I notice Will and Don for two regard the ability to read music as a choice. This is not the case for me, and it seems for Richard in this thread and I would imagine for some others.

As it happens, I have exactly the same problem as Richard translating the timing from the paper to playing does not work out and it's not a matter of not understanding the rules of music.

Not being able to do this slows me down no end when trying for example to write an abc from memory in text to share here. I have to play it back frequently but I can get there.

Btw I'm currently working on some ocarina tab for the folkinfo abc converter. I think I'm nearly done for most of the ones with two rows now (should have been much quicker but I've had to learn the basics of Postscript programming). I's trivial I know but I mention it as I don't actually read ocarina tab, or (to play from) standard notation or abc.

As for the converter itself, the really hard work (eg. abcm2ps) is done by others who I think do read (we run their programs) but it may be worth noting all the same that this web converter effort to help people get "sheet music" as well as Midi is in fact brought to you by someone who can not read music.