So I decided, “I’ve played guitar for more than 20 years (I’m so f-ing old), I should probably learn to read music.”My very first musical exposure (other than church choir, where I tried really hard to sing like a girl) was 7th grade required music.  Before that, nada.  Around 3rd grade, I whacked the hand bells during practice in the choir loft (that place has a name, I just can’t remember), once, and was severely punished - hence the end of my interest in church music.  In middle school, however, I chose the violin (it was either that or choir - band was full by the time I made my selection).  There were several dozen violins, 15 cellists, and zero upright bass players.  Not only did my strings teacher encourage me to play the bass, she pointed out that there more than  a dozen basses that I could use and I could, in fact, take one home since no one played the bass.  Having something unique to play (plus the benefit of not having to beg for the money to rent a violin) helped me into something that would change my life.  Several Metallica bass lines later and I was losing my pajama bottoms to get my hands on a guitar.  Having to get around the guitar lick to transcribe the bass line was like asking a child to eat the green beens that were strewn around his piece of birthday cake.  Point is…  I learned the basics of reading music before convincing my uncle Dick to lend me his mid 70’s Gibson ES125 and his Polytone mini Brute jazz amplifier  from the same year.  Interestingly enough, this is the first time I’ve ever considered that in context.  He lent me his first real axe and amp.  Wow…  (I still have and play them, 20 years later (I’m so f-ing old)).Then it was on to ACDC and Guns and Roses.  You certainly don’t have to learn to read music to learn that pure vintage rock and roll treasure.  C’mon, think about the intro to “you shook me all night long” and tell me a teenage boy guitarist wasn’t in absolute heaven?20 years later and I’ve got my kids (yes, ‘kids’ Oh I am so f-ing old”) in bed and I decided that I’d learn to read staff music.  Why not?  I figured I’d just devour what I could find and work through each piece until I made zero mistakes and then move on.  I started on site #1 and I powered through the notes on the first string and it wanted to move to the second string but I hadn’t had but two plays through so I googled  “notes on the first string” and found this inaccurate guitar lesson.  SOMEONE please let me know if I am  mistaken.  However, the image below… is E, F, A, A (nooo?)So the tab, [0,1,3,3]… is WRONG….It should be [0,1,5,5), right?just checking…

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