Understanding How to Communicate as a Musician

The Guitar Language Debate

Over the years, I have seen, heard, and read many opinions about guitar players and note reading vs. tablature. The lines were drawn.

The rivalry is bitter at times. Red Sox vs. Yankees? Ohio vs. Michigan? Alabama vs…well, we all hate Alabama.

No, in this case, it is not readers vs. tablature readers. The young number-reading upstarts were hated by the note-reading opposition.

Traditionalists vs. Modern Guitarists

Ugh, who’s right? Is there a middle ground? Can there be peace in the middle east? Well, let’s dive in!

Guitar Note Reading: The Traditional Approach

It’s very important to understand how guitar players got into this predicament. If all the instruments in western music use this language, why were guitar players so notoriously non-conformist? Because reading on guitar is very confusing!

I started my music education by playing woodwind instruments. Clarinet and saxophone. Reading on these instruments was relatively straightforward. Treble Clef. Learn the staff.

Learn where the notes are on the instrument. Memorize fingerings.

Good to go! If you wanted to play a scale, you would memorize the scale.

Play it in two octaves? Easy! Playing the same scale fingering and hit the octave key! Literally do the same fingering and hold down an extra button. Like a function key on your computer keyboard.

Not on guitar! First off, each scale was commonly broken down into several different fingerings. And in some cases, different positions for the same exact note. On the Sax, you had one fingering for a note. On guitar, there were multiple ways to play the same note. Even the seemingly daunting look of the 88 keys of a piano is more straightforward.

Sure, there are a lot of octaves. And two clefs.

And two hands doing two different things. Despite all of those added complications of the piano, one thing was easier. There is only one place on the piano to play the guitar each note!

As I learned to read on guitar, positions were the most common discussion with my teachers. Learn each scale in five different positions on the neck. As the fingerings move up the neck, the octaves will get higher.

But there is overlap. Which is what is confusing. Once you take the time to learn each position, you have to understand its range. Lowest note and highest note you can hit in a given position.

Then you quickly skim a new piece of music. Look at the key. Look for the highest note. Look for the lowest note.

Then decide in what position to play it! And sometimes you even had to change position! This takes experience. Many people don’t have that kind of patience.

To some, it was a waste to learn notes for guitar because of the position confusion. What to do?!

Tablature in Guitar: The Modern Notation

What if I told you there is a number system built just for guitar? Instead of the five lines and four spaces of the staff, we have six lines and no spaces.

Each one of the six lines represents a string on the guitar. And the notes? Position?

Tablature has it covered! Instead of the notes, we have numbers. Numbers that represent what fret to play on.

You learn what string by what line of the tablature staff represents a string. And what fret is based on what number is written on said string.

Quickly, a tab player gets their bearings on the instrument. If more than one note is to be played at the same time.

Like a chord, the numbers are stacked together. Like in sheet guitar music. If the notes are to be played in succession, they are written one at a time.

The Importance of Note Learning on Guitar

Rhythm: The Pulse of Guitar Music

In some of the lessons I had with teachers who wrote out tab, it started great. I could read it easier.

And the rock music I wanted to learn seemed to translate to the page better.

The symbols for sliding to another fret, bending a string, hammer-ons, and pull-offs, and when to use the tremolo bar were all there as well. It was like a cross between paint-by-numbers and directions all in one.

One thing was generally missing, though. The rhythm of the notes.

Sure, my teachers would write numbers in bars like one would see in traditional note reading. The catch was you had to use your ear a bit to figure out the rhythm.

That’s a pretty big issue! Some of the tab books and guitar magazines came up with an alternative. They would write the real notes and put the tab right underneath. Almost like a grand staff in piano music. One line would be traditional notes, and the lower line would be tab.

The rhythms would be present with the regular notes. And the numbers and string positions on the tab line.

 In later years the guitar magazines would write tab with the rhythms attached to them. So, it would look like a combination of real notation and tablature.

Did this mean we guitar players could toss notation on the ash heap of history for good?

Still no. Not all guitar music was written in tab. Therefore, knowing both languages was beneficial. And, of course, both languages require a good understanding of rhythm.

Chord Charts: Mapping Guitar Harmonies

Another common thing guitarists see are chord charts. A chord chart can be set up in a few different ways.

One of the simplest is, getting a lyric sheet with Chord names written over the word you are supposed to play the guitar it on.

Another is a piano/vocal/guitar book. This would be a book with the melody written in regular notes. Generally, the words will be written by their corresponding notes.  Then a grand staff is also written for a piano player.

