|
|
Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 1300
Location: Madison, Wisconsin | I have a hard time reading music. Probably has something to do with my college years. Anyway, has anybody seen some sort of on line site that I can "click" on a note on the scale and hear the note. I have some sheet music that I'd like to hear what the basic melody is. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
October 2004
Posts: 256
Location: chicago | hey bill,dont know if i can help ya much with that..but...theres an awesome site called"look no hands" if you go there,and for any body else interested theyve got a guitar fretbored you click on any scale or chord and it lays it all out on the visual fretboared.everything from basic major stuff to gypsy jazz..it kills...looknohands.com |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15683
Location: SoCal | Jeff's got a good one here. One of the better references that I've seen for chords and scales. Here's a link
http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/ |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | i recommend a book called fretboard logic and another called the guitar cookbook.
from here on if you understand how music theory relates to your guitar, this will be elementary and is aimed at starting musicians.
the guitar can play the same note in several positions. this makes sight reading traditional written music trickier. tab is better but doesn't include tempo or time.
first repeat: whole step/ whole step/ half step/ whole step/ whole step/ whole step/ half step until you never forget it. a half step is one fret. this is the basis of music. you will see this pattern for the rest of your musical life.
if you know and understand the 5 major and minor scale positions and their scale patterns, the 5 basic chord shapes (c-a-g-e-d) that are part of the scale patterns, pentatonic major and minor scales, the FORMULA (not a picture or diagram) for a half dozen commonly used chords (ie a major chord is 1,3,5 and flatting the 3 gives you a minor chord), and the formula for a dozen common chord progressions with the corresponding relative minors, you can jam along with most of the popular music most of us like.
this is easier than it sounds. i teach it to kids from 12 on up in my second language. most of them that want to learn get it easily. this is no harder than simple arithmetic.learn and understand the fretboard patterns that flow into one another and how they repeat and some basic music terminology.
if someone says this is a 12 bar 1,4,5 in E and the intro is a walkdown from the 5, it helps a whole lot to know what that means before the band starts. almost anyone on this forum knows what this sounds like even if you haven't learned the terminology. it's a typical blues progression as well as hundreds of non blues songs you know.
unless you are studying classical or playing with an orchestra or band that requires your part to be precise and repeatable, reading music is far less important than what i listed above.
understanding WHY you are putting your fingers in certain places on the fretboard will make reading staff or tab much more predictable.
an absolutely great learning and composing tool is guitar pro at guitarpro.com. i haven't seen anything that even comes close to this for the price. you can download it form the website.
i can use traditional sheet music to figure out what i need to know, but almost never use it.
one of the bass players i play with says reading is for newspapers and feeling what you know is for music. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2003
Posts: 299
Location: Netherlands | If you really want to learn to read, buy 'reading studies for guitar' and 'advanced reading studies for guitar', by William G. Leavitt, Berklee Press.
BUT: Russ is right in my opinion. It certainly helps to be able to read and write, but this is a different thing from playing 'on sight'. I'm able to read to a degree where I can understand what is happening in the music piece, but I cannot play on sight.
It's very difficult to be a good sightplayer on guitar, but the flipside is that in it's nature, the guitar is a very systematic instrument. Transposing musical pieces to another key is much easier than it would be on, for instance, a piano. Therefore, you only have to learn the things russ mentioned once, and not 12 times (one for every half-step). Learning the schemes and systems will certainly make you a better player than learning to play on sight.
Just my 0.02
Martin |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 1300
Location: Madison, Wisconsin | The guitar parts for what I play are simple and I usually don't have any problem playing with the group. My problem comes from the director asking me to sing the middle harmony. I need to be able to at least pluck out a simple set of notes so I know what to sing. I used to be able to hear parts but after I lost my hearing in my left ear, I lost the ability. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2004
Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | Oddly enough, I can sight read (play?) complex piano pieces, but I can not, no matter how hard I try, sight read (play?) anything more difficult than single note runs on guitar. For some reason, I can't translate the chords on the staves into chords on the fretboard (although I can 'feel' the chords on the keyboard just by looking at them!). I've given up on sight reading for guitar. I find sheet music that has tab and notation, then I use the tab for fingering and the notation for timing/tempo/etc. I hope that over time the association between the two will naturally form.
