Is music-reading an important skill?

Subject: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: EmmaHartley
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 09:56 AM

http://theglamourcave.blogspot.com/2011/10/what-do-paul-mccartney-andy-cutting-and.html

What do Sir Paul McCartney, Andy Cutting, Damien Barber and Eric Clapton have in common? None of them can read music...

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 10:09 AM

I can't read music but I believe that ideally one would be able to both play by music and by ear.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 10:15 AM

Music-reading isn't as important a skill as music-listening.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Will Fly
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 10:18 AM

So? I learned by ear initially, and still have a good ear nearly 60 years later. But being able to read music - which I taught myself - is a bonus.

I downloaded the sheet music for "Puttin' On The Ritz" the other day. I'm perfectly capable of working it out for myself but - sometimes - it's useful to see what the composer (Irving Berlin in this case) originally intended. And very interesting it was.

So whether it's "important" or not - whatever that means - is purely subjective.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Tradsinger
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 10:21 AM

Those that can read music and especially those who understand how it all fits together (scales, chords etc) are at a great advantage. The ability to read the dots per se will not make you a better musician but the ability to understand what I would call musical syntax is, coupled with critical music listening as mentioned above. If you understand how music all fits together, it opens up possibilities such as interesting harmonies and chords. Of course there are many great folk musicians who couldn't read music but the current crop of younger generation folkies are all good readers of music and are pushing out the borders on what can be done with our music.

Tradsinger

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Big Mick
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 10:23 AM

I'm with you, Will. My experience is very similar. I am an ear player, but the more music reading and theory I learn, the richer the experience becomes. But it is absolutely is not necessary in order to play well.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 10:30 AM

At least with the folk stuff I do, I can't say I've ever noticed any correlation between being able to read the music and being able to understand the music. As far as I can see that is a feeling/listening to the music thing.

pushing out the borders

Hmm...

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Will Fly
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 10:33 AM

Agreed, Mick - absolutely. With my interests in popular song from the early part of the century, and in jazz and classical music (as well as folk and blues), harmonic content is fascinating - and very, very instructive.

It's very exciting to buy a couple of pages of a classic tune from a sheet music website - just two or three pounds in most cases - with PayPal, print it off, and then settle down to hear just what the composer intended. Always something new to learn.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 10:35 AM

yes.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Bernard
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 10:36 AM

I went the other way round (oo-er!)... I learned to read music, then learned to sing and play 'by ear'.

Reading music is only important in so much as you can learn tunes/songs you haven't actually heard - which is fine in a 'classical' environment where faithfully and precisely interpreting the score is considered far more important than giving an approximate performance.

However, in the folk environment, personal variants (the 'folk process') is not frowned upon, on the contrary it is to be encouraged... so 'ear' playing/singing is probably the better path. It is the reason why we have so many versions of songs and tunes, each beautiful in their own right.

That said, being able to 'see' a tune is a definite advantage - I'm glad I can do it, because it gives me more options.

I would think learning to read music from scratch might seem to be a daunting task - but given proper guidance and encouragement it needn't be. It's a lot less complex than learning. say, a foreign language - and you already know the aural side, giving you a head start!

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 11:32 AM

I'd love to be able to read dots properly. I can figure out the pitch of each successive dot, slowly, but getting the timing off paper I cannot do at all effectively.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,suegorgeous away
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 11:52 AM

I've just been given a battered cello... is it feasible to play this by ear?

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Bernard
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 11:58 AM

Probably - just don't try to shove it under your chin - that spike will go straight through your throat!!

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 11:59 AM

is it feasible to play this by ear? probably better to play it by using a bow

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Lox
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 12:00 PM

Its useful - its that simple.

If you can read music you have a skill that you don't have if you can't read music.

Thats it.

No Mystery.

No politics.

No issue.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Peter C
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 12:34 PM

Personally, I think the two greatest advantages of being able to read music are (a) learning tunes you have not heard before, and (b)recalling tunes you learnt a long time ago, but have forgotten!

