Reading Music

I have a rudimentary understanding of sheet music. I know the notes on the staff, a couple of the key signatures, the treble (G) and bass (F) clef, and the time signature. The key of C has no sharps or flats and E and B have no sharp. But I never took the time to actually learn to read the music. I read music the way a first grader would read a book. See Jane Run. See Spot Run.     

Drum music - all on one line.

Bill     

Your second paragraph got me perfectly.

I can read music, I just don’t need to any longer.  At one point I had to play moonlight sonata and transpose it to any key within a 4 count.  Can’t do that without reading music

But the genre I play features lots of improvisation, so working knowledge of music theory is a lot more important than playing stuff note for note.     

Great topic, CG ... lots to explore.

What UJB describes is pretty much where I am. When learning a new song, I'll sometimes take the sheet music to the piano, and pluck out the notes until I've found them all. It's slow work because I can't read music at the speed it's to be played. For some reason, I find a piano is much easier to work out chord structures, before taking that over to the guitar, and playing the roots, fifths and sevenths together to find each chord.

Nope I don`t read music at all when playing however I can work out the notes slowly at a snails pace if I had too.  It's interesting though because a group I am in that play at rest homes and retirement villages, some members can read music ... but one of them who reads music her timing is always out and quite often it is hard work learning new songs with her because she doesn't HEAR music only reads it.  Often it ruins the song we are learning or we have to spend ages learning it as she doesnt have an ear to hear how it should go.     

(Edited to fix typo on the word or by Jandle)

Laugh Lots ... Forgive Much ...  Love one another     
Covers and some Originals found over there    ------- >    https://soundcloud.com/ukulelejan

I actually started on classical guitar when I was 15.  I took  lessons from one instructor for two years and after my recital he came to me and said her could teach me any more and an very good  classical guitarist who normally did not teach heard my instructor and he  came to listen to my recital. So I traveled twice a week to work with this new guy who said he take me to the next level. I took from him for two years and he gave what pieces he wanted me to play at a recital and wanted me to play for at least an hour. After that he said all I need was to play every second I  could and I have done that and through  6 years in college I still spent time playing. Through a 35 year career I still   played and sometimes it was very late at night when I played. So I retired very early so I could play, do more concerts, and have never charged someone who I believe could be good and can not afford to pay for lessons. So I read music to play classical guitar  and do no play piano.     

Your teaching methods are definitely the right way to go, CG, and something us self-taught people should pay more attention to. Many of us started by just learning to play the chords for a song we liked, and went from there. It's admittedly not a good foundation to build on, because we never really learn why different notes go together, until we get some theory in the picture. I just started working on that a few years ago, so would have to forget over 50 years of self-taught playing to do it right.

Maybe age-related senility will help me with that!      

My ability to read music is not great (though probably still better than most non-classical guitarists). I'd love to be better, but I'm not really going to find myself in situations where I need to read so other things are a higher priority for me.

What DOES really bother me, though, is the number of guitarists who can't read rhythms. I can understand that TAB or fret diagrams sometimes make more sense for WHERE to play the notes, but knowing WHEN to play them is so important.     

i first picked up a guitar at age 15 then bought a song in a day book but discarded all the technical stuff and just learned the chords because all i wanted was to be able to sing. a few years later a guy i was working with was training to be a music teacher so he practiced on me. he lost interest when i began missing lessons  in preference to football (soccer). some of it has stuck, i still know all the notes on the keyboard and the fingerboard and i actually learned "Mandy" from the copy. my main reason for learning music notation was to be able to write music so i wouldn't forget in the morning what i'd written last night...does that make sense?