Maybe that'd work for you, too? But, maybe not...sounds like you need to be on top of it a little more quickly...just a thought. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 1300
Location: Madison, Wisconsin | We generally try and do 2 new song/week and I just need to be able to work on the vocals on my own. Maybe I need to buy an inexpensive keyboard. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 1300
Location: Madison, Wisconsin | On second thought, I play guitar not piano. What I should really do is learn how to play my guitar! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2003
Posts: 299
Location: Netherlands | Buy the Leavitt book. It'll serve your purpose. Only study the single note lines.
Martin |
|
| |
|
Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 623
Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | Willard...
It sounds to me like you would want to develop 'relative pitch'. That is the "relationship" of sound from of one or more notes to each other. I'm working on developing that better too, for singing harmony. For instance, if someone says sing a fifth above "this" note, you can without referencing a guitar or keyboard. You just know it in your head, and it comes out. This skill is also incredibly helpful for figuring out a song from the record.
This goes hand in hand with sight singing, which is different that sight reading on guitar. Sight singing requires you to have a good grasp of relative pitch, then apply it to reading the language of music on a page...thus being able to sing the notes of a melody (understanding the relationship of pitch from one to the other) without referencing an instrument for the melody. Again, you just read the notes, and automatically hear the notes in your head.
Frankly, I find both tough to do. I can sing harmony just fine if it's my own, but if someone asked me to sing the fourth or seventh above a melody note I'm lost without referencing my guitar for the pitch, until I memorize the part.
It's an invaluable skill to have and opens your listening skills to a whole new level. It's like looking at a painting and appreciating it...but if you understand the thoery of how colors are mixed, you get a whole new appreciation of the same painting on a deeper level.
Me, I'm still developing these skills, and it's not fun, but I think it's an incredibly essential part of music training. Unfortunately, I missed out on developing it earlier.
Some people just have it naturally. My dad is like that. He can instantly transpose any song into whatever key you want to sing it (on the piano) and then sing whatever harmony part he wants in that new key. He doesn't know much theory at all, and is not the greatest music reader either, just has a great ear.
Johnny |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 171
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma | This is a great question and discussion... Thru the years I've learned how to play guitar, piano and barely the mandolin... Using chords... Never having lessons or learning how the theory works... I found the piano the easiet because it's so orderly... I play the guitar 95% of the time and the damn thing "seems" confusing compared to the piano.. Now I've got some basis to go by from this thread... I've always known that if I'd just sit down and try to learn what's been discussed I'd be the better for it... I've just got to stop setting off into songs I know during the process...
Gerald |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | Originally posted by Strummin12:
Willard...
It sounds to me like you would want to develop 'relative pitch'. That is the "relationship" of sound from of one or more notes to each other. I'm working on developing that better too, for singing harmony. For instance, if someone says sing a fifth above "this" note, you can without referencing a guitar or keyboard. You just know it in your head, and it comes out. This skill is also incredibly helpful for figuring out a song from the record.
This goes hand in hand with sight singing, which is different that sight reading on guitar. Sight singing requires you to have a good grasp of relative pitch, then apply it to reading the language of music on a page...thus being able to sing the notes of a melody (understanding the relationship of pitch from one to the other) without referencing an instrument for the melody. Again, you just read the notes, and automatically hear the notes in your head.
Frankly, I find both tough to do. I can sing harmony just fine if it's my own, but if someone asked me to sing the fourth or seventh above a melody note I'm lost without referencing my guitar for the pitch, until I memorize the part.
It's an invaluable skill to have and opens your listening skills to a whole new level. It's like looking at a painting and appreciating it...but if you understand the thoery of how colors are mixed, you get a whole new appreciation of the same painting on a deeper level.
