Learn where specific notes are on the staff. Guitar music is in treble clef, so the lines on a piece of sheet music, reading from bottom to top, represent the notes E G B D F. The spaces read F A C E.
Locate specific notes on the guitar. One of the things that makes guitar notes complicated to read is the fact that some notes can be played in multiple places on the neck. Learn every place where each note can be played on your guitar.
Locate which notes on the staff apply to which notes on the guitar. The low E is written in the space below the third ledger line (extra line) below the bottom line of the staff, the A is on the second ledger line beneath the staff, the D is on the space immediately beneath the staff, the G is on the second line, the B is on the middle line and the E is on the top line.
Learn to read the note length markers. Whole notes are open circles, half notes are open circles with a stem, quarter notes are closed circles with a stem, eighth notes are closed circles with a stem and a flag, and sixteenth notes are closed circles with a stem and two flags. Notes of shorter duration are marked by adding more flags.
Learn to read rest length markers. Whole rests are black bars that hang from the fourth line from the bottom, half rests are black bars that sit on the middle line, a quarter rest resembles a calligraphic three, eighth rests are diagonal lines with what resembles a backwards flag and sixteenth rests are diagonal lines with two backwards flags.
Find notes that are tied together with a line. These are either ties or slurs, and they mean that the note is either held across more than one note (a tie) or connected to the note before it, as in slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs (a slur). The type of slur is marked above or beneath the staff: "p" for pull-off, "h" for hammer-on and "s" for slide.
Look for a "P" or "PM" and a line running perpendicularly to the bottom of the staff. This means to palm-mute a set of notes.
Learn how to read the vibrato marker. Vibrato is marked by a squiggly line atop the note or notes meant to be given vibrato. Vibrato bar manipulations often have a short explanation above the staff. The types of harmonics (natural, artificial, etc.) are usually marked the same way.