Free Music Articles

Sight reading guitar chord can be a difficult task to master. In general, the guitar is one of the hardest instruments to learn sight reading on because there are multiple places to play the same note. This creates a situation where you must learn multiple sight reading positions to be able to play parts that may go higher or lower than normal in pitch. With all of these complications, sight reading guitar chords can really be challenging, but with a rational approach and some consistent practice, you will have it down before long.

The type of guitar sight reading with chords that is not so difficult is when you are simply reading chord names written above the melody or lyrics. This is as easy as memorizing the locations of the chords you will most likely be playing in whatever style you play. Since you are just looking at one unit of information, the chord name, it is not that hard to process and play the chord.

When there are multiple symbols in a notated chord things get harder. In this case, your brain must recognize four or five unites of information, organize them, and determine what chord to play. This is a lot more information to handle, and a lot more work to be done. In order to simplify this process and enable yourself to actually play notated chords on the fly, you will have to condense those multiple units of information into one.

You do this by memorizing the appearance of common chords and intervals in notation. If you can look at a group of notes and immediately say major triad first inversion shape, then all you have to do is play that shape at whatever root note is displayed. This is still no easy task but you have eliminated a lot of work for your brain. You no longer have to look at each note in the chord and read them all off, just recognize the type of chord shape, and play that shape on the root.

The best way to practice this is to find some sheet music that uses a lot of triads and three note chords. If you cant find suitable music, write some exercises of your own. After you have memorized all of the basic three note chord shapes in notation, move on to four notes, then five, and so on for as long as you need. You may want to start out by memorizing the basic intervals in notation to help you get the chords down.

This will take consistent practice to really pay off, but the result will be a mastery of sight reading that few guitar players reach. Sight reading guitar chords can enable you to get more gigs and make more money as a musician, and that is always a good thing.

Original article on Music Articles.