I have decided to start this thread because of some of the questions I have read to do with time signatures & slurs etc... There seems to be alot of confusion out there & some of the answers given are
not correct, yet if people could read music things would be very clear.
I personally learnt to read music some time ago & while at first it took a while to grasp it now makes perfect sense, the only skills you need are very simple mathematics that a child can do & the desire to learn.
Why learn? Because your comprehension & enjoyment of music will skyrock! And while many professionals play only by ear, those who can do both are many times better off, as both abililities multiply each other as opposed to just adding to each other. I know some guys (& girls) who have both abilities, they can pick up a piece of sheet music hear it in their head & sing it. Also when you get into tabbing advanced pieces of music or transcribing, you will need to know.
How to learn? In most
public libraries around the world you will find books on the subject, nowadays they come with CDs that let you hear the samples & most public libraries are free! (Well you probably pay for it through your rates/local taxes etc...)
If you can't get to your library soon there are websites out there & free software to get you started:
http://www.download.com/Music-Readin...ml?tag=lst-0-1
(includes a review)
http://www.mtbasics.com/downloads/mtbasics.exe
(latest version)
Persevere! I know it sounds like hard work, but it's not. It's not as difficult as learning another language or quantum physics, it's about as difficult as learning to use the internet. If you learn just a few things a day for about 10-15 minutes you will be reading fairly well within a few weeks to months. Go on give it a try, you have nothing to lose, you can only be enriched!
Dan
Ps. Public libraries are great resources, you will probably find other books there that will help you with your music. But beware, don't fall into the trap of spending all your time reading & surfing the net to learn guitar. Nothing can beat practicing on the actual guitar.