Reading Music?

Does any one read music, and does it benefit your playing?

The reason I ask is I took a trip to my local library and they had a book from berklee press, a modern method for guitar. I would say technically I'm well beyond this book, but i checked it out anyways becuase it had a DVD, it could be fun to try and learn to read music (maybe fun was a poor word choice).

I've gotten through the first exercise and feel pretty exhausted, reading those damn notes is much harder that i thought.

If it will benefit my playing and musical knowledge then I'll dedicate some practice time to learning to read music, but if not i'll not waste any more of my time with it.

I would like opinion's and input.

I really believe being able to read music makes it easier to understand more about music and it is much less restricting than just tabs

If you can read music you can play pretty much anything

i can read music pretty well but i wouldnt say i was 'fluent'. i learnt when i was quite young (about 7)and have just recently started reading music again. Benefit? depends really. composing with a score sheet is much easier due to the fact you have note lengths and key signatures. everything is just that bit more tidy rather than tabs.

say you were practicing a peice you're not familiar with. seeing the note length with also keep you in time alot better too. so yeh i guess it would benefit

Yeah, it helps out a lot. It'll unfortunately be harder for you because you didn't start while you were first learning your instrument. But keep at it because it'll definitely pay off.

I can read music (started learning on guitar and got more practice with trumpet and piano), but I rarely do. :(

I need to start writing my songs out in notation so I can remember the rhythm...

Yes it helps me. Whenever I get bored with guitar I just play piano, because I know the notes and music theory. Plus when im finding the root not on guitar, I can find it easier by know where that note is, instead of playing each damn fret one by one to hear it. I use to play one position of the pentatonic scale, now I play five, and even move around to major and other minor scales. So learn some music theory, it is SO worth the time :)