Andrew Wasson of Creative Guitar Studio answer's a viewers question:

Q: I like your videos where it shows you going to gigs and playing at them. One thing I want to know about, is how you can learn so many songs so quickly when you have to play as a sub in a band.

You once made mention that you sometimes only get a few days notice to learn an entire evenings worth of material. This sounds incredible. I am 17 years old and I want to do what you do as a career but the idea of learning so many songs with such short notice is really intimidating.

Can you please do a video talking about this whole concept? I am very curious how musicians do this.

Thanks,
Bradley - Murrells Inlet, SC.

A: To do this kind of gig a musician would either receive or have to write out a quick stage chart, (also referred to as; "lead sheet or slash chart"). This isn't all that hard to do since what we are after here is simply a "rough sketch," of the harmony and overall arrangement of all of the songs that are unknown in a set-list.

In the video I cover many areas of doing a gig like this. Including showing real charts that I have used to do gigs where I had to jump in as a sub.

Material associated to this video is available for download off of the Creative Guitar website.
Follow the link below:
Creative Guitar Studio Stage/Slash/Lead Charts

To watch the videos Bradley had mentioned, follow the link below to the YouTube playlist:
"Events & Live Playing Playlist"

Andrew discusses the principles of reading a notated melody from off of the music staff. Included topics covered in the lesson are; Clef sign, Key Signature sign, Time Signature symbol, Note layout, pitch relationship to the guitar, and fingerboard concepts involved in learning to read music notation (no tab) on guitar.

The response from Andrew Wasson of Creative Guitar Studio to;

Was hoping that you could help me with the topic of Music Reading.

I have absolutely no understanding of reading music. So, I will just go over what I have been researching so far...

- Ive learned that music is read off of the Music Staff.

- The staff is composed of 5 lines and 4 spaces.

- The lines are named from the bottom going upwards; E, G, B, D, F. (mnemonic = Every Good Boy Does Fine)

- The spaces are named again from bottom going up F, A, C, E (spelling the word FACE).

- There are 5 note durations:
Whole = 4 beats,
Half = 2 beats,
Quarter = 1 beat,
Eighth = 1/2 a beat
Sixteeth note... (but, I have no idea what it looks like or what it does).

This is all I know. Ive heard that the lines on the staff represent strings on the guitar. If so, how come there are six strings on a guitar and five lines on the staff.? And, if the lines are the guitar strings, what do the spaces on the staff represent?

I am having a very difficult time understanding this. I have been watching your videos and I am hoping that you could help me to understand all of this.

- Shane

Andrew discusses the principles of the music staff including; Clef sign, Key Signature sign, Time Signature symbol, Note layout, pitch relationship to the guitar, and fingerboard concepts involved in learning to read music notation on guitar.