Just thought of something.

In the late sixties, I was called for a lot of recording sessions on various instruments. By the mid seventies, I rarely got called. I'd lost those sessons to folk musicians who could 'read'. Could I play better than the folks I was replaced by? Well I certainly think so.....but.....it would take me a few minutes to learn a new tune, by hearing it a couple of times, whereas the 'reading' musician just read it off the sheet music first time, and studios were expensive.

Had I learned to read earlier, there are a lot of bars I wouldn't have had to play. When I DID learn to read it sure didn't affect my ability to improvise.

Cheers

Rick