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Mary Humphreys
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 12:34 PM

I learn most of my tunes by ear, but there are always one or two bits of every tune that are a bit indistinct. The written notes help to clarify the "iffy" bits.
Also if you are ever given a book of tunes/ manuscript of songs from way back when, it enables you to read the lot and work out what tunes/songs were being played/sung a hundred years ago or more. For a researcher that is a BIG bonus.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: bubblyrat
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 12:49 PM

I have always played "by ear" , both as a "folk" guitar-player and Royal Navy marching- band percussionist ; I have always found it very easy, and find that any attempts at reading "the dots" brings on a kind of musical dyslexia ,almost to the point of nauseating disorientation , as if my brain refuses to acknowledge the correlation ! Very strange !!
                   However , my partner is ,or was , a piano teacher, so she sits down patiently at the Grand in our music-room and studiously works out what I SHOULD be playing , according to "the rules" , and then, having grasped the basics , I go my own ,free , uninhibited ,unfettered way ( which she cannot do !) ,and it works out OK in the end ! At 64 , I'm too old too learn, in any case.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 01:35 PM

learning by ear is great too, but if we go to the thread "whats this tune", the player has made up their own ending to the girl with the blue dress on, nothing wrong with that, except in my humble opinion its not so good. so learning by ear is really useful but sometimes can result in an inferior version, to the dots, contariwise occasionally it can result in an improvement, but the dots are useful as a reference point.dots are also useful to bring back into current repertoire forgotten tunes

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Big Mick
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 01:36 PM

Yeah Lox, I agree. But I am reminded of the classically trained musicians I have been around that, when asked to play along, wouldn't do it without scores. Seems to me the ear player has an advantage in that area. But that is not meant in any way, shape, or form to be a dig. One clearly has an advantage in knowing how to read music.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: John P
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 01:48 PM

Is music reading an important skill?

That all depends on your definition of important. It is certain that playing music is a much more important skill for a musician.

Music reading can:

Allow you play music you can't hear.

Allow you to quickly communicate music to others who can read.

For many, learning to read music is accompanied by an increased understanding of music theory (as in, what chords will likely sound good at different places in the melody?)

If you are doing arrangements, it makes it easy to visualize how everything lines up and which harmony or counterpoint notes might sound good with the melody notes.

On the con side, many of those who have been trained extensively at reading music find it difficult to learn to play by ear.

None of this has anything to do with the skill of the player or with what the music sounds like.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Stower
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 01:51 PM

As Mary said, if you only play by ear then you cannot play anything from a manuscript that you've never heard played and, perhaps, never has been played in public for a few hundred years. I play largely by ear and harmonise by 'feel', but my musical life would be much the poorer if I didn't read music. I really enjoy all the research, which would be impossible if I couldn't read music.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,Captain Farrell
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 01:53 PM

This subject is a minefield but for me It is nice to go through a folk tune book pick the ones you like/or easy to play then and this is the good bit pull the notes off the page and do something a bit different with them.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 02:07 PM

I wish I read a LOT better than I do.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: alanabit
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 02:07 PM

I like being able to read (albeit not well) for all of the reasons given above. In the world of our music most players can play by ear and do it very well too. Don Firth gave the best reason for learning to read in an excellent post a few years back. He pointed out that it means that you do not have to remember everything. I find that if a guitarist shows me a couple of bars, which I have been having trouble with, I can then go back to the notes afterwards and read all the rest. That's the beauty of it for me.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Deckman
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 02:14 PM

Let me draw a comparison between learning to read music and learning a new language. Would you succeed well in a new language without being able to read a dictionary in that language? bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Will Fly
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 02:23 PM

My old mate Alan Day came round yesterday - bearing with him a battered copy of Mel Stevens' "Massif Central Tunebook, vol. 1", plus a folder filled with sheet music of French tunes. The day before that, I received a copy of Thomas Hardy's Tunebook which I've just bought from another 'Catter.

What riches! Just seeing them lying on the table in front of me is like having the key to an unknown Aladdins's cave. I'm almost reluctant to open them - delayed gratification, you understand...

Hours and hours of musical exploration and discovery, new tunes, new ideas, inspiration - couldn't experience all of that without knowing the dots. Poor old Clapton!

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Big Mick
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 02:26 PM

Bob, I speak very good Spanish. I learned it on the street. I couldn't read in Spanish until much later, much like I learned music. And in the case of language, the same thing applies for me. The ability to read the dictionary is a great help, but not at all necessary for me to learn to speak very well.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 02:41 PM

To fully enjoy music, you need to be able to look at a page of dots and know what the music will sound like by "reading in your head."

