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I got this actual email about 48 hours ago – from a visitor very interested in learning to sightread on guitar…those of you who have been following my teaching for a while know that I’m not an advocate of sightreading for guitar students.

I know many 3rd year classical guitar students will disagree with me but that doesn’t change the fact that sightreading is a secondary skill that should not be attempted by beginners.

There’s about a 30% chance that you may feel just like this guy did-
but the ending may surprise you.

I’m gonna add some editorial content right in line with the
email – you’ll see the text is blue.

Hi Kenny,

Does your course address reading notation so I can buy music and play what I read I’ve been buying other peoples courses that really don’t teach very well and being that your course is $197 it does start to ad up.

I guess what I’m trying to get at is it possible for a DVD course to replace a good teacher that can get you to a level of playing where a student will fell comfortable playing a song from reading a piece of music for the first time.

Kind of like reading a book with that kind of comfort level. I’m guessing that with your personal students after you teach them what’s on the DVD’s you must take them to a higher level beyond where they are left off on the DVD’s. I want to be a well rounded guitar player feeling comfortable with the language of music.

Kenny’s Response:

Learning to read music is a completely separate discipline from learning to play the guitar. That’s not just my opinion, it’s Jazz guitar legend Jimmy Bruno’s opinion also, also check out classical guitar instructor savari and see what he has to say about it.

I have been playing for 30 years and teaching for more than 20. In that time I’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t. I can tell you from experience that you must accomplish the physical skills needed to play and you have to be able to see the music on the fretboard to play well.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the guitar is a difficult instrument to read music on…unlike the piano which has only one location for each note per octave, the guitar has 5 different locations for every note in every octave.

There is also the tuning of the instrument which makes everything that occurs on strings 2 and 3 look different from the same information played on any other set of strings.

That’s just the start of the problems you will incur trying to read well..wouldn’t it be easier and more rewarding to learn to play well?

Think of playing guitar like learning to play golf. It’s a physical activity first then a mental activity second. All the golf theory in the world won’t do much for you until you try it out for real on the course. Guitar is much the same way.

Bottom line..sure I’d like for you to buy my course because I know it really will help you play 100% better but more than that I want to make sure that I give you advise that will help you learn to play the guitar sooner and keep you from wasting valuable time chasing a ghost that doesn’t really even exist. Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson and many many other guitar players didn’t read a note of music and they did pretty well. You can too.

I understand what you are saying about learning to read well and learning to play well first but how do you play a piece of music if you can’t read it.

You mention Hendrix and Johnson not reading but aren’t they exceptions to the rule? I always found artists who play but don’t read as a higher level of player with a gift that not everyone else has.

Larry Carlton was a studio musician first who would arrive in the studio to play something he never saw before and that capability was something one studied and got proficient at. I thought that was attainable through hard work.

I know I’m taking up a lot of your time Kenny and I’m very appreciative but I have so many questions and no one like yourself to ask them. If you lived closer to me I’d buy you a beer and have this discussion.

Kenny’s Response:

I don’t mean to say that no one can learn to read well..but even Larry Carlton was already an accomplished player well before doing session work. The type of reading that session players do is based on the number system.

Session players in Nashville for example read a tune by using the number system. This system tells them the chords to play but exactly how to play it is left up to the player.

For solos the session player will improvise based on the harmony of the tune. Non of this is really sight reading, although it is a type of reading.

When session players do read notation it’s usually for very simple parts that are written by arrangers who don’t play guitar…it’s also very common for the parts that they write not to sound good so the session guy will often improv a better sounding alternative.

I was a session player in Atlanta in the late 80′s and not once did I read a note of music.

Bottom line here is that there are only a hand full of guitar players who can play and read well most of them are classical players.

By the way classical music is much easier to read than contemporary music because of the types of rhythms used.

Classical mostly uses even groups of 8ths, 16th and 32nds while contemporary music uses a lot of tied rhythms which can be difficult to read even for an accomplished sight reader.

I know because my wife is a classical pianist and she says that contemporary music is really tough to read. She often needs to hear the song before she can read it..but when you think about it have you ever wanted to learn a song that you have never heard? me niether.

Of course in the end it is up to you whether to tackle reading or not…but if you decide to do it make sure you take care of the physical part of playing first..this will make the task of reading so much easier and faster to learn.

Hope that helps…

What you say makes perfect sense and I’m kind of relieved because I felt sight reading seemed impossible if not ridiculous. I ordered your course today and can’t wait to dive in.  Thanks Kenny for your time in witting back to me with all of my concerns.

I Hope that helped you too!

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