I decided against using one of my "pun" titles here, because someone said that a number of old music tech threads were impossible to find because of them. All that she found were some of the very simplistic ones. Sorry about that....I simply never thought about it, while always trying to get a joke or two in. Won't do it anymore.

OK, this is getting silly. I spoke to someone else who teaches banjo tonight and they asked whether I teach music theory when someone is learning that instrument. My reply would be pretty consistent with what I've written on Mudcat over the years. I really emphasize "Ear" training, but I think it's absolutely crucial that a person understand a basic scale, how a major and minor chord is formed and the equivalent NUMBERS. (often called the Nashville number system) I don't teach tablature (beyond how to go about reading it) 'cause a person doesn't need to pay someone a lot of money just to read tab together. I put as much info as possible down on tape, and occasionally use tab for something that may be really hard to pick up by ear.

The silly part is that my friend still maintains that "reading music will destroy your creativity, and lessen your ability to improvise". I've been hearing this for years.....sayings like "There ain't no notes on a banjer ya just play it", and "I don't read enough to hurt my playing" etc.

I simply can't see how a BASIC knowledge of theory can HURT someone's ability to "make it up". I'm a lousy sightreader, but playing is so much more fun, when you have the vocabulary at least. Well that's my theory anyway. Any thoughts?

Cheers

Rick