Thanks, you don't know how encouraging it is for me to read the comments on this discussion topic. I liked the Neil Diamond story. I think I know the lick you are referring to in America... right? It was a very dominant part in the original song. At least the arranger sent you an audio file. I never get that blessing. The only thing I know before walking into a gig sometimes is the genre of the music to be performed, i.e. jazz, pop, oldies, etc.

Another nice thing as an addendum to this idea that learning to read helps with is you get to learn the formulas. Once you get the couple of formulas within a genre you pretty much can run the gig. Olides for example, 1,m6,4,5... etc. Sometimes you slip the m2 in place of the 4. Stuff like that. Having that grasp I can scan a chart and cluster the pieces I know and then focus on the unfamiliar parts, if any, that exist in the tune. There are a ton of neat tricks to working out charts once you understand them. I recommend getting a good Fake Book to learn about how to use that technique. Not only will you get to learn some cool, timeless standards. But, you can begin to learn how this stuff cycles in the song. It has also really helped my songwriting as well.

I learned how, didn't do it regularly, and now I'm painfully slow at reading, not a sight-reader.

If I have chord symbols and I'm familiar with how the song is supposed to sound, I can usually get by with that and my ear.

For bands, I rewrite each piece in my own 'shorthand' which consists of chord names, and tablature for single-note runs/riffs. I write rests in, but they are not accurately notated, just a reminder that there's a rest at all.

The good thing is I can usually squash several pages of music onto one sheet. No page turning! And for ongoing projects, I memorize anything anyway, never bring sheet music on stage if I can avoid it.

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Yes. Not that hard, I learned from a book, and worked on classical for about a year which puts me almost into the beginner category. And you can get rusty quick if you don't keep up.
But, to be able to play a song reasonably well after looking at it for 5 minutes, no. That's a whole other level than just being able to read music.

I don't read music (I can read tabs). Not sure I'll ever try to learn. It's hard enough for me just learning to play guitar!

But I think it is a tremendous skill to be able to read music. Imagine. If you can read music you can perform a composition you've never heard before and it will sound the way the composer intended it to. You can't do that with tabs!

I believe when you are just learning to play guitar is the best time to learn to read standard music notation.

You aren't going to be all that fast to begin with and you will need a lot of repetition to get better. Ideal conditions to learn to read music. It really isn't difficult to read music but it does take a lot of repetition / practice.

It really depends upon your personal goals.

If I was young I probably would be in a rush to get good enough to be in a band and wouldn't bother with reading music. But I'm older and want to enjoy learning and to become a more complete guitarist, if it takes me 10 years to become average, that's fine, but I will be able to read music.

Reading music isn't very difficult. Being able to play well what you read is a different matter.

You want a chuckle? I find reading TAB to be much more difficult that reading music. When ever I look at a TAB chart and I am staring at numbers in addition to the orientation of how the TAB writer developed the chart as well it perplexes me.

For example, in a standard piece of music a Middle "C" note is found in a single location. BUT, you can play it in a number of different places depending within the context of where you are on the fretboard. That has been my challenge with TAB. If I don't want to use where the TAB chart is leading me for strange reasons like the thickness of the string will offer a different tone for the exact same note, I don't have much choice but to play where I don't care for the timbre of the note. Or, rewrite the TAB. In that event, I just go back and write the score in standard format.

Yes, I read music in three languages. I find I can play much faster on sheet music than tab.

Fluently? When I was in school I could keep up with the ensembles. Now, I'm a former contender for the sight reading prize. If you are on the fence about whether to commit to being very good at sight reading I recommend doing it for a year or two, you may enjoy doing it once you're playing in an ensemble or band.

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Imagine trying to learn this tune without sheet music.

http://youtu.be/spUT-2tU2Yk

Yes, BUT,it's something that for the longest time was anethema to me .....hell why did blues or rock and roll players need to learn that crap for....and all the people I'd jammed with the ones who relied on having sheet music sucked at jamming.....Fast Forward fifteen years and now relying on teaching as part of the income I can't stress how valuable the ability to sight read has become even in this interwebby age where almost any pop song is available in the form of free video you tube download...learning to read expands your comprehension of how melody and harmony work and how to create chords and scales without relying upon rote positional and pattern playing......hmmm 'nuff said

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