It is important to actually read music on guitar. The guitar is a real music instrument, with all the benefits available to those who play it... one of those benefits is an extensive wealth of already written out music as well as learning materials. These things far exceed the examples that are offered in "TAB" (a sort of play by number system popular today). Naturally, any system of literacy is beneficial in all fields of development, and the guitar is no different. It is of course important to explain that as with all education,within the area of learning and playing guitar there are always some individuals who have handicaps. There are those who just cannot see at all because they are blind, and some who have reading disabilities such as dyslexia, a condition that makes normal reading of anything difficult if not all together impossible. However, if no pre-conditions exist a person should always learn to read music on guitar. Why would anyone want to be behind in any ability because they are illiterate. We do not live in a society that offers as many opportunities to those who do not have the ability to read the language necessary to function at their fullest.
Also, it must be known that what people think is reading guitar music, that is "TAB", (read the page on this site on Tablature) is not reading at all. In fact tablature was a system used hundreds of years ago for guitar and similar fretted string instruments and was one of the problems in guitarists interacting with other musicians then because all other instrumentalists read written music notation, but guitar players did not. Guitarists were essentially outsiders to the regular world of music performance, being held back by their inability to read or write the notation of other composers and players. In a way there was a sort of prejudice inflicted on those who played guitar, excluding them from the mainstream of music due to their illiteracy. It took hundreds of years for those who played guitar to finally come up to the level of understanding of the rest of the music world and learn to read. After this was accomplished the guitar began to flourish in areas of performance that it had formally been denied entrance into. It therefore most unfortunate that we have backslid to "TAB", and even more unfortunate for all those people who play the guitar thinking they are more advanced. They are really missing the boat you might say, or to put in other terms being forced to "sit in the back of the bus".
Now I will admit that tablature can be helpful in the location of notes at different positions up and down the neck of the guitar... if used in conjunction with actual notation, but even this is not necessary. Having taught guitar for over thirty years, I have never seen a person not develop better because they read. The awareness of all the notes, and choices of various places on the guitar to play these notes at is only beneficial. In fact tablature restricts people from learning the options for playing in different areas of the guitar neck, or to say the least holds them back by making them unaware that there are alternate places that the same notes appear.
The main thing is however... literacy! Why would anyone want to be deliberately illiterate. The system is in place to read music notation on guitar as on all other instruments. It took centuries for guitarists to crawl out of the so called "Dark Ages of Tablature" into the light of present day knowledge. reading music on guitar is not only important for the players development and future growth, but perhaps important for that of the guitar itself, so that its playing does not sink to an all time low, where it becomes irrelevant... or perhaps extinct.
If interested further in this aspect of the guitar and maintaining its place in the world of music, or perhaps becoming "extinct"... please go to
