Why Would I Want to Learn to Read Music?

How important is it to learn to read music?

Since more and more guitar music is being written in tablature, is it still necessary to read music? The answer is becoming more difficult, but it's never a bad idea to at least understand basic music notation. While guitar tab is getting more popular, there are still some good reasons to learn to read standard music notes. Let's take a closer look.

Tab is not standardized.

There are a few drawbacks to just learning tab, one of them being that no one has decided how they're going to show rhythm. When you buy a songbook with tabs in it, there is also standard notation showing the rhythm. If you can't interpret that and you don't have a recording of the song, your chances of learning it correctly are very low.

Tab is computer generated.

The fact that a computer is picking the notes for you means that every now and then the computer will pick the right note but not necessarily the most convenient location on the fingerboard. Since you can play the same note in several places on the guitar, it's not unusual to have the computer put the same note in different positions.

If there's a mistake in the notation, it's in the tab.

If the computer isn't picking the notes, it's easy for the person transcribing the song to simply put the number on the wrong line. We've found lots of instances where this has been the case.

My advice to beginning students.

The decision is mostly based on what type of music you want to play and how good you want to be. If you're more interested in strumming chords and singing, you may not need to read music. The same is true if your main interest is blues or rock guitar. However, if you're going to write songs, play classical or jazz guitar, or you just want to know how music works, reading music is still a valuable skill.