To be considered an "accomplished" musician in many genres, you should be able to play at first sight any piece of music dropped in front of you, the first time you've seen it, at an appropriate speed and "with feeling."

To enjoy playing, you should be able to play (by ear) any music you've heard and want to play, without benefit of written notes.

To be best able to continue to learn more music, and to learn about music so that you understand how it works and how to "do it better," you should be able to write any music you can play.

Most people get by with less than a full set of those skills, and probably the majority of people can't get past just listening to music.

If you know enough to enjoy it, you probably know enough. If you enjoy it enough to want to increase your pleasure in it, then always continuing to learn more about it is a good thing to do.

Understanding the dots will be a help to almost anyone even slightly serious about the pleasures, so it's important. There are lots of ways of working around an inability to read the dots, so for many it's not all that important.

Reading (not music) is very important, but I've known several people who were happy enough without the skill. Simple math is almost essential, but I've known a couple of people who couldn't count their own kids (or sign their paycheck to get it cashed) but they made out okay.

The real question is not whether it's important. It's whether you want to learn it, and whether you'll use that particular skill enough to learn it well enough to benefit from it. Being able to read the dots is very important to me, but you're not me.

John

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 03:24 PM

Reading music can be a very useful for folk musicians.
Take the great Nic Jones. Not only could Nic read music but he could sight sing.
This meant he could wander in to any library - while killing time before a gig, and find a book of folk songs and be able hear the melodies in his head (via sight singing).
Now that's very useful skill.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Don Firth
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 04:05 PM

The vast majority of my coffeehouse cohorts back in the Fifties and Sixties sang only songs that had been recorded by someone, learning the songs off records. Song books were a—closed book(!)—to them.

I kept coming up with songs they had never heard before.

I did learn a lot of songs by ear from records, but a large chunk of my repertoire came from song collections like Folksong U.S.A. by John and Alan Lomax, Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag, The Ballad Tree by Evelyn Kendrick Wells, Cecil Sharp's One Hundred English Folk Songs, The Richard Dyer-Bennet Song Book, and so on. Looking at my bookshelves right now, I have about eight feet of songbooks and song collections.

These would not be open to me if I could not read music.

In addition, I took a batch of classic guitar lessons early on, and can toss in an occasional guitar solo in my programs if so inclined (I love hearing someone in the audience mutter, "Gee, he can really play that thing!"). Learning classic guitar pieces would be next to impossible without the ability to read music.

Sure, you can get along without it. Lots of people do, and do quite well, in fact. But this is in spite of their inability to read music, not because of it.

It ain't that difficult, folks!

Don Firth

P. S.   Contrary to popular believe, being able to read music—or for that matter, knowing music theory—does NOT mean that you are "limited to the rules." Unless YOU let it be.

P. P. S. By the way, I am a lousy sight-reader (which is to say, I can't look at a song in a song book and sing it right off. But I can read through it and get a pretty good idea of what it's supposed to sound like. And especially if I can pick it out on the guitar.

It's next to impossible to sight-read for classic guitar. When you get up the fingerboard a way, the same note can be found several different places. Where you would finger that note depends on what went before and what comes after. So to learn a classic guitar piece, you have to experiment with it awhile and figure these things out. Not even Segovia or John Williams can look at a piece of guitar music and whip it right off. Unless it's extremely simple. One of the very early Fernando Sor studies, for example.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,Tunesmirg
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 04:35 PM

I remember back in the 60s, the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs was a great resource for leaning new material - if you could read music!

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Don Firth
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 05:02 PM

Yup. Got it, Tunesmirg!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 05:06 PM

Without the ability to read music, LiK would not have been able to submit her ~200+ song contribution to the DT, from our accumulation of music books, in a form that could be used there by the rest of ya'all.

She gives credit to the local 'phone operator, who let her sit at the switchboard when the op needed to run errands. The lady had a piano, and a bench full of sheet music that Lin learned to read well enough to pretend to kill some time playing.

I was more fortunate, and my 5th grade English/Music teacher "roamed" to give music classes to 3d and 4th graders, where she taught me (but alas, not all the kids) to read music reasonably well by the time I started 4th grade.

