How long does it take to learn music notation?

Well - I learned it in only 2 weeks. But should you?

Today’s lesson is a bit different. I’d wanted to talk about how I learned to read music notation in only 2 weeks and all the reasons why I think you probably shouldn’t do that. :)

🚨 If you're one of those who often put "less talk, more play" in the comment box, this video is definitely not for you. :)

We'll basically be talking about why I think most people should not learn to read music notation. We'll also outline the reasons you might want to do that!

Reading traditional notation is helpful on certain occasions. Still, there's a way better approach to understanding the guitar fretboard and where the notes are. So, stick with this lesson if you want to know what that is. :)

To start with, I'll share a little bit of a story about how I learned to read music. In only two weeks!

My Experience

When I started to learn guitar, I did it mostly by ear. Back in the day, we used to have chord books with some basic chord progressions, some The Beatles songs, that kind of stuff.

But most of the learning process was just listening to songs and trying to figure it out. I'd mostly get it all wrong to start off! :)

When I was playing in bands, it would be like we'd all agree on a particular song. We'd all go home and try to learn our parts before playing it together.

As a band between friends, we'd share loads of information. Even when I was getting guitar lessons, that was the idea! My teacher would say, "try to sort this out. And yes, you can draw some chord boxes down if you want."

My point is: when I first started learning, there was very little reading and writing of music.

The Turning Point

A real turning point came when I was 17. I had to decide what exactly I was going to do with my life - was I actually going to pursue music as a career? Would I go to University and study Engineering or Business or whatever?

The only Music University in my hometown, Hobart, was the Tasmanian Conservatory of Music, a Classical Music school, and I decided to try that. :)

At that point, I could only get along with the tabs my guitar teacher had previously shown me. I remember learning a classical piece he'd written out in a tab, and I tried to figure it out. Still, as soon as I could get away from the music, I would.

But if I wanted to go to that music school, I would learn how to read music.

How I Learned To Read Music

I knew that the guitar teacher at the Conservatory was John McMillan, and he used to own a local music store. So, one afternoon, I popped into the music store and asked to have a little chat with him. I wanted to know if I had the chance of actually getting in or not the school!

He was a nice guy, so we went downstairs, and I played some songs for him. He asked me how was my sight-reading. I said right away: "I can't read for guitar. I know the notes are a little bit, but I can't read."

He explained I couldn't come to a Classical Music school if I couldn't read music. In my mind, that sounded like I would have to go study Engineering or do something different. :( But then, John said he'd give me a chance.

The Book

He disappeared off the back of the store and came back with this book by Fernando Sor. He opened it in this very complicated page, popped it down in front of me, and said: "if you can learn this and come back to play it for me in two weeks, I'll let you in."

Ok, challenged accepted.

😅 But I'm looking at that picture now, and I'm like… happy I didn't give this a serious think before accepting the challenge!

All I thought was that I could play this piece in a couple of weeks, which would solve all my problems! I now knew what I was doing with the rest of my life, and that was pretty exciting.

The 2 Weeks

I remember coming home, still living at my parents' house, and opening up this book to start studying. It didn't take too long to encounter my first really big problem. I always mention in my theory lessons: the fact that we can play one note in more than one place on the guitar neck.

So, I've got this chart showing all of the notes on the stave. They had little lines pointing to where they went on the neck. I ended up just converting it to tab, working out the notes, calculating how it was even possible to play some of those chords.

But I managed to get my way through it. It took me about 10 days to figure out those notes and calculate how to play them. I learned the piece, not really how to read music.

How to Get Away Now?

I had a few days left to try and memorize this piece. I knew that if I went down and put the music up, I wasn't reading the music, and I couldn't take the tab in. That would give the game away that I hadn't learned to read music!

😅 I think John McMillan had figured it out pretty quickly that that was the case, but still. :)

So, I managed to learn it. I memorized most of the tune - not particularly well, but most of it.

Back to the Music Store

I remember it was a really miserable cold day, and I was really nervous going back in there to play the piece to John. It was just terrifying.

We sat at the back of the store, and I played through it. I knew I wasn't getting it right, and I got the order of some of the bits right. So, I kind of got the right notes in the wrong order.

😅 Sometimes, I struggled because I was looking at the page to pretend I was reading the music sheet when I should have been looking at my hands. :)

Anyway - I just remember looking up and thinking that I'd blown it. And that it was all going to be over soon! But no.

The teacher had a big smile on his face. And then he told me I'd have a place on the course as long as my grades were okay. "Go home and practice this for the official audition, but don't worry about it. You're in.", he said.

A New, Exciting Adventure

I was just so excited that John started talking about all of the stuff we could do together. And it was just like the beginning of this whole massively exciting adventure for me.

John was a fantastic teacher. He didn't just teach me a classical guitar because he was a classical guitar teacher at the school. In fact, John wasn't really a classical guitar player. He was a Jazz guy, a Rock guy.

He was really into music and guitar, and he taught me all about practicing. He was pretty ruthless! He had an eight-hour-a-day practice routine for me, but he was a great teacher. John really helped me with a lot of stuff.

The moral of this story? I'm not really sure if there's one. Still, you're probably wondering: should you learn to read traditional music notation as a guitar player?

Music Notation for Guitar Players

It's worth learning to read music if you really need to. Part of the reason for this video and doing this little talk was the feedback from guitar students who spent frustrating periods trying to read music.

Learning these little single-note melodies and reading the dots and all of that is just not a great way to start playing guitar. If you just want to play your favorite songs and stuff, chances are you don't need to learn how to read music.

Learning single notes might be cool, but learning chords and songs is a much better idea to understand how music works. Ultimately, that allows you to understand your guitar fretboard and make music yourself!

Reading music on guitar is kind of tricky because of that thing that you can find the same in more than one place. That makes it even more complicated than learning to read music for piano, for example.

If you're going to learn how to play Rock or Blues, reading music becomes a lot harder than it would be just to listen to it!

Do This Instead! :)

It's much more important to develop a good ear and a good sense of rhythm. For most people, learning to read traditional notation is a waste of time! You'll probably be much better off learning other things!

When Should You Learn Music Notation

You should definitely learn to read music if:

You want to play jazz.
If you want to play classical guitar.
If you need to read music to play in reading gigs.
If you wanted to arrange for instruments that read music.
If you're a songwriter, even if you want to write out stuff for a violin or any other instrument on a most basic level.

The Best Approach

Guitar tabs are really fantastic for guitar players because they show you the note and where to play it on the fretboard.

Learning tabs is great, but don't forget to study your fretboard and learn where the notes are. People still learn guitar and think it's okay not to know the notes, but it's not!

So, to me, the secret to fretboard freedom is that combination of understanding the tab and knowing the notes on the neck.

💡 Reading rhythms is a really good thing when you're learning to read standard notation! You can learn rhythm independently! I learned rhythm using The Lewis Belson Modern Reading. Still, I created a great book to help you read rhythm for guitar playing.

So, if you meet somebody who's learning to play guitar, please don't recommend starting with learning to read music.

Want to learn more? Understanding how music works is your way to go!