In lessons, many guitar students ask us if they should learn to read traditional written notation or stick with the standard tabs that can be found online in many places.
I thought I would answer this ongoing question and weigh the pros and cons.
Written notation:
Pros:
Gives you a solid foundation for understanding notes across the fretboard which is important when you want to get into soloing and improvisation. It can also be really helpful when you want to communicate your ideas quickly with other musicians. That said, you don’t necessarily need to read music to know the notes around the fretboard. There are more direct and simple note naming exercises, such as choosing a scale and naming horizontally on a string that can render the same benefit.
Increases an understanding of rhythm. Rhythm, in my opinion, is the most important (and the most abstract) aspect of learning the guitar, or any instrument. Many students come to me with an ability to successfully play a few chords and even approximate a strumming pattern. In most cases, there will be a limited understanding and issues with strumming patterns which may or not be obvious to the student at first. After showing them how to count, using rhythmic values from the traditional notation system they quickly begin to see that the strumming pattern they thought was correct was actually quite far from accurate. This is usually accompanied by poor mechanics with the right hand aswell. I’m a huge fan of teaching people how to read rhythm notation but again, this can be done in isolation and does not need to be accompanied by months of learning traditional notation.
Cons:
Takes a long time to learn how to read notation. I spent years at college becoming proficient in sight reading and I barely see notation in any of the professional gigs I have done. Chord charts are another issue.
It is not ideal for a pattern based instrument like guitar. If you haven’t already figured this out then you’ll know there are multiple ways to play the same note on guitar. On a piano there is only one way to play middle C. This creates confusion when playing parts on guitar and in my opinion is not ideal.
Most genres (except classical) are not written in traditional notation. You will be far more likely to find tab parts with rhymic stems attached. This is the best of both worlds. I have included a pic of my favourite type of score that includes both tab info and rhythmic notation.
Conclusion:
Don’t spend your time in guitar lessons learning traditional notation (unless you are entering a post secondary music program, or are a classical guitar player). You are far better off investing your time in becoming proficient at reading rhythm notation and tab. Then learn how to source out the best tab scores which have a combination of both and you will be able to dissect, and play any part you desire. Happy practising and I hope your guitar lessons are going great!