Without the ability to read music, I'd have missed playing in the HS band, and my chance to flirt with "Marilyn the flute player with the sexy lips," but (big sigh) I never really got very far with that. I'd also likely not have had the chance to perform with the college Concert Band on tour, I suppose - (but a person can only take so much of Milhaud and Stravinsky, although Corley was fun).

John

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Jane of 'ull
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 05:07 PM

No.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 05:19 PM

It might not be as easy but it's quite possible to transcribe from books to notation formats usable on computers and the Internet without having the ability to read music.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: nager
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 05:47 PM

I learned to read basic music at school at about eight when we were taught to play the recorder. When I "graduated" to a guitar, I first played by music and then by ear. But is reading music important? No, 99 per cent of the time I play by ear and memory. And if you get stuck working something out there's usually some genius on Youtube showing you how it's done!!

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: JennieG
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 08:19 PM

I look upon being able to read as another tool, for want of a better word, in my musical tool box. While it's not an essential tool - many people get along just fine without it - it does help when learning a new piece. I sing in two community choirs here, one uses music, the other doesn't (we are given the words with no dots to follow) and if it's an unfamiliar piece, having the dots definitely helps with the learning process. My older son is a musician, a drummer who can sight read very well, and this ability has been the means of his getting work he would not have been given otherwise....because many drummers can't read a note, so those who can will be given preference.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,livelylass
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 08:37 PM

I guess it all depends on how sophisticated you feel you want your music to be. Music is essentially a mathematical set of construction tools, like geometry is to architecture.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 10:07 PM

If you can't read music then you can't read music. If you can then you should. There's no need to shove a list of famous people down your throat to justify ones own ignorance. It's very simple: If you have the ability to read music--use it; if you don't, then you can't.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,josepp
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 10:33 PM

I recently improvised with a pianist at a coffehouse with my double bass. We'd been wanting to work together but haven't had time to practice. He called me up and said to bring my bass down anyway and we'd try something so I agreed. We decided to try "Fever" and "Satin Doll" which he had in a songbook. I took it down the street where there was a copy machine and ran off both songs. I told him not to play the left hand stuff too much because my bass part would carry it and he said ok. When we got up to do our two songs without a single rehearsal, I played bass to two songs I had never played nor learned before. I didn't need to. I just played what was on the page the way my classically-trained instructor taught me. It was flawless. I could not have improvised that out of my head, I'm not that good. But I can read music and that made all the difference.

For those who say they can't get it off the page and into their hands in a timely manner, there's a secret to it: practice. To read music well, you have to practice, practice, practice. And then you have to practice on top of that. There's no shortcuts. It's like burning fat or building muscle--exercise. Yeah, it's a big pain in the ass but there's no easier substitute other than getting fatter and softer.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 10:35 PM

josepp, this may be the first and last time I agree with you. The thread title is stupid. Ranks up there with "Is knowing first aid an important skill?" Doh.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Mark Ross
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 11:22 PM

Check out Bela Fleck playing Bach on the banjo. He doesn't read notation, but he had a friend with a program that could transpose from notation to to tablature, and then he memorized the whole piece!
The trouble with playing folk music from written notes is that it loses something in the translation. I remember reading descriptions of Ruth Crawford Seeger transcribing folk music having to play songs over and over, trying to figure out which accidental was that? Sharp or flat? And how far. The Western system of writing music fails to reflect what the music is supposed to sound like. A classically trained violinist can play the written notes of a fiddle tune from the written page, but he won't necessarily sound like a fiddler.
Dave Van Ronk told a story about hearing Rev. Gary Davis in concert. His bottom E was a quarter tone sharp. At the break Dave went backstage to say hello, and on a pretext picked up the guitar, and surreptitiously retuned it. When the good Reverend came out for the second half, he hit the first chord and stopped to retune the string a quarter tone sharp. That's where he wanted it! How does written music deal with that?

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 07 Oct 11 - 11:29 PM

Indian music (sub-continent) has quarter tones. Besides, RGD had different ways of hearing. Wish I did.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Don Firth
Date: 08 Oct 11 - 02:17 AM

The trick, Mark, is to know something about the music, not just read it blind--or in this case, deaf.

This also holds true for classical music. No competent musician would play Mozart or Beethoven without trying to learn sonmething about these two composers first.

