Discreetly used 'cheat sheets' are one thing. Trained singers who may be able to sight-read fluently and expressively are another, although often when they are 'reading' it is a piece they have already learned and internalised. I don't have too much of a problem with this, if it doesn't interfere with the delivery of the song, although I think it looks poor. What the criticism, and I suspect the directive from the organisers of Joe's event, is aimed at are those who use use the book as a substitute for learning the song. In particular, it is the normalisation of this behaviour which I object to, because (in my experience) in most cases this does interfere with their delivery of the song.

Memorising songs isn't easy. It takes practice, but with practice it becomes easier. If you rely on reading the words you'll never get the practice and you'll never acquire that skill. As I said before, anyone with genuine memory problems is excused, but I just don't believe that applies to very many.

I also think part of the problem is that people feel the need to maintain too large a repertoire, whether its feeling they need to produce a new song every time they perform or feel that they ought to be able to perform all the songs they have ever learned. Most performers keep only around a dozen or so songs in their current performing repertoire, although which songs these are will be changed regularly. They wouldn't expect to produce one of several hundred songs at the drop of a hat.