Why skilled guitar players can read music notation faster is simply because they are NOT reading each musical note individually. They're reading the intervals, meaning the distance in between the notes. This is a straightforward shorthand technique for reading intervals.
Possessing systems and patterns will always make reading music notation less difficult. A good system makes it possible to cut down your choices of what the note might be. So instead of needing to choose amongst 7 different notes, you may just need to choose between maybe three possible ones. This effectively slices your decision making amount of time in half which makes your reading much faster.
Learning how to identify intervals achieves just that.
You'll notice a couple of things about the intervals above:
- The even numbered intervals (2nds, 4ths, 6ths, and octaves) have got one line note and one space note.
- The odd numbered intervals (3rds, 5ths, 7ths) contain both the notes on spaces or lines.
Simply put your starting point will be identifying whether you are working with an even or odd interval.
At this stage you have refined your options down to three or four intervals instead of 7. Then you want to judge the space in between the notes to discover the correct one. Let's take a look at the way they lay out:
Even Intervals
2nd: Squished up and tweaked sideways
4th: Small gap
6th: Medium gap
Octave: Big gap
Odd Intervals:
3rd: No gap
5th: Small gap
7th: Big gap
See, if you break it down, you have just two easy selections to make to arrive at the correct interval. That's much quicker than, say, counting the spaces.
There is one other wrinkle to be accounted for here. For a lot of the intervals you will find both major and minor variations. For example, C to E is a major 3rd. C to Eb is a minor 3rd. When we are talking about composing or looking at diatonic guitar chords and the like that is a bigger worry. Yet, from just a reading standpoint our system covers this too.
The strategy I have gone over with you here gets the interval between natural notes very quickly. If there is a sharp or flat involved, it'll be either part of the key signature or written right next to the note (called an 'accidental'). Simply apply the strategy to figure your natural notes initially, then simply just slap on whichever sharps or flats you may need.
And so what's the advantage here? If you are looking at a couple of notes, you should only need to identify one of them and after that choose the interval to know what the 2nd one is. As soon as you've gotten to know how the interval patterns lay out on your guitar neck (that's the up coming step) do not need to name this second note after all.
Also, in a even more subtle (although potent) way this tends to strengthen your all around guitar playing. The thing that makes a musical line intriguing is not the notes on their own, but also the relationship between the notes. If you're reading a single note at a time, your guitar playing can sometimes sound a touch disconnected. However if you are thinking in terms of the relationships (intervals), your notes will be more connected and then your phrases will flow far better. It really is a small change, yet I've seen it do wonders for my guitar students.
Your next step is learning these simple interval patterns on your guitar fretboard. You'll find them all at The Epic Guide To Intervals For Beginning Guitar.
