Why is it hard for guitarists to read the tune from the sheet?

Photo by Shawn Nystrand CC BY-SA

Our attention was drawn to the various opinions on this issue in the corresponding Quora thread , and we picked up the most interesting answers. We propose to continue the discussion in the comments to the material.
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One of the most frequently encountered opinions is the absence of the need for knowledge of musical notation. Most beginners and people just keen on a guitar don't need to study it, because you can play on tablature.

Jay Verculen (playing the guitar, fretless bass, drums and keyboards) believes that the guitar is an instrument to which you are unlikely to read the "instructions". He gives an example: “the same note can be extracted in five different ways: 2 strings 1 fret, 3 strings 5 ​​frets, 4 strings 10 frets, 5 strings 15 frets and 6 strings 8 frets. And besides this, the sounds can be extracted using quite sophisticated techniques that the piano does not have: bands, vibrato, jamming and others. ”

Others believe that it is not necessary to generalize all guitarists as "not able to read scores." Victor Eikhot (able to play more than 24 instruments) says that the piano chords in different keys are similar to each other (in the form of hands and fingers on the keys), you cannot play the guitar according to this principle (even in the case of barre).

“Secondly, music literacy is studied on the piano in music schools, so it’s not so easy to use this knowledge when playing the guitar. And finally, thirdly, pianists (and organists) have a lot more reading practice from a score, no matter where they play: in church, at rehearsal or on stage. ”

Third - emphasizes that guitarists usually play harmony, not melody. Melody can be well combined with harmony, but the harmony can be changed.

Eric Sawyer (started playing guitar at 10, dropped at 35 and started again at 55): “for example, in traditional church music, an organist is allowed to play various variations of harmonies without deviating from the main melody. Experienced guitarists can pick up the chords heard in the song by ear, but this does not mean that it was originally these chords that were used in it, because variations are possible. "

Clay Motley (a guitarist with 30 years of experience) complements Eric's comment and notes that the melody does not define harmony and chords uniquely. Clay cites as an example a story from his life experience, when an experienced jazz guitarist, accompanying one melody, constantly changed the rhythmic pattern and chords, thereby changing the harmony of the song.

This suggests that every guitarist has his own sense of music, and by changing the harmony, he can achieve different sound results. Clay believes that the point is not that the guitarist does not know which chord to choose, but that the variations of these chords are vast.

Penkam Lonkar (guitarist) believes that the peculiarity of guitarists is the ability to "work with your hands, not your ears." While working on musical theory (harmonies, the development of a musical ear, reading from a sheet and various playing techniques), the musician begins to understand how you can use different standard chord sequences.

For example, jazz musicians learn how to extract major chords by learning how to extract the same chords using other strings. Constantly practicing, they are able to learn by ear to identify the chords used in songs. Musical theory is a kind of "system of effective categorization of sounds." Of course, this is not the only way to study music, it can be analyzed and classified according to its own rules, but the lack of certain skills can affect the ability to accompany a melody.

Dorien James says that whatever the technique of the game and the knowledge of the ear soars of every single guitarist, for every melody there is always a great many “right” chords. Jazz musicians like to change the main chords of the songs, complementing them with variations. He cites “Opus One” as an example - a melody consisting of 5 notes that are constantly repeated, while the chords accompanying it change.

Mark Werner (he plays the guitar from the mid-70s, everything: from country to jazz) believes that if you give a melody to a well-trained jazz guitarist, he will quickly select a good chord sequence for it. Similarly, any other good musician will be able to find the right harmony for the song.

However, the very idea of ​​a guitarist who reads a melody from a sheet and (therefore) finds it difficult to pick up chords for it - too much of an exotic example. Most of the performers work with notes, where the melody and chords are recorded.

Ted Bushe said that guitarists can play the score, only they need time to write the accompaniment. Of course, there are a huge number of songs with similar melodies, so guitarists can easily play along to a song that is familiar to the harmonica.

In addition, the guitar must set the tempo and rhythm, and regardless of what melody is played, the guitarist decides what is playing now - polka, disco or something else. This means that guitarists must select the correct chord in advance in order to fully reflect the meaning of the melody. Ted also believes that all the information written in the score does not give the guitarist an idea of ​​how the song should sound.

Nikolaus Exeli (playing the guitar most of his life) believes that everything depends on the amount of practice and theoretical knowledge. It is easier for a musician to improvise using chord progression than to pick up chords on the go.

Any melody can be played in several ways, so everything depends directly on the taste and mood of the guitarist. For example, in the days of Mozart, the A6 chord (major triad with a large sixth) was considered cacophonous, although people now call it very pleasant.

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