Sight reading is a great skill to have if you’re going to be a professional musician, but it’s not a necessary skill to have if you want to learn music theory, or if you want to learn to play a fretted stringed instrument.

About 35 years ago I decided I wanted to learn music theory and I found a teacher who played guitar, piano and several other instruments. I met with him prior to the first lesson and he gave me a list of the books he wanted me to get and a course overview of what we’d be doing. I’d been playing guitar for years but I didn’t understand the relationship of the notes and why certain things sounded good or bad when paired together.

I learned to read, (mostly treble clef since that’s how guitar music is written), and dove into the books on my list and was already on lesson 4 or 5 by the time I started my first lesson. The teacher quizzed me to see if I actually understood what I’d covered and then he gave me additional assignments. After the 3rd or 4th lesson he told me that he wasn’t teaching me anything, … he was just verifying that I understood and could play the material covered. He told me I could continue lessons with him if I wanted, but as long as I kept covering the material at the pace I was then he really wasn’t adding anything to the process.

I stopped the lessons but I continued with the books and realized it wasn’t about the notes on the staff, … it was all about intervals and note relationships. In other words, it was about numbers. Root, third, fifth, or 1-3-5 to build a Major chord. Root, flatted third, fifth, or 1, b3, 5 for a minor chord.

So the formulas for all scales, chords and arpeggios are all based on numbers. Note values, intervals and relationships to other notes. Throw in some ear training and the “mystery” behind music suddenly disappears. Standard notation is just one of the ways to convey that information to other musicians.

When it comes to fretted stringed instruments, TAB is far superior to standard notation. The example I gave earlier using a G Major scale showing 8 different examples of playing that scale with TAB and standard notation and illustrating how the standard notation is exactly the same for all of them clearly shows that.

The repeated attempts to denigrate TAB and the people who use it are distressing to see.

Saying that people “shouldn’t use TAB” is not only ridiculous, … it also smacks of elitist BS.

Last edited by bobcflatpicker; 05/23/16 03:36 PM.
Bob
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