A large subset of the language of music is instrument independent. However, the part that involves playing the instrument involves, uh, learning the instrument. I don't know if that answers your question. Unless you jut want to read the music in your mind, that is.

Let me try again. Do you already play instruments (e.g. the guitar) but not know how to play them from reading music?

Answer #1: Yes and no. Music is written in various clefs, but G clef and C clef are the usual. Music for violas and violins sometimes use another clef because it's easier to read. Overall, G and C clefs will get you through 99% of the time.

Answer #2: Short answer: Get a book written specifically for guitar. Long answer: Guitar is difficult because the same note can occur at 3 or 4 different frets. The layout of a guitar and other stringed instruments is not at all linear as it is on a piano.

Addendum: Hope Melismata answers this question. Her explanations of music theory are impeccable.

Short answer #1 - pretty much, yes.

More details: Except for some avant-garde things, all - let's call it "common practice" music - for any instrument which uses familiar western scales can be expressed on the familiar five lines and four spaces. Piano and violin certainly qualify. There will be some qualitative differences. Piano music typically uses two staves simultaneously to accomodate the right and left hands; a violin can effectively play at MOST four (arguably, just 3) notes at a time and is rarely called on to do even that, so a violinist's part uses only a single staff. So does the music for most instruments that aren't keyboards, actually. The use of different clefs makes it possible to adapt the five-line staff to the different ranges of various instruments - a violin, a viola, and a cello have different ranges, and use different clefs to keep the notes on the staff as much as possible. A violin uses almost exclusively the familiar treble (G) clef, for which the bottom line represents E above middle C. The viola has a lower range and often uses the alto clef, on which the bottom note is F below middle C. And so on.

There is an added wrinkle that some instruments - particularly ones that come in families of larger and smaller sizes - are treated as transposing instruments; the composer may have to write the pitches for example a step higher (or an octave higher) than the pitch he intends. This is so that the same written note always corresponds to the same fingering for instrumentalists. That is an aside. Don't worry about that unless you're playing, say, French Horn along with your Beethoven CD, looking at the score and wondering why it sounds like ass.

#2 - Traditional notation is badly suited to the guitar (because any note can typically be played in many positions, for one thing), and tab and chord charts are better for almost all popular music. Classical guitarists need to learn traditional notation. The DIY way to learning traditional notation, in my opinion, is to spend some time learning to read music at the piano (or keyboard), which is best adapted to traditional notation. Once you've got the idea, sit down with your guitar, look at a melody that's been written out, and find the notes. Learning how to play a major and minor scale up and down in various positions will teach you much of what you need to know to pick out a melody. Reading large chord voicings from traditional notation is (1) awkward at best and (2) often not really even practical if the music isn't specifically for guitar - a keyboardist can easily play chords that are just technically impossible (or unfeasible, or would just sound bad) on the guitar. If you're going to play chordal parts on the guitar its more advantageous to learn what chord names like Cm and G7 mean and what the common fingerings are for them.

Best way to learn music (start with G, or treble clef), is to either take an easy, single-line instrument like the recorder or violin, or a sight-singing class. It's pretty universal. Violin is on G clef; piano is usually on G clef (mostly right hand) and F, or bass clef (mostly left hand). Many instruments (flute, oboe, clarinet *) are written in G-clef; others (cello) are in bass clef. Only the viola is written in C-clef. %) Guitar chords are a different beast, but if you want to just pick out a melody, find a song in G-clef and try playing it. There are many books that purport to just teach you to read music, and you can use any instrument you want with these books. *

* I don't recommend instruments that aren't in concert pictch. Please don't get me started about these, they hurt my perfect-pitch brain.

"spend some time learning to read music at the piano"

Most definitely. I learned to read in high school chorus, watching the pianist's hands while the director was working with the girls or the basses.

Melismata - I have the gift of perfect pitch coupled with the curse of a voice that cannot hold a tune. Feel my pain.

Let me try again. Do you already play instruments (e.g. the guitar) but not know how to play them from reading music?

Yes, the guitar.

I'm so grateful for these explanations! Will be back later to absorb, and plan an attack.

spend some time learning to read music at the piano

I agree with this as well. If nothing else, it allows you to start with only one finger.

Jan - I feel it! What a blessing AND a curse.

I love this question and the answers. I've been a lifelong music fanatic yet I have no understanding of the mechanics. This is something I've wondered for a while, but didn't even know how to phrase the question. Thanks iconomy.

One thing I learned about guitar. It's just about impossible to play decent ragtime with a pick.

I second starting at a piano. What I did was get one of those long cards with the notes paired with the keys, like so, (but it was actually keyboard-sized) and just played pieces that way until it "clicked" somewhat.

The guitar is my instrument, but I still can't read with it. So I haven't a clue about how to go about that.

But good luck. I know that people do it.

Lessons. You'll progress so much quicker. And it's always a mitzvah to support a fellow musician. : )

(jan -- are you sure you have perfect pitch? i.e., you can listen to music and transcribe/write down the notes or tell what the notes are just by listening? I was always jealous of folks who could do this in theory class -- seemed like cheating to me! It would be very strange for someone with perfect pitch not to be able to sing on key.)

Answer #1: Assyria.

Answer #2: George Washington.

I'm the wrong person to ask. I learned to read music by playing the drums.

*rimshot*

jan -- are you sure you have perfect pitch? i.e., you can listen to music and transcribe/write down the notes or tell what the notes are just by listening?

Indeedy, yes I can. Ask me to sing a middle C, though, and whilst I can hear the note perfectly in my head, what comes out of my mouth sounds like a goose farting in the fog.

But I do like to sing! I've learned, though, to confine it to karaoke (in a group, and a shouty-type song), the car (by myself), the shower (ditto) and Christmas carol services. I'm also somewhere between mezzo and alto, so most songs are either too low or too high for me, which doesn't help when I'm straining for the note.

Sometimes it hurts me to hear myself sing, it's so bad!

Curious. Do you play an instrument? I'd kill to be able to hear something and reproduce it on the guitar, for instance. I can do it a little bit, but nothing like if I had perfect pitch. In music school, they segregated our theory classes -- those with and those without perfect pitch. It was about 50/50. I did fine on the written tests, but when they'd start with the four part harmony on piano and expect us to write out what we were hearing, I was lost. We'd all look around at each other, all us imperfect pitchers, and just shrug and sigh. Of course, my father was completely tone deaf (so naturally he loved to sing on long road trips -- Pennsylvania was never so long -- Home, home on the range...), so I guess I'm still a step up.