Is it really possible to conquer the guitar fretboard? Do you find the notes you want to find? Is tabulature cheating? Let me invite you to the guitar fretboard!

I suggest that you right now start to take command over your guitar. Usually when you are playing your first guitar sheet music melodies you will have to learn the notes in the first position on the guitar. To have a good grasp of these notes on the guitar I suggest that you learn them slowly and with concentration.

I usually begin by teaching the notes on the first string like E on open string, F on fret 1 and G on fret 3. On string two you?ll find B on open string, C on fret 1 and D on fret 3. With these notes you can play the song Mary Had A Little Lamb.

Using the previous notes the melody can be played as follows:

E D C D E E E D D D E G G E D C D E E E E D D E D C

I hope you recognized the melody. This kind of music notation doesn?t give any hints as to how the rhythm is to be played but you already know the melody, right!

Is using tablature cheating? My father taught me some interesting things about learning to read guitar sheet music.

My dad was the only guitar tutor in the town where I lived and he taught mostly classical guitar pieces. His young students, I was one of them, learned those first guitar pieces very rapidly because he used a system similar to tablature showing the frets and strings to play, along with the sheet music. Tablature wasn?t common back then. I remember somebody remarking that his system prevented the children from learning to sight read sheet music.

His reply was that if somebody really wants to learn the notes they will anyway!

I agree with that and I have found that if a pupil is not motivated learning guitar sheet music they will not advance in this area whether they play with or without tablature.

Do you think your fingers has anything to do with guitar playing? I guess you’ll answer yes!

A more important question is if the fingers you choose to use can have a bearing upon your guitar playing. Left hand fingering means which finger you use when playing a specific note.

Usually when playing the first pieces on the guitar on the first frets one plays the notes on the first fret with the index finger, notes on the second fret with the middle finger, notes on the third fret with the ring finger and notes on the fourth fret with your little finger.

Why mess up everything with this fingering stuff? Isn’t it possible to play every melody with your left index finger and forget about fingerings?

Well, of course you can play melodies with your index finger but your progress will be very limited beyond just playing easy melodies.

Besides you?ll have to move your hand all the time as you change frets and, most importantly when reading sheet music, you?ll have to look at the guitar fretboard all the time instead of looking at the sheet music.

The important thing when learning to play the notes on the guitar is to make a conscious effort to learn the notes and not to work on too many notes at the same time.

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com.

I guess you are learning to play piano in order to become a better pianist. Do you know that there are many secret learning processes in action as you practice on your piano. Let’s find out the truth!

I presume that you practice on the piano with the hope of becoming a better instrumentalist, pianist and musician and and in order to experience the joy and satisfaction that follows.

The learning processes in action as you try to learn to play the piano can lead you forward towards you goals. However, some things you learn can limit your progress and I think it is important to be aware of these factors.

Let’s take a look at what you don’t want to learn as you play piano! Let me mention three things!

1. At times when you practice on your piano you might experience stress and other uncomfortable feelings due to a deadline in the form of a upcoming piano lesson you don’t feel prepared for or other disturbing thoughts.

The feelings you experience as you practice a specific piece of music have a tendency to be evoked when you play the same piece at another occasion.

2. Can tensions stick to your sheet music? Your actual muscle tension level when you play a piano composition tends to be present when you play the same piece of music in public.

In other words, it will be more difficult to perform and play a piano composition in a relaxed manner when you have practiced it with a high tension level.

3. Can you learn not to play a piece of music? I guess you practice on your piano and take piano lessons in order to become a better player.

However, if you don’t concentrate on your piano playing and if you play new passages too fast you will probably make a lot of mistakes.

These mistakes tend to slow down the learning process and in fact they will be a part of the learning process. The more mistakes you make playing a particular piano sheet music passage the harder it will be to play it right.

Why is it so? All your earlier mistakes will accumulate and disturb you as you try to play a passage right. To play a passage wrong will become easier and easier the more times you make mistakes.

Is this depressing news? Well if these news will help you change your way of practicing piano playing it will be good news!

You can use these piano practicing news to your advantage! Read on!

1. Try to make your piano practicing sessions to peaceful and joyful occasions by never procrastinating your piano lesson homework and by having the right attitude as you start playing.

2. Always practice a new piano piece slowly and with concentration and with correct posture. If you don’t make mistakes as you practice you will progress much faster!

3. Remember to relax as you play piano. Your piano practicing session can also be a relaxation exercise and if you play piano in this manner it will be beneficial both for your physical and mental health!

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play piano resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com

Why is it easy to compose piano music?

Because you have to start from where you are. This should be fairly easy; Otherwise you have not started from where you are.

A suggestion is to start writing piano pieces for beginners in a progressive order. The idea is that as the pieces get more complicated for the player they will also become more complicated for you to notate and compose and you will subsequently learn as you write.

How is composing beneficial for your piano playing?

1. Your compositional endeavours will make you more and more aware of intrinsic musical subtleties in the music of other composers. When you start to think and feel like a composer you will also become a better performer as well. Performing is also a creative process similar to composing.

