I get this question from my beginning guitar students a lot. Should you learn to read music as a guitar player? The answer depends on the way you learn, your goals as a musician, and what other kinds of musicians you’d like to interact with. It will always be useful to read music, but its not necessarily a crucial part of being a musician.

I learned to read music 20-something years ago when I first started taking guitar lessons at age ten. In college, I read music when I was studying orchestral pieces by Brahms, Bach, Barber and probably some other composers with “B” names. I’ve written string quartets, symphonic music, a sonata for cello and piano, and even music for a concert choir. I wrote sheet music in my music composition classes. I also did a lot of reading when I took jazz and classical guitar lessons in college.

Heres the deal though: I rarely read sheet music now. I’ll do it occasionally when I want to learn specific jazz and classical melodies, or when I want to play music written for other instruments on guitar. But when I’m writing songs I never use sheet music.

I’ve found that most guitarists I know don’t read or write sheet music. The ones that do seem to use it occasionally for learning jazz tunes, writing horn parts or playing in an orchestra pit for a musical or a play. Guitar players tend to use sheet music in only very specific situations like these, not usually for writing with a band or figuring out how to play songs from the radio. I would guess most songs on the radio don’t involve sheet music during the writing and recording process.

However, reading sheet music a valuable skill if you’re interested in being a flexible session player, especially if you’re looking to play and collaborate on a professional level with horn players, orchestral players, and classically trained musicians. If you want to write and read parts with those folks, you’re probably better off learning to read music.

Its not just about reading music though. Every professional guitarist I know has also done a hefty amount of ear training as well. That means if they can hear the guitar part, they can usually figure it out on the spot. If not immediately, with a small amount of work. It is usually more convenient and quicker for me to listen to a part and figure it out than for someone to give me sheet music.

An important side note/clarification: Most musicians I know write music by playing (and sometimes recording) what they are working on, then memorizing and practicing what they’ve written. Sheet music is rarely involved.

Up until about a hundred years ago, writing music was primarily the job of a composer or band leader, who would then bring parts to a band to play. They didn’t have recordings, so they needed the sheet music to know what to play! As smaller bands became more popular, people began writing sheet music less and less, because the smaller groups could just hear what to do and experiment together.

Paul McCartney doesn’t read music. Paul and John would write songs together for the Beatles to play. They didn’t need to write things down because they could either show or describe what they wanted George and Ringo to play. On the other end of the spectrum, Duke Ellington would write parts for each of his band members who were so good at reading music that they could pretty much play the parts perfectly in real time.

There are many more guitarists who never never learned to read music: Jimi Hendrix, Robert Johnson, Django Reinhardt, Eddie Van Halen, and Eric Clapton to name a few.

So it really comes down to what kind of guitar player you’d like to be. If sheet music appeals to you - learn how read and write it! If it doesn’t appeal to you, don’t worry about it. There is something satisfying about learning the language. The history of it makes you feel like you’re really connected with all the other musicians throughout history who have read and written sheet music. For some of my students, reading music really helps them understand how everything fits together. For other students, reading music is a giant snooze fest.

Regardless of your choice about reading sheet music, ear training is a must. Fortunately, most students develop a good foundation of ear training just from learning and practicing guitar.

Both skills are incredibly valuable, but in todays music culture its easier to be a musician without reading music than it is to get by without ear training! In the past that might have been a different story, but it seems to be the case today.

In a nutshell, learning to read music is incredibly useful, but not necessary. It has helped me a lot in my musical journey, but I don’t use it regularly enough to consider it a crucial part of my musicianship. If learning to read music appeals to you, pursue it. If its going to keep you from practicing, don’t worry about it.

There many ways to be a musician. Finding a way to learn that excites you is the most important consideration, because thats what will keep you playing for years and years.