How to Read Guitar Sheet Music


Reading sheet music is a vital part of learning to play most instruments. Though not necessarily as critical for learning to play the guitar, it is still useful for a guitarist to know how to read guitar sheet music. The good news is that if you have already learned to read music while playing another instrument, the basic concepts remain the same. If you have never learned to read music, you will have significantly more work to do before you become proficient at reading guitar sheet music, but it is not particularly difficult.

The first step in reading sheet music is to identify for what instrument the music has been written. Sheet music for many instruments will be a simple notation of a series of notes. In the case of instruments such as guitar and piano, which are capable of playing chords, the notation may be considerably more complex. Generally speaking, you will want to find sheet music which has been written specifically for the guitar, rather than attempting to play another instrument's part with your guitar. Also, some sheet music will include the parts for multiple instruments; in this case, you will want to identify the guitar part and follow that throughout the sheet music, ignoring the other parts included.

Second, you will need to determine in which clef the music is written. The two possibilities here are treble and bass. Most often, guitar parts will be written with a treble clef. The type of clef used helps you to determine the notes to which each line and space on the staff refer. Assuming that the sheet music is written with a treble clef, the top line of the staff is an E note, with the space below that line being a D note, and the remainder of the staff progressing downward with a single note assigned to each line and space. Notes above or below the fully drawn staff follow this progression as well, and can be identified by counting up or down to determine what note this signifies. Also keep in mind that you will need to look for any marks for sharps or flats. These can be designated just to the right of the clef, or on individual notes.

Third, check the time signature. Written in the form of a fraction, the top number lets you know how many beats are in each measure of music. The bottom number designates what sort of note counts as a single beat. In the case of 4/4 time, which is the most common time signature, there are four beats per measure, and the quarter note counts as one beat. 3/2 time would mean that there are three beats per measure, and the half note counts as one beat. Although there are many possibilities for time signatures, they all follow a comparable pattern, and are easy to read. If you do not understand the ways in which different lengths of notes are designated, you will need to learn that prior to being able to play the music, but that is simply a matter of memorizing what each type of note looks like, what length it represents, and keeping this in mind as you play.

Finally, you will be able to play the music. In the case of guitar sheet music, you will usually see several notes stacked atop each other. This means that all of the notes are to be played at the same time, as a chord. If you are already familiar with where all of the notes occur along the fretboard, you should be able to figure out the fingering for the appropriate chord. If not, you will need to find each note, and then play the notes together. More often than not, your fingers will end up in a position that resembles a chord with which you are already familiar. After playing guitar sheet music for a while, you will begin to recognize what the more common chords look like in this form of notation. Occasionally, you may encounter something new, but with basic knowledge of where notes are located on the fretboard, and basic chord structure, you should be able to work out unfamiliar chords when they appear in your sheet music.

Even for an accomplished guitarist, guitar sheet music can be difficult to comprehend. If you have learned to play the guitar by ear, or through the use of guitar tabs, sheet music may look like a confused mess of lines and circles. By taking the time to learn to read guitar sheet music, however, you will enable yourself to play more complex and traditional guitar music, some of which cannot be designated through guitar tabs. Learning to read guitar sheet music also opens up the possibility of learning other instruments, and already understanding the basics of reading their sheet music.



Resources:
Notation Machine presents an extended lesson on how to read sheet music that may be of use to a guitarist attempting to learn the basics of sheet music.