How do you play.....by ear, or by music or tab notation????

[6stringTom]

Milod, I do indeed remember Jerry Silverman and the Folksingers guitar Guide now that you remind me.

 

I enjoy playing by ear, making my own arrangements, and playing with others when we have a common set of tunes--works great when playing informally on a Sunday afternoon with a bunch of friends who all know the same set of tunes and play them together all the time. Even learning new tunes isn't too hard when most of them are 3-chorders.

 

However, if I were a professional musician trying to make a living in a variety of musical styles, I would definitely learn to read. It's about the only way you could go into any gig, play any song, and have an on-the-spot band that starts together, stops together, and plays in the same key. I played sax in our high school musical band, and there's no way we could have played by ear. We had a score to perform.

 

By the way, Ray Charles as a reading musician, struck me as a bit funny at first. I guess he read braille music, but I wonder how that works when you need your hands for the instrument and for reading. Does anyone know how blind musicians read music during a performance (if they do)?

[L5Larry]

How do you get an electric guitar player to turn down...............Put sheet music in front of him.

[milod]

Well...

 

As I understand it, the Nashville number system was developed for good pickers who didn't read music.

 

I think sight reading is difficult for some folks just as reading a book is difficult for some folks. I'm not sure the term "dyslexia" is appropriate, but... I know I sorta can read, and I know the "how," but I don't get the timing. Even when I played trumpet in a college orchestra the playing was relatively easy, the reading very, very difficult.

 

I had known the music used in the auditions and had the technique, but my "secret" was discovered by the director when I was taking a ride for the pep band on a Dixieland thing and I just took off instead of playing notes on paper.

 

Tab was used before notation for guitar-type instruments, and it's easier, but still has the problem of timing for me.

 

I think reading well is mandatory if you're reproducing stuff others wrote and is to be replicated note for note. But my slow music reading skills is one reason I don't do as much classical guitar as I'd kinda like to do.

 

Also, I've even known some jazz-type musicians, keyboarders especially, who always, always had sheet music in front of them. They could have played without it, but felt it was necessary to keep the flow going.

 

Me, I'm kinda the piano bar type picker. I like something there with chord markings to keep my place, but...

 

m

[suburude63]

I play by heart

[albertjohn]

Ears and shapes.

 

I like to listen to a song and then "see" the chord shapes.

 

I can read music reasonably well have learned the trombone and electric organ when I was growing up. But reading music for guitar is impossible for me. Tab is hard enough!

[jefleppard]

mostly by ear or tabs but a 12 year-old kid that i don't know just taught me how to play a song on youtube. very resourceful, i am.