Reading Music and Guitar....pffffft.

[Moustache_Bash]

I've been playing piano for the past year, taking lessons, doing it all proper, etc. etc.

I was thinking i might try and start reading for guitar as well, but guitar has the same notes on like twenty different places on the fretboard. How do you know what position to play in and where hands should be hanging out when reading music, guitar players?

[casecandy]

I never learned. When I was starting out in high school, I asked my mom, "Should I learn to read music?" She said, "Paul McCartney can't read anything beyond Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, and he's the wealthiest entertainer in the world by orders of magnitude." I listened to her, and I honestly sort of regret it.

[PeteeBee]

Sooooo I can barely read treble clef. Played trombone in band for years so I'm pretty fluent in bass clef, but I really have to focus for treble and this guitar. BUT, I can take a gander. I don't think any note appears more than 3 times. Maybe 4 if my math is wrong. Most appear less than that. It should be pretty obvious where you should play it. Only tricky sight reading. On your second time through you'll know if you got yourself into needlessly tricky spots and how to shift them.

On trombone there are a few notes that can be played in multiple slide positions, depending on how you have your lips. It's somewhat like guitar in that way. It's normally pretty obvious which way is easier.

[aholidayatthesea]

I studied classical guitar and can read music. In complicated pieces, the music should show a number for what finger to use and a number in a circle for what string to use.

Most of the time there's nothing written though, and you would just opt for reading in the first four frets. If you see a high note, move to the next four frets and over to the lower strings so you don't have to jump. (Did that make sense? It's difficult to explain.)

I used to think I was a bad sight reader, but then one of my teachers said that every guitarist is a bad sight reader because of the nature of the instrument.

[popvulture]

I feel like if you're going to go the more technical/academic route, it's better to just study principles of music theory and apply them to your playing, as opposed to specifically focusing on reading music for guitar. Over the years I've read music for instruments at various times — piano, clarinet, and sight reading/singing for a music theory course, but never guitar. I think most guitarists, myself included, get thrown off by the non-linear nature of the instrument.