Guitar Sight Reading: Playing without Looking
One beneficial aspect of learning guitar sight reading is that you will gain practice playing without looking at the guitar fretboard, which is something you have to do while sight reading effectively. This is an often overlooked aspect of playing guitar, which is a very visual instrument. Even though you can always look at the fretboard while playing, you need to develop a pure feel for the fretboard which will allow your hands to find their own way over the fretboard. This is why guitar sight reading practice can help you become a more fluent player besides just when sight reading.
When playing guitar you want to develop the ability to really listen to every note you are playing, and concentrate on how each note is sounding. Looking at your fingers while you play will not help with this. When you are looking at your hands you will never be able to concentrate on sound as much as when your eyes are closed or just sort of drifting off. This is why blind people are able to hear better, they are just more in tune with their hearing, it isnt actually better or worse. Guitar sight reading can help you develop this skill of not having to pay attention to your hands. While you sight read on a guitar you should be looking at the score and listening, and when there is no score, then you can just be listening. This is one of the overlooked aspects of guitar sight reading, and once you get to be a more advanced player, this becomes more and more important.
Guitar sight reading has many benefits that most people do not consider.
June 24 2009 02:33 pm | Guitar Sight Reading