And finally, chord names will be written over the measure(s) the guitar player is supposed to play them. Now, a guitarist has the other notation to look at and Chord symbols.

A player can see how long to play a chord based on where it is written in over a measure. So this is a bit more detailed, even for the guitar player, than the previous example;e.

Fake book style is another common way chord charts are written. These charts are commonplace amongst jazz musicians. It is kind of a reduction of the piano/vocal/guitar books we just discussed. It will have the melody of a song written in regular notation.

Over the measures will be the chord symbols. This streamlined system of making charts is very helpful.

Fake books often have hundreds of songs written in this format in one big book. In Jazz school, I used to call it the “bible.” But the actual name was The Real Book.

Professionally arranged charts. When I was in big bands, the pieces would be arranged for each instrument. Sometimes they would have chord symbols and measures with orchestration or strumming marks.

Sometimes specific rhythms would be written with chord symbols written over them. Sometimes traditional notes would be written as well. If the guitar player was expected to play single-note lines and not just chords.

No matter what type of chord chart is in front of you, one thing is constant. You have to know how to play chord changes that are written on the chart. Some books will include chord boxes that show you the fingerings.

But we warned! A lot of these books are written by arrangers that are piano players.

They will look up chord boxes for guitar players. But the fingers they find may not be the best way to play the chords! I’ve seen that many times.

Know your chords and logical ways of playing them. This language is used so much on guitar.

No matter how good a lead guitarist you might be, our function as guitar players is to play chords first.

That is our big role in a band. If you have a 4-minute song and you have a 1-minute guitar solo, that means 75% of the time, you are playing chords!

Ear Training: Listening to the Guitar’s Voice

Another I’ve heard students say is this.

“Well, Paul McCartney doesn’t read guitar music. Or doesn’t read it really well.” “Eddie Van Halen can’t really read guitar music.” I have even heard interviews in which Eddie explained he also was confused by tablature.

What these guitar musicians have is a good ear, instrument visualization, and an excellent sense of rhythm. They learn by playing with records and/or with a band. This makes you respond to the beat properly. That skill is so important!

One Christmas, I was staying at an Airbnb with my in-laws. There was a baby grand piano with Christmas sheet music out. My sister-in-law took piano as a child.

She was reading the sheet guitar music. It sounded okay. A bit clunky, but I could tell she was reading the sheet guitar music correctly.

Later I noticed there were chord symbols written above the measures. I don’t read piano even 5 percent as well as I read on guitar. So, I just used the chord symbols. My playing sounded much more musical and full.

The lesson here is if you have a good ear for music, you ARE making music. Notes on a page are just the directions. The real language of music is to be heard.

And that’s why people can pick up an otherwise foreign instrument and make it sound somewhat decent. It’s like using your imagination.

Just like drawing a picture or making up a story, you can have a guitar musical imagination as well. That’s how people write their own songs.

Fretboard Visualization: Seeing the Guitar’s Landscape

Using your eyes is also a very helpful sense when learning the guitar. Let’s say someone plays a song on YouTube.

You can’t find music.

You can use your eyes and ears to help assist in learning it.

Can you see what someone plays and know what it is? What chord? What fret and string? What finger(s) they are using? Can you see how to recreate it on your guitar without sheet music, chord boxes, or tab?

If you answered no, you have an incomplete sense skill set of learning your instrument.

I have had students that can read anything! But if they try to get something I’ve played by watching me, they are lost.

I work hard to get them to be able to translate what they see another play the guitarer do to their own instrument.

Which Method of Reading Guitar is Best?

Playing popular music has some interesting problems. And the problem is rhythm. Oftentimes, a rock song can have simple chords or note combinations.

And they may even be repetitive. But if you look at the rhythm, it’s more complicated than a lot of traditional guitar music. Or even some classical guitar music.

The reason is popular music has a mix of western European traditions and music from other cultures. African and Latin American rhythmic concepts tend to be more complex.

Instead of being on the down beat, they are often on off beats or syncopation. The dichotomy is the notes are easy, but the counting is hard.

It is a good idea to learn traditional note reading. Because the rhythms are simple to start with. A solid understanding of basic counting is needed to work up to the more complex.

Some people even use drum books just to work on rhythm skills. Then just play the guitar the drum rhythms using whatever note they want. This is a great idea.

Using all six of these systems can make you a better musician. Amongst all the arguments about what is best.

Or what your guitar musical heroes do, keep this article in mind. It is my humble assertion that not one of these systems is better than another but that every one of them is needed to make you well-rounded.