something else, which allows you to really start developing your feel for the instrument and the fretboard. Make sure that when you are practicing your guitar sight reading that you never look at your fingers. Figure out where the notes are by touch.

You should see that there is more to playing guitar than amps, pedals, leather guitar straps, and other items. It is a deep instrument with a lot to offer those who take the time to learn more than a few licks.

Now that it is more clear why you should learn guitar sight reading, how do you go about practicing it? Some video guitar lessons on the internet might have some good advice, but here are a few tips to get you started.

Buy a sight reading book. There are hundreds of decent books on guitar sight reading. The best bet is to find one that suits your level and the type of music that you enjoy. You are going to need a good book to work out of in order to really learn sight reading and have plenty of exercises to go through.

Get a guitar teacher. Having a guitar teacher can really help keep you on track with your sight reading and give you a reason to practice regularly. It can be hard sometimes to motivate yourself to practice, but you have to have a steady attack to make progress with sight reading.

Join a band that forces you to sight read. You may need a definite reason to practice sight reading in order to really put in the effort. Try to join a group that will require you to sight read on the spot and you will soon find yourself motivated to practice everyday.

There you have some information on why guitar sight reading should not be ignored and how to go about learning it. Consider starting yourself out on sight reading today to join the musical language that has brought so much great music to us.