Sight Reading Chords on Guitar
There are two main types of chord sight reading that you will encounter as a guitar player. The first, and most common for most styles, is reading chord symbols and names written above notated parts or just as a chord sheet by themselves. This is by far the easier situation. The chord symbols simply mean you should play that chord in any voicing you want on the guitar, unless it specifically states a certain bass note or something. Since you most likely already have chords memorized by their names, it shouldn’t be that hard to be able to sight read a chord sheet.
These types of situations also open the door for chordal improvisation, which can be fun.
The more difficult type of chordal guitar sight reading is when you encounter notated chords. These can be hard to work with as they require you to recognize how the notated chords look in notation and then be able to play them on the guitar. It also means that a specific voicing is required that may only have one place it can be played.
It can take a while to memorize all of the different main chord types based on their notated appearance. Reading one note at a time in the chord while sight reading will not work because you cannot do this quickly enough. You need to be able to see a notated chord as a single unit and recognize what it is.
So how do you learn how to do this? The best way is to start with all of the three note chords, like the triads, and memorize those. Look for sheet music that uses a lot of these chords or just write your own exercises to practice. Writing them down may help you memorize them in itself.
After you have the three note chords down, think about the main four note chords that you will encounter in the styles of music that you play. There will obviously be more of these, but because you know the main triads already, you will already be able to recognize them inside of the four note chords, and this will help you memorize them quicker.
Sight reading chords on guitar can be one of the hardest aspects of guitar sight reading but it can be very rewarding to be able to play the more complex classical pieces that employ them.
October 26 2009 12:26 am | Guitar Sight Reading