2. When you compose you will become a better sight reader.

I remember an assignment I had many years ago when I wrote the music to a musical. It made me aware of many notational problems I had not taken the time to solve for myself before.

When I started to play my piano music again I was astonished when realizing it was much easier for me to sight read complicated piano sheet music. The reason for this I concluded was my concentrated effort to notate my own piano music.

The process to play something with my fingers and and then try to notate the music on manuscript paper was so to speak a reversed sight reading exercise.

What about manuscript paper?

You can use a notation program or you can write on paper or use both approaches. I suggest that you start writing on paper the way that composers have done for centuries.

Composing piano sheet music by hand on manuscript paper is a cheap and effective exercise to learn the various sheet music symbols.

Very often I jot down musical ideas on ordinary white paper after drawing five lines by hand. It works fine if you can’t find your manuscript paper. You can buy manuscript paper for sheet music or print out your favorite format for free on the site http://www.blanksheetmusic.net

In conclusion, composing piano sheet music can become a natural part of your daily practice routine.

Spend half an hour a day composing your own piano sheet music and you will increase your musical knowledge and become an even better musician!

And remember; Composing piano sheet music is fun!

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com

I have been teaching Keyboard and Organ for nearly thirty years, my youngest student was Four years old, and the oldest was Eighty years old.

So the simple answer to the above question would be No. Maybe the question should be, would I like to learn to play a musical instrument? It is fairly probable that you are not going to become a concert pianist if you start learning at the age of eighty but that does not matter. Learning music is about what you personally want to get out of it. You might for instance want to learn to play one piece of music or a book of music or just to see how far you can go. There are no limits. You can learn as much or as little as you personally want.

I have taught many older people that have said, ?I wish I had learned to play when I was younger? and ?children can learn a lot quicker? and ?maybe I won?t be able to learn at my age?. Yes children will pick things up a little quicker because they have less to think about such as a mortgage, bills, work and many other adult related things that children will never have to think about until they themselves are adults. Adults of any age on the other hand have less time to learn a musical instrument but still have the ability to learn.

So if you are a member of the older generation and wondering whether to learn a musical instrument I say absolutely YES go for it and enjoy it. You won?t regret it I promise you.

Visit http://www.mikesmusicroom.co.uk

About the Author
Michael David Shaw (Mike to his friends) runs the website Mikes Music Room the place for organ and keyboard tuition and music news. You can email Mike at mike@mikesmusicroom.co.uk

Reading sheet music can be very intimidating for a beginning guitarist. It is, after all, a brand new language composed of a lot of symbols that are new and alien. But Reading sheet music is a must for anyone who wants to be a serious guitarist and it will take your guitar playing well beyond anything that TAB will show you. Tablature is a crutch. It will only teach you how to play songs and compositions by rote. It is true that with Tab you will learn how to play a piece of music but in the process you are missing some of the real things that music, and being a musician are all about.

What is the goal of a guitarist?

Playing pieces of music is not the only goal of a guitarist. Growth in both technical ability and creativity are just as important. When you learn a piece of music by TAB you experience a certain amount of growth but as you master the piece your growth quickly levels off. You have learned the piece and you practice it only to keep it sharp. When you learn a piece of music with traditional sheet music you are not just learning the notes you are also learning another language. This exercising of your mind makes you more flexible, more capable, and more creative. With time and practice you recognize keys, chords, progressions and whole host of things you would never see with TAB.

Advantages of Reading Sheet music

Hearing the music -As your skill develops and your ears sharpen you will be able to pick up a piece of written sheet music and actually hear the notes without playing the guitar. It is a language that you have learned. For some this ability comes quickly and for others it takes years of practice.

Creativity Learning a language exercises a new part of your brain. Everyday, as you apply yourself to learning this new language you will grow. And this growth promotes your creativity. You are given many more tools to work with and apply to your music composition and you gain a broader, and more colorful, understanding of music.

Sight Reading – As you develop your skill in reading sheet music you will gain the ability to pick up a piece of music that you have never seen before and play it from sight. This ability makes you a competent musician and accelerates your ability to add pieces to your repertoire.

Breadth of Repertoire - Does your taste in guitar music deviate from the mainstream? It can be very difficult to find tablature for pieces that are not mainstream. But you can always find the sheet music. It is the language of music.

Cross-pollination with other instruments – If you have heard a piece of music written for another instrument; like the piano, bass guitar, cello, or anything else where would you find guitar tab for it? If you are able to read sheet music you can get a copy of the music, understand it, and transcribe it for your guitar. This holds true for sub-genres of guitar. There is an enormous amount of music available to guitarists that are not written in tab. Music like classical guitar, flamenco, Spanish and progressive/experimental. Reading sheet music gives you instant access to all these flavors of guitar.

The Ultimate Reward

As a guitar player, or aspiring guitar player, you know that it is not something that you study for a few weeks and are done. Playing guitar is a life long pursuit and learning tablature is just a short cut that enables you to play some songs. But learning to read sheet music is a skill that will have a more profound impact on your experience with the guitar and with the music. It will make you a better, more creative, and more capable player. It will enrich your experience with the guitar and with the music in ways that tab never can.

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