Same with folk music.

George London, the operatic bass-baritone, was a marvelous singer--when it came to singing operatic roles and art songs. I once hear him sing "Lord Randal." It was gawdawful! The problem wasn't that he had learned it from written music, the problem was that he didn't know from Shinola about how to sing a folk ballad.

Written music had nothing to do with that.

By the way, Bruce, according to an Indian exchange student I knew at the University (he played the sitar--the first time I had ever seen or heard one), Indian music uses a different kind of notation.

I tried to play some Flamenco early on, from written music. Didn't sound at all right. Then, in 1962, during the Seattle World's Fair, I took some lessons from Antonio Zori, one of the guitarists playing for the dancers at the Spanish Pavilion at the fair. Suddenly I knew what was wrong. The written music was correct and all the information was there, but I was interpreting it all wrong. The fault was that I hadn't paid as much attention to the rhythmic markings as I should have. The problem was my lack of knowledge, not the way the music had been written.

Don Firth

P. S. Here's a good example of what I'm talking about:   Listen to a recording of Sir Lawrence Olivier doing Hamlet's soliloquey, "To be or not to be." Then listen to one of Sir John Gielgud. Both reading the exact same text, but two very different interpretations, both good. Now listen to, say, a high school kid who has never done any acting do it.

See what I'm getting at?

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Don Firth
Date: 08 Oct 11 - 02:27 AM

Finish up on my above post:

I had learned several flameco pieces from written music. The notes were "under my fingers" so to speak. Then, when I played them for Antonio, he said, "No. Do it like this!" And he demonstrated how the rhythm should go.

Light bulb!! The next time through, I had them right.

The written music showed me what notes to play. Antonio showed me how to play them. Then, once I knew that, I was able to learn more flamenco pieces from written music and play them the way they should be played.

Written music is an extremely valuble tool. But it won't do it all for you.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Will Fly
Date: 08 Oct 11 - 03:47 AM

Written music is an extremely valuble tool. But it won't do it all for you.

Quite right, Don. Interpretation, feeling, a good ear, knowledge of the genre, etc., are all bring important factors playing and singing. Being able to read SN is a hugely valuable tool. If people don't want to take advantage of it, that's their choice. All I would say is that they're potentially missing out on some unknown goodies by doing so.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 08 Oct 11 - 05:34 AM

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.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: Johnny J
Date: 08 Oct 11 - 05:37 AM

Being able to read music is a good, useful, and extra skill.

However, "our" kind of music and song really does require listening and ability to hear what's actually going on. Otherwise, it's just a direct copy of what's on the paper...or even an inferior one if your reading skills aren't that great.

Basically, I'm an "ear" player although I've now been able to read music for several years. I'm still have to think a bit with the "bass clef" but most tune books usually just have the melody or treble clef line(Of course, classical and big production scores are much more detailed.
Also, you have to learn to find your way around the instrument and until you are familiar doing this, it is probably easier to do so "by ear" if this is what you are used to doing. For instance, on the fiddle and mandolin etc, my fingers will instinctively find the note as soon as I see it in piece of written notation but this isn't the case with less familiar instrument. Then I find that my "ear" is extremely useful especially if it's a tune I already know.

I've noticed though that many people who solely rely on music have great difficulty in memorising a tune. I don't have so much trouble with this as, even when I play from music, I will eventually learn the tune "by ear" even if it's only from myself although it's obviously better to listen to other players' interpretations too.

Subject: RE: Is music-reading an important skill?
From: foggers
Date: 08 Oct 11 - 07:19 AM

I am mainly a self taught musician but I had a smattering of formal music teaching at school and have built on that through books, internet and asking people who know more than me.

I agree that reading the dots is a useful skill and gives access to a vast array of materials, and I am working on improving my sight reading. However, now I am singing in a band where we do a lot of 3 part vocals I can also see the value of being able to jot down harmonies etc that we have found through improvisation n messing around. That means we can capture the best bits and then learn them accurately. It makes rehearsal much more straightforward. This is much easier than scratching our heads to try and remember what we did last time that sounded so good. We don't do it with every song, just the ones that are harmonically a little more complex.

So for me, music by dots plus music by ear (and improvisational skill) is more beneficial than either on their own.