Should Guitarists Learn to Read and Write Music?

It appears that pretty much any other instrumentalist you talk to, whether it be a saxophonist, violinist, pianist, percussionist, et al; knows how to read and write music. Not only do they know how to do it, but reading music was essential in learning how to even play the instrument. So, why does it allude so many guitarists? Of course for us, like many of my bassist, drummer, and vocalist friends; we simply never had to read music in order to play music. Whether it be by ear, sight, memorising chord shapes and scale patterns, videos, teachers, jamming with friends, and our good old friend, tablature; unlike most other instruments, it just wasn’t necessary to be able to read and music to communicate musical ideas and make music. But there are many arguments for having that ability, and a whole new world of opportunities it can create for us guitar players.

There is always the argument: “well (insert favourite guitar player) doesn’t read and write music, so why should I?”. Good point. However, for every player you can think of, there is another player who can read and write music. There are even a lot of players who will surprise you. In my experience, being able to read and write music hasn’t hindered my ability as a player. Some people believe spending time learning to read and write music makes them a lesser player, but from what I have seen, and from stories that we hear, this is certainly not the case.

There’s a famous story about a young session guitarist who had quite the CV. Playing with some of the biggest names of the UK music world, on some of the biggest hits of the 1960s. One day, at a big orchestra session, he sat down to play guitar one (the melody) next to a veteran of the session scene who would be playing guitar two (rhythm). Imagine his horror when he realised he would have to follow the dots, having zero experience of reading or writing music. The veteran quickly picked up on the young guitarist’s trepidation, and swapped the charts over just before the conductor counted the orchestra in. That young guitarist was Jimmy Page, later to play with The Yardbirds, and of course, form Led Zeppelin. Again, you could argue that Jimmy Page didn’t need to read or write music. But not all of us are Jimmy Page.

A lot of musicians are terrified at the the thought of learning to read and write music, however, what they don’t realise that following a lead sheet or a chord chart is still, technically, reading music. If you can follow a chord chart with repeat signs and directions on the structure of the piece, you already have more knowledge than you think. This will hold you in good stead if you were to take on a guitar two role on a reading gig. That was how I got into playing guitar for musical theatre. I took on a guitar two role, just following chord charts and directions, and opened myself up to another income stream, as well as some incredible fun and rewarding musical experiences.

After learning the skills required to follow a chord chart, you may find that it becomes essential to be able to read rhythm. Rhythm slashes are common, even in good old full album tab transcriptions, as a short hand to save space (and ink) when there are multiple parts in a song. If you can read rhythm, you can now add this to your chord knowledge, and communicate with the rhythm section of the band or orchestra you are performing with. Even listening to a song and quickly dictating the strumming pattern will save time in the long run learning songs. A few years ago, I had three days to learn forty cover songs. To save time, I listened through the songs, making very quick rhythm notes when I needed to for very specific strumming patterns. No need to remember forty songs’ worth of strumming patterns, as I was reading them on the night.

Once you feel somewhat comfortable with rhythm reading, the next logical step is to jump into pitch reading, and knowing the fretboard. This is what puts a lot of people off (I know it did for me). But the key is to take it slowly, getting familiar with what you know how to play, and marry what it sounds like to what it looks like. Ironically, learning to read pitches helped me learn the fretboard, which, in turn, made me a more confident soloist.

There is a great misconception amongst guitarists that you need to be an incredible sight reader to get the reading gigs, especially with pop session and musical theatre work. In my experience, this doesn’t have to be the case. Although it helps to be a monster sight reader, pretty much every musical situation where I’ve been hired to read, I have been given the music at least three weeks in advance. This is the case with 99% of musical theatre jobs I have done. This allows the chance to do some homework ahead of time, making notes and memorising more difficult songs or passages that I know are beyond my sight reading ability.

You’re probably thinking, “Yeah that’s all well and good, Rich, but I’m a metal musician. I won’t need to read or write music”. That’s what I thought, too. During the making of my first album with a famous metal band, the producer suggested I follow a violin part which had already been recorded. This was a spur of the moment suggestion that I couldn’t prepare ahead of time. We didn’t have much studio time left, so not much time to work out the tricky melody by ear, but the orchestrator emailed over the music. Knowing I could read, the producer got the kettle on, gave me a couple of minutes to go through it, and then pressed record. What you hear on the record is me sight reading the first take. That saved a lot of time, and I was thankful to my old ACM tutors for making me practise my sight reading. They were right. You never know when you’re going to need it.

A huge benefit of learning to read and write music is that you will be able to transcribe and write for any instrument. Reading and writing notation is universal to all instruments, unlike our good old friend, tablature. Give a saxophonist tablature, they won’t have a clue what to do. Tablature doesn’t give a musician all of the information, and is only really beneficial to guitarists as a short cut to aid learning songs and find the correct fingering. This is not transferrable across all instruments, but notation is. With notation, it will open up a whole new world to communicate with all instrumentalists in an array of styles.