Guitar lesson: Why is it so hard for many guitarists to read sheet music?

Probably the answer is: They haven't done anything about it. An old used tyre can stand leaned against the wall of a car garage for thousands of years. Why? Nobody has thought about moving it. Could it be that easy also with playing guitar sheet music? Sometimes we consider ourselves poor sight readers or not able to read guitar sheet music at all and we think this is part of our personality. Every person who wants to learn to read guitar sheet music notation properly has already taken the first step towards changing that condition!

Climbing the "Reading Guitar Sheet Music" mountain starts with step one.  I have been teaching guitar playing for many years and I have found that learning to play guitar is like many other activities. People often want to start from another position than from where they are. I would like to suggest that we approach the sight reading assignment from two directions. First by learning to find our way around the guitar and learning the notes on the guitar fretboard. You can make up your own exercises learning a few notes at a time. It doesn't have to take a long time to learn notes on the guitar fretboard if you do it a few minutes a day!

The second step is to learn the note names in your guitar sheet music. Use a few minutes of your practice time to just read the sheet music, trying to say the note names. If you are a more accomplished player and already know the note names it is still a good habit to read the sheet music trying to understand the music and try hearing it as you read. This will help you to spot rhythmical challenging parts and solving the note reading difficulties before you start playing the music on your guitar.