Reading The "D" String

Another way to help you read sheet music, is to look at the note that you have just played, see if the note after is higher or lower, then work out how much higher or lower it is. Think of your staff as steps. As you can see with the picture to the right, the steps are on a line then a space then a line again and so on.

Try to make the comparison between note on the staff moving up or down one place (eg. space to a line or line to a space) and notes on the guitar moving up or down one placing (this doesn't mean one fret at a time but more so to the next note, eg. D to E or F to G). This will make sight reading a little easier. Most of the time songs will go up or down in steps. A good example of this is "Song Of Joy". Look below and you'll see how the next note in the song is only one step up or down from the previous. Good sight readers don't even think of what the notes are playing, they just use the steps (or intervals) between the notes to play the song.