Nice to see the new postings.... I added some comments because someone said that they'd missed this thread and couldn't find it.

Many years ago, I did a gospel album, which I never released. There were three or four songs where I really wanted a quartet sound, but didn't know anyone in the area who could sing the bass parts. I was going to a Lutheran Church at the time, so I asked someone I knew who sang bass in the choir if he would record the bass parts for me. He asked for the sheet music to the songs, and I told him that there wasn't any. He said he couldn't sing without sheet music. A strange form of laryngitis. I told him that I could give him a tape of the song, with me singing the bass part, and that I could even put it on a separate channel, so he could sing along with me and learn it that way. That was no help to him. He said he couldn't sing it if he didn't have sheet music for it. The bass harmony is by nature, simple. But, there was no way of convincing him to even try. Frustrated, I asked a second bass singer in the choir, and got the same response. I suppose that I shouldn't have been surprised. I've met people who play the piano, who've played piano all of their lives and when I've asked them to play something for me, with a piano standing there next to us they said, "I can t play without sheet music."

Years ago, I used to teach banjo. Once I had taught the basics of picking styles, I'd try to get my students to tackle a song without the tablature. I'd give them a simple song, just using them what I'd already taught them, and give them a tape of myself doing the song slowed down, and then at a regular speed. That day at their lesson, I'd go through the song several times, breaking it down for them, and encouraging them to play along and ask questions. The next week, they'd show up, not having learned the song, complaining that they couldn't play it unless I gave them tablature for it. When I realized that I was creating a monster... someone who "couldn't play" unless they had tablature, I did everything I could to encourage them to break away from their dependency on having everything written out "the right way." Without exception, they just quit taking lessons.

As a folk singer, music to me is a personal expression. Learning from books, or taking lessons, or even learning songs from sheet music is a way to learn. Sheet music or tablature is a tool, not a prison. I went to hear the Glen Miller orchestra once (at the local mall) and found it fascinating. Musicians arrived, one at a time and were handed their sheet music. When everyone was there, they sat down (never having played the arrangements or played together before) and did a passable version of Miller's big hits. They didn't sound bad... they could sight read well enough to play together with no rehearsal. I was very impressed by that, and headed for the nearest exit as fast as my feet could carry me. They got the notes "right" but missed the song.

One of the reasons why I love gospel music so much is the reason why I love folk music so much... it comes out of the heart, not off a sheet of paper.

Jerry