Moving on to the use of sheet music. It does come out once in a while in one of the sessions I get to and some players are good sight readers but I think it's usually only used as a prompt either to think of an idea for the next tune set or as a reminder as to how something goes.

Although I took O level music (getting a U) did have a few classical guitar lessons as a teenager and was once involved in part of making the dots available to others via abc on the Internet I can not sight read.

My mother on the other hand was almost (clashed with her physio finals and then had me...) grade 8 piano and could (some disability gets in the way now) play a lot when presented with the music but can be lost without. She sometimes wonders how I can do what I do (or try to do...) and I can be mystified as to how she can make sense of what can look to me like a wall of notes on a piano score and I can fail on a simple melody line.

Of course Mo is right that ideally one would be able to do both but at home anyway, our abilities (and lacks of) maybe at times are a bit of a contrast.