Me, I'm still developing these skills, and it's not fun, but I think it's an incredibly essential part of music training. Unfortunately, I missed out on developing it earlier.
Some people just have it naturally. My dad is like that. He can instantly transpose any song into whatever key you want to sing it (on the piano) and then sing whatever harmony part he wants in that new key. He doesn't know much theory at all, and is not the greatest music reader either, just has a great ear.
Johnny
willard, you're right on the money. sing along with what you play on the guitar, note for note and before long you will associate a tone you hear with a fret position. in some of the songs i write, the sung part of the tag and the sung melody line are exactly the same tones. well, they are supposed to be if i do everything right.
a very good exercise is, when ever you change your strings. tune your 'a' string to where you think a 440 is and then check it with your tuner. see how close you can get. remember that the string is going to stretch when new. also practice several times by detuning your guitar and retuning it without using 5th fret, 7th fret, or harmonics for references. just try to sing or hear the tone in your head and tune to it. (i only like to do this before i am ready to change my strings since it seems to shorten string life.) |
|
| |
|
Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 623
Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | Russ...
When you try to tune a string without a tuner to pitch without a reference note (by not comparing one string to another), that is exercising a skill called perfect pitch, which is different that relative pitch. Excellent skill to have. Many are born with it, and as I understand, you can develop this skill.
Thereare different levels of perfect pitch. The highest level is if your are able to say, wake up, having heard NO pitches at all, and sing a note, say 'A', at 440, off the top of your head. The next level below that, is to know when an instrument is not tuned perfectly to pitch (I don't mean out of tune with itself -most people can tell that, but rather not tuned to A 440). People with this level of perfect pitch are usually the ones that will tell you that the third chair violin in the orchestra is out of tune. The most common level of pefect pitch, and most basic, is to recognize and name a note on any instrument without seeing it played, merely from the sound.
Just some tidbits I learned a whle back. Wish I had this skill. My uncle has it. I know that Yngwie Malmsteen has this ability. Also Beethovan had perfect pitch, which allowed him to write symphonies long after he went deaf, because he knew exactly what the notes sounded like in his head.
Johnny |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 873
Location: puerto vallarta, mexico | strummin, u said "The highest level is if your are able to say, wake up, having heard NO pitches at all, and sing a note, say 'A', at 440, off the top of your head."
i guess i'll never know, because the first thing i that comes out of my mouth in the morning is "COFFEE". it seems to sound both sharp and flat at the same time. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 13997
Location: Upper Left USA | I read somewhere (and so forgive me if I have it all screwed up) that we Americans are Bb people.
Because of all of the 60mhz 110 volt current passing in and around us the resonance is constantly enforced. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 623
Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | "i guess i'll never know, because the first thing i that comes out of my mouth in the morning is "COFFEE". it seems to sound both sharp and flat at the same time. "
Russ, when the coffee is coming OUT of your mouth like that, it's called 'hangover dissonance' and I suggest you stay away from your guitar until it passes-for the guitar's sake, of course. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | A# = 58.27 Hz
B = 61.74 Hz
so we're kinda half-flat. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | GREAT DISCUSSION!!
And some great advice and knowledge, just to demonstrate what a lifetime of playing will do when you start at 4 or 5 years old; on Crossroads with Hank Williams Jr, Hank showed Kid Rock how to change tunings on the fly, and just by ear, tuned his guitar to a different tuning, hit a few chords that sounded perfect, and retuned to standard in about 10 seconds by ear and it sounded perfectly in tune, then went on to play whatever.
The preceding was done by professional pickers, don't try it on stage at risk of ejection from the stage by tone perfect audience members.
Bailey :rolleyes: |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | When I was in college I could read in 3 or 4 positions on the fingerboard. I deeply regret that I never kept that skill up. Unfortunately when you are not a pro player, unless you actively keep up that skill you loose it. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | It ain't like a bike! |
|
| |
Reading,or not, music
