The Importance of Sight Reading for Guitarists

Okay, guys!

I just want to quickly talk to you about sight reading and how useful this can be to you as a guitarist and musician.

A Controversial Topic

It's a little bit of a controversial subject among popular guitarists. We're kind of renowned for perhaps not being the best readers among other musicians. While this may be true for some, sight reading is a really, really useful skill. It's come in handy for me ever since I made it a focus to get better at it.

Breaking It Down

Although it can seem overwhelming, we can break it down into nice, easy, digestible steps.

• I've prepared a PDF for you to download that walks you through the basics of how to approach sight reading.
• If you are doing the Rotschool syllabus, this may be a necessary part of your exam.
• If you opt out of doing the improvisation section, then you'll be doing sight reading instead.

Learning Benefits

Not only is it useful for exams, but also for learning your pieces:

• Instead of solely relying on learning by ear from backing tracks, if you can read, you can learn directly from the sheet music.
• It also aids in transcribing your own solos. If you understand the process of sight reading, you can easily write those out.

Career Opportunities

Sight reading is a really useful skill to consider when looking ahead into potential careers as a musician.

• If you want to work in theaters or pits, it's an essential skill. You can't perform those jobs without being able to read.
• On many gigs, you're usually presented with charts, especially if you're covering for someone. It's really helpful to avoid the pressure of looking at a page and thinking, "I have no idea what this is."

Conclusion

So, just some basic reading skills can really help you go a long way. Please do download the PDF and check it out!