G'day all,

I have to agree with Mbo. Musical notation is a wonderful rich language and you learn it like you learn any language - by doing it.

I never had formal music lessons as a child and then at the age of 11 I had to learn recorder at my primary school. I picked up only the smallest smattering of music reading ... and that old dragon of a schoolteacher probably put me off music for another five years! However, a love of singing, that was natural in my family, led me to (Australian) folk music in 1961 and I joined the Bush Music Club in Sydney, and started playing Button Accordion - by ear.

For years I truggled along trying to pick up tunes by ear, then fiddling around with laboriously working out Tonic Solfa (do-re-mi...) and funny chord marking systems for the guitar that I also picked up. Somewhere along the way an adult perception finally came through: it was a lot simpler, richer and, ultimately, easier to read music.

I applied myself and now, like anyone who learns a language late, I am not as fluent as I would be if I had started earlier (ideally as a child) but I can, nowadays, sight read the average folk tune well enough to play a written tune and sing the words at the same time. Having over the past forty years used a half dozen dodgy systems of 'cheating' notation, including one I devised myself, I now rejoice in being able to (~) read music.

We lo longer live in beautifully simple little societies with well understood traditions. Nobody is going to sing or play the tune you really want long enough for you to learn it by ear - or rote. If you want the key to all this wonderful music ... it is music-reading. It is really worth it in the end!

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Dyslexic HTML repaired... You had it <b/>, Bob. The slash boes before the "B" - Like this: </b>.
-Joe Offer-