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Guitar Playing, Technique, Theory / Re: Do you read standard notation?
« on: April 09, 2012, 11:35:18 PM »
Standard notation is not all that difficult if you do just 5 minutes a day. It adds up over time. I think it helps tremendously if you want to be a well rounded musician to at least have some rudimentary reading skills. Tab is great but you need standard notation to go along with it to appreciate the dynamics, phrasing, timing, etc of the piece of music you're playing. You can bring out the subtle nuances more if you know how the music is intended to be read and played. For guitar, tab is a godsend because it obviates the need to read all the ledger lines especially in the upper register of the guitar.
Just my 2 cents worth from playing guitar after I first learned piano and violin. I can appreciate the guitar more for that reason. My only crticism for the electric guitar, such as it is, is that there is not much material for extended solo pieces. Most of the music I have come across is where the guitar is playing harmony, or used with a backing track or just playing riffs in between. What I find really interesting is the way the instrument is used in an improv style most of the time, unlike other traditional instruments (though improv for those instruments was more common in the 19th century). For that same reason, it would be great to learn how to play improv with a solo line punctuated with chordal fragments so that the music sounds more complete and also less monotonous. Most people just play a solo line to a backing track but that is limiting. Performers like Hendrix and SRV sounded like the ideal where they used the instrument as more than just a melody line instrument.
Just my 2 cents worth from playing guitar after I first learned piano and violin. I can appreciate the guitar more for that reason. My only crticism for the electric guitar, such as it is, is that there is not much material for extended solo pieces. Most of the music I have come across is where the guitar is playing harmony, or used with a backing track or just playing riffs in between. What I find really interesting is the way the instrument is used in an improv style most of the time, unlike other traditional instruments (though improv for those instruments was more common in the 19th century). For that same reason, it would be great to learn how to play improv with a solo line punctuated with chordal fragments so that the music sounds more complete and also less monotonous. Most people just play a solo line to a backing track but that is limiting. Performers like Hendrix and SRV sounded like the ideal where they used the instrument as more than just a melody line instrument.