Recently I've come in a phase where I really want to be able to read music, mainly because as a singing teacher I constantly have to expand my repertoire. And it feels like being a child all over again. It is terribly frustrating. I used a childrens programme on the pc, called Music Ace. For basic reading it was excellent, but there seem to be so many ways to grow from there and so many ways of approaching the whole theory thing... A friend of mine said something that I wanted to share with you, because my suspicion is that the 'Cants' of this thread are in the same boat. He said: "You do know your music theory. You just haven't defined it." And there have been times when I thought that it is more important to have an instinct for music than to have a grade 8 in theory. When I write or improvise music, I don't get lost in possible chord structures and key changes, because I have to rely on listening to the music inside of me and surrounding me- there are no formal rules available to me to (mis)guide me. I do realise that instrumentalists have a harder time than singers to play by ear, and I have tremendous admiration for people who know their theory. When I write together with my friend who has such an incredible knowledge of theory, we have a good combination, because we complement eachother through our different approaches. I say thank god that we have both Can'ts and Cans. We need them both!
An