an0va
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I can read but it takes me a while to decipher the actual notes. I can tackle rhythms like no other, though. I've been practicing sightreading a ton lately on guitar and though it's really challenging, I think it's starting to pay off. Guitar is only treble clef, but it's notoriously difficult because on the guitar there are endless different ways to play the same thing and notation gives you no hint of fingerings or position shifts (unless you have a very courteous transcriber). To make matters worse, many jazz chord charts are very ambigious leaving you to come up with specific voicings all on your own. Definitely difficult, but the end result is really really fun.

but BEFORE YOU EVEN START: This is not a debate on whether or not you think knowing music theory or taking lessons makes you a better musician. That is a completely different topic and it's stupid to get on that debate here.


SO, can you read?

ant1
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uhajdafdfdfa

i can a little bit because i used to have trompet and pianos lessons. but not very well because i don't do it ever

chunter
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Brunswick, GA USA

Yes. I had classical piano lessons in childhood.

George
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Cambridge UK

I'm rusty, but given enough time I can decipher it. Then I have a terrible headache.

Decktonic
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Westfield, NJ

I can read sheet music OK, I have a beginner level understanding of that, and I can play piano at a beginner level too. That's it. I can't play any other instruments but we all know the piano is the only one that matters.

Fearofdark
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Brighton/Southampton

I can sight read, though not right off the bat. I'm a piano player, and I used to be in a choir. In piano exams, sight reading tests for me were a bit of a nightmare as I've never been fully comfortable with reading both treble and bass clef at once. I can read single lines on a first go easily though (providing they're not ludicrously difficult).

ChipsChallengeBand
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Rochester, NY

It takes a long time but yeah we can all read.

an0va
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Fearofdark wrote:

In piano exams, sight reading tests for me were a bit of a nightmare as I've never been fully comfortable with reading both treble and bass clef at once. I can read single lines on a first go easily though (providing they're not ludicrously difficult).

I've always thought that was crazy how pianists can sightread dual clef action. I imagine one clef being okay, because one note has one location on the piano (middle C is...middle C). But on a six string guitar that same middle C can be found on five different strings in five different positions and all are fair game to play from. yikes

Telerophon
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Austin, Texas

I've never been a prodigious reader of sheet music, but I can do it now. When I was younger, I could barely do it at all, then one day when I was 17 or 18 it kind of clicked and I could read jazz notation (lead sheets) without too much trouble.

I actually had (and still have) a big hangup about it, one of my most traumatic memories from adolescence was being publicly ridiculed by a music teacher when I told her I couldn't read music. Oh well. Slow progress is better than no progress.

Fearofdark wrote:

…I've never been fully comfortable with reading both treble and bass clef at once.

Maybe this will be a helpful way to think about it: I'm under the impression that the grand staff was developed because the way it lines up, all of the notes between each set of ledger lines end up corresponding relatively to each of the two, ergo if you were to play a pitch half an octave below the treble ledger or half an octave above the bass ledger, it would be written at the same point. You probably already know that if you're classically trained, though.

Last edited by Telerophon (Aug 31, 2012 5:23 pm)

DKSTR
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Finland

fuck no.

akira^8GB
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New York City
DKSTR wrote:

fuck no.

Big ups the skweee massive tongue

HANDGUN FANTASY
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SMELLBOURNE BOSSTRALIA

I was reading sheet music all through high school and STILL did "Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit" right up until my final music exam. I haven't read a single note since then (about 2 years ago) so I'm probably somehow worse.

Similarly, I have no idea what notes are on a keyboard. After all this time, if you ask me where a G is on a keyboard I have to find C and count up 4 notes. Yet I can play chords and melodies in key just fine.

Last edited by HANDGUN FANTASY (Aug 31, 2012 1:11 pm)

ClairBear
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Iowa

I did read notes in choir but I doubt that be any help tongue

nickmaynard
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rochester, ny

i went to college for classical guitar so yeah, i can.

Merutochan
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Italy

I can, but I've stopped reading it for 2 years because I had no need, writing and playing everything by ear even on guitar (but I still use guitar tabs)
Also, just the G-clef, I've been also working on memorizing the F-clef but barely used it

TheBronyChip
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Maine

i can read the treble clef but it takes a while tongue
the bass clef I'm totally lost when i see it