If you’ve ever tried to learn how to read music on guitar, you might know the cycle all too well:
- Start with a method book, determined to get better.
- Make it a few pages in, then get frustrated and stop.
- Forget everything, start over months later, and repeat.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Lots of guitarists struggle with learning to read standard notation—not because reading music itself is hard, but because the normal approach doesn’t always fit how you play, and where you are skill-level wise.
Especially if you can already play guitar – and you’re just working on reading music. Method books are usually not a great fit, because they’re too simple and don’t apply to the music you actually want to play.
But we’re often taught to “do things the right way” and so we try to start at the beginning. And end up stuck. And the cycle starts over again.
Eventually, you either find a “trick” that works for you and get it good enough…
… or you just give up on reading music altogether.
In this post, we’ll look at why reading music on guitar feels difficult, the common mistakes that get you stuck, and a realistic way to make progress without constantly restarting.
Why Learning to Read Music on Guitar Feels Hard
Reading music notation itself is actually pretty easy.
The problem isn’t necessarily recognizing notes on a staff. You just have to learn what they are, and do it enough that you can remember what they are. They don’t change.
Most guitarists can understand rhythms and note names quickly. Accidentals are easy to understand with a little practice – and so are key signatures.
The real challenge? Getting the notes on the page to fit onto your fretboard so you can actually play it.
Most of the method books you can find (like A Modern Method for Guitar) start in the open position. and focus on step-by-step exercises rather than real-world applications. But many guitarists—especially those playing jazz, rock, or modern styles—don’t actually play much in open position.
This mismatch between how notation is taught and how guitar is actually played makes it easy to get discouraged and quit.
Method Books Won’t Show You How to Read Music On Guitar
At least, not in a way that’s actually helpful for you.
Books like A Modern Method for Guitar (affiliate link) are great for total beginners, but if you’re already an intermediate player, grinding through simple exercises can feel pointless.
Many guitarists quit because they’re bored rather than overwhelmed.
Or (if you’re already in lessons or a music school) you have other stuff you have to get done. So playing through easy reading exercises can become a low priority for you pretty quickly.
If you’re not motivated by learning the little songs in the method, it’s not going to work very well for you. And if you’re trying to get better at reading in general, there are other approaches to look at.
This is where I would get stuck. I was going through the berklee method to “get better at reading” in general. But it didn’t ever transfer over to the music I actually needed to read.
Learn How to Read Music Where You Actually Play it
Most of the method books out there start you in first position (frets 1–4). Which is great if you’re a beginner just learning to play. (and if you’re interested in reading music as a beginner…)
But that’s not where most jazz or modern players spend their time.
If you’re already playing, you need to be able to read the notes where they line up with scale positions you already know and use.
That was one of the frustrating things about going through the method books to work on reading – I didn’t need to be able to read in the open position.
I needed to read higher up the neck, where the music I was actually playing for ensembles was. With the tools I had available, I struggled through and figured out some ways to map things out for myself.
But most of the “how to read music on guitar” books available at the time weren’t much help.
Don’t Treat Reading Music as an Isolated Skill
Spending some of your time on sight reading is a good idea. But it doesn’t have to be an isolated skill. You can work on sight reading on material that actually relates to what you’re doing.
Here are a couple of approaches:
Sight Read Hard Transcriptions. One friend of mine swore by this one. He would spend his sight reading time going through something really hard, really slowly.
For example, he would open up a page in the Charlie Parker Omnibook (affiliate link) and go slowly, note by note. But still sight reading – he never went back and fixed things, or played the same page 2 days in a row.
Use Your Real Book. I had a student of mine who did this with great results. All of his college auditions required sight reading, so this is what he did:
He opened his real book (affiliate link), and sight read the melody to one song. And the next day, he’d flip to another song and do the same thing.
Both of these approaches mix sight reading, and the general material you’re working with as a jazz guitarist.
With the omnibook, my friend was getting his fingers around some bebop vocabulary as he worked on finding the notes on the fretboard.
And with the real book, my student was reading melodies and developing his feel for how phrases should go.
Try one of these approaches as your sight reading practice, and I think you’ll be happy with the results.
How to Actually Make Progress With Reading Music on Guitar
1. Make it a Habit
The more you read music notation, the better you’re going to get at it. And the more often you practice sight reading something new, the less stressful sight reading is going to be.
If you have a practice routine, find a place you can work in sight reading in each session. Maybe right after your scales, or right before you work on tunes you need to learn.
It doesn’t matter where you put it, it matters that you’re consistent about when you do it (within your routine). That way, it becomes automatic after a few weeks.
If you don’t have a practice routine, you might find it helpful to come up with one. Check out my article about the morning coffee routine I followed for years for consistent progress on guitar.
2. Read Where You Actually Play
I always found it helpful to connect the notes on the page to scale patterns I was already good at. In fact, that’s how I teach my students to this day.
There isn’t much sense to developing sight reading skills in the open position and the key of C. Which is where just about every method book wants to start you out. It’s a logical approach, but it’s just not where you’re actually going to need to be able to read.
Finding a good resource that helps you connect the notes on your page to your fretboard isn’t as hard as it used to be.
Check out the book Guitarists Guide to Music Reading by Chris Buono (affiliate link). It’s the best book I’ve found for players who can already play – but need to know how to read actual music.
I love this book, and I’ve had students use it for years. Often, this book is the resource that makes things “click” into place for them – as far as reading is concerned.
3. Use a More Practical Reading Approach
Reading music that has no connection to what you’re actually playing doesn’t necessarily help very much. (though there are exceptions to this…)
I like the approach of taking a book of transcriptions and reading through a section of it very slowly. You get lots of practice in translating the written notes onto the fretboard. And you have to figure out good places to play each phrase as you go.
The other approach I’ve found to be useful is opening the real book (or any other fake book) to a page and reading through the melody. This gives you a similar challenge to working with transcriptions, but it’s often a little bit easier.
And there’s the added benefit of some reality here – most of what you’ll ever need to sight read are melodies. Or sections of melodies.
A good bet is probably to do a little bit of each approach, depending on how you’re feeling that day or week.
How To Read Music On Guitar – Do What Works
There isn’t a right or a wrong approach to learning how to read music on guitar. But I’ve heard from a lot of students of mine that method books haven’t worked well for them.
They get bored. Or they move too fast. Or they’re not giving them skills they can actually use in rehearsals or on gigs.
I’ve found that the answer here (like in a lot of things) is to turn to the music itself for the answer. Practice reading the kinds of things you’re likely to need to know how to read.
There’s some legwork to do here though, it’s not a quick fix. You need to learn how the notes line up with your scale patterns. And you need to practice reading in your various scale shapes.
So grab your real book or your omnibook, and get to work! The sooner you get started, the sooner you won’t find sight reading to be that hard at all.
Your Primer on Major Scales
Need to learn your major scale positions so you can get a jump on reading music? I’ve got you covered. My ebook 5 Essential Major Scale Shapes for Jazz Guitar is your simple and direct guide to learning these common scale shapes. They’ve been used by great jazz guitarists for years – so grab your copy today!