Author Archives: Nia Lawrence

Proper music lessons will eventually involve sessions on sheet reading; you’ll need these if you want to step out of your self-taught skills and move on to standard notations. Notations may seem like a waste of time if you’re already familiar with chord positions or if you can work the frets and keys with lightning-fast ease, but your skills will eventually be limited by what you’ve learned so far, which isn’t much (unless you’re a prodigy or a virtuoso). Besides, all the great composers wrote down their music in notations; you’ll spend months learning a Chopin section by ear when you can master it in a few weeks with sheet music. Self-taught skills have their limits. Sheet music is important in ensembles, because you’ll only play in perfect harmony and rhythm if you follow the arrangement, which is always written in standard notation. Continue reading →