"So now that process is supposed to stop. Learning should take place only via purchased recordings?!"

"If you say people should only get the chords by buying them on a CD , or that trying to learn without doing so is trying to avoid buying the CD, you are commodifying the tradition in a way that will ultimately undermine it. "

Who's making assumptions now, Peregrina? I didn't say any of that at all! I said (if you would care to read and comprehend what I did say) that I do it that way, and I acknowledged that I study what others are doing when I watch them play, to learn and get new ideas.

My point was that, at some point, a musician should be able to work out simple chord structures simply by the 1,4,5,6m formula, with the occasional use of other chords - it's just practice.

And my other point was that someone shouldn't be demonised for holding a view which differs from that of others - and that's what's been going on on this thread.