Reading Music Vs Tabs

slobberdog68

Hi
My son is 14 and he's been playing guitar for 2 years, acoustic and electric. He's into blink 182, green day etc...says it's not punk to learn how to "read" music. My question is, for those who do or don't "read" music, is it that important? I heard Paul McCartney doesn't even know how to "read" music.
How about the guys in the band? Does anyone know if they ever learned, or did they just teach themselves?
Thanks for any input.

curly

i'd go with the obvious...it most certainly couldn't hurt....

then...as you get older..i'm sure being able to read music has a certain level appreciation/respect..

if he wants to b a punk rocker...i guess learning tabs is also much better than being a party animal...

it seams way too many wanna be junkie's so they can say their punk and thats where it really gets sad/lame...

sorry...i'm just blabbing today...if my comments are stupid...don't mean to be offensive...

Newch91

From my experience playing music, I've found reading music to be very helpful and a great experience with what I play. I played trumpet when I was in 3rd grade, stopped and went to drums from 4th to 8th grade. When I got to high school, I learned how to play piano and learned to read music. Playing the piano and reading music helped me learn guitar and it was an easy transformation for me to learn. I encourage to learn to read music.

Paul McCartney took some music lessons after The Beatles became famous, but he doesn't use it to compose music.

slobberdog68

Thanks for the input, I agree, now I just need to covince a 14 year old know it all :roll:

DriftingByTheStorm

To properly read music on staffs, you have to have some understanding of music THEORY -- in particular an understanding of the Circle of 5ths to even read what key the dang stuff is in --
so in that sense, YES, it WILL help to "read music".

Do you need to read music to learn theory? no.
Do you need it to play guitar? no.
Does TAB work just as well as sheet music? Some argue its better. Although, it lacks time signatures in most printed forms.

I'd recommend him at least TRY to study some sheet music \ theory,
but if he just wants to play some punk songs on guitar,
he has a valid point that it is sort of not relevant ...
and certainly something most punk musicians eschew, themselves.

also, if he is not going to USE it,
he won't retain it.
So it WOULD be a waste in that case.

slobberdog68

@drifting-he starts high school in Sept and there is a music theory class as an elective, I told him he has to take it. thanks for all the info.

DriftingByTheStorm

slobberdog68 wrote:

@drifting-he starts high school in Sept and there is a music theory class as an elective, I told him he has to take it. thanks for all the info.

I'm sure he will get more out of it \ enjoy it a lot more than some other electives they offer in highschool.

i hope it is a good class with a good teacher though, because a bad class on music theory can TOTALLY turn you off to it.