Sight reading/hearing

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 5 Sep 2003 8:24 pm

Whether you play by ear, or from the printed page, you have to find the right notes either way.

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 6 Sep 2003 7:49 am

I looking Earnest. Every now and then I find a few, but then I loose them again. I'm thinking there's a hole in my fret board somewhere.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 7 Sep 2003 5:45 am

As part of my experimentation with a Hankey Upright Fretboard, I have blocked off my regular fretboard with a rectangular piece of heavy paper and I find that it has helped my reading a lot. Rather than looking back and forth from the page to the neck, I know that I have to hit the notes by ear, so I just do. I play C6th with a high G so I can usually hit an open string somewhere to check "tuning drift" occasionally, but eliminating the crutch of the regular fretboard is already starting to pay some dividends.

Bruce Clarke · Post by **Bruce Clarke** » 8 Sep 2003 11:47 am

No one so far has mentioned the most difficult aspect of sight reading music (on any instrument) which is the time values of the notes. There are 12 notes in the chromatic scale, but the possible permutations timewise are much more numerous,to say the least.

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 8 Sep 2003 5:55 pm

But, Bruce, the time values in reading music are the same for any instrument, even pedal steel. That's just part of learning to read music. It becomes second nature much quicker than finding the right note on the instrument. Even drummers pick up reading the time values very quickly, without ever learning to read any musical notes. 'Nuff said.

Bruce Clarke · Post by **Bruce Clarke** » 9 Sep 2003 1:17 pm

David, when I referred to possible permutations I meant whole, half, quarter, eigth, sixteenth, thirtysecond notes and their corresponding rests,(all the above can be dotted, double dotted, or undotted) plus triplets and other various other tuplets ( say 5, or seven, eigth notes in the time alloted to 4) and tied notes. Throw in a couple of changes of time signature. All this lot,and more, can be encountered in a page of music, although not usually in a country song.
I started to read music at the age of seven(Piano) and earned a living for fifty years doing just that, but I don't even attempt it on steel. Even tab gives me trouble, I have deliberately avoided learning where any of the notes are on the fretboard, other than a few on the E string, and play by using my ears and my knowledge of intervals, harmony and so on. I'm not recommending it as an approach, it just seems to be the way I make any progress.