Sight-reading

[beezelbubba]

All I'm saying (and this is my final word) is that without the ability to read music you are severly limiting yourself. Non readers don't understand this ... readers that learned to play without music then learn to read realize 1.) they have been wasting a lot of time learning stuff that is in print and 2.) a new world has opened up and 3.) it is easier to find high paying work.
BTW I am not downing ear playing it is also a needed skill but is only one peice in a larger puzzle.

In fairness to you,I will concede your point that being able to read music would be preferable to not. When I was in my 20's I tried teaching myself to read and couln't really put it all together.I can look at the sheet and figure out some of the things it is saying.The fact is that I only deal with MY music,which I record as I write.I don't make a dime from it and really don't plan to.I don't think it prevents me from being a good musician!
To be honest,I think pretty highly of myself!

 

[Dogman]

In fairness to you,I will concede your point that being able to read music would be preferable to not. When I was in my 20's I tried teaching myself to read and couln't really put it all together.I can look at the sheet and figure out some of the things it is saying.The fact is that I only deal with MY music,which I record as I write.I don't make a dime from it and really don't plan to.I don't think it prevents me from being a good musician!
To be honest,I think pretty highly of myself!

Yeah....you're a real BezzelBUTT.....

 

[Clive Hugh]

At one stage in my music, in the 70's I was in a cabaret band and because we did lots of backing various artists had to sight read. My reading improved immensly during this period to the stage where I could take a sight read solo.
I always found it got us the better gigs as we were able to play exactly what the artist wanted with a minimum of fuss. Financially it really paid back the time spent in learning.
Now I mainly play for fun and rarely need music except writing chord charts occasionally. It is essentially a means of communication that states what the writer requires. It is a tool that you need in some stages of the music industry. But if you don't want to get into that it so be it.
I have met a couple of guitar players who were brilliant sight readers but if you said "hey that gives me an idea, lets play this" they were stumped, no chart, no play. Only 2 in my life but there must be more.

 

[Henry Mars]

You put about the same amount of weight on ear as most of the lousy music-majors I've played with.

I read. Well. I believe that it is important to understand the language so that a musical idea can be created, then later reproduced without any realtime representation of it necessary. I write alot of music in my own davinci's notebook way so I can remember it, but no other human could figure it out. You need to be able to read and write notation if you want to be able to pass your music down to the future after the apocalypse on stone tablets.

That said, alot of readers who I have played with stop at that point and don't go on to realize that there is depth to the music that cannot be reduced to tempo, pitch, rhythm and dynamics. At least not to the point that they study it with the same enthusiasm as they attacked deciphring the weird graphic code of notation.




To sum it up: Give me a feel player over a reader any time. The best players I ever played with were feel players. There were some that could read, too, but they were primarily feel.

Henry Mars is my new hero - as far as uptight theorists that need a conductor to get through a jam.

Actually I played a lot of avante garde jazz and very progressive rock in my career,( I am retired ) stuff that is almost formless. I also enjoy playing Paganini etc. It is not about being a tight ass theorist, it is about being well rounded. I don't ever recall needing a conductor on a jam. Of course if all you want to play is rock and blues you don't need to know much or read.

 

[cephus]

All I'm saying (and this is my final word) is that without the.....

I thought ^THAT was your final word.

Actually I played a lot of avante garde jazz and very progressive rock in my career,( I am retired ) stuff that is almost formless. I also enjoy playing Paganini etc. It is not about being a tight ass theorist, it is about being well rounded. I don't ever recall needing a conductor on a jam. Of course if all you want to play is rock and blues you don't need to know much or read.

I can't imagine what kind of musical background you have where you think that someone who talks like you comes off as anything but a hack. You boast about playing stereotypically complicated styles and then show that you don't really have alot of respect for the music of the common man. There is no doubt in my mind that you retired because no one wants to play with you anymore given your attitude.

From jazzcorner's speakeasy:
Quote by Henry Mars
"Left handed right handed it makes no difference. I still laugh my ass off at Hendrix. I never really thought he was that great. I do have some old Hendrix records laying around for comic relief.
I saw him once years ago and walked out. Pat Martino was playiny in town and I didn't want to miss that. FWIW I would have walked out on Hendrix anyway. It was just a lot of noise."

Henry, welcome to the home recording forum. Now shut the fuck up.

 

[Henry Mars]

Relax man .. it is opinion. Why are ya all so defensive? If we all liked the same things and thought the same way it would be boring wouldn't it? Geez

 

[Cyrokk]

I don't ever recall needing a conductor on a jam. Of course if all you want to play is rock and blues you don't need to know much or read.

Being a metal musician, I find it funny that a lot of musicians who actually do appreciate blues and rock for its attitude and emotion regard some of the more intellectually concepted jazz and other progressive styles as math-music that requires a slide rule and abacus to understand.

And its not really even genre related. I've played classical pieces in orchestras where you spend more time watching the conductor than reading the music because the conductor is doing much more than keeping time: he's stretching the tempo and emphasizing dynamics which are not even on the page. Modern classical often throws intellectualization completely out the window.

And while a conductor may not be necessary on an informal jam. Band leaders in jazz/swing jams take the conductor's place to establish the stretches of time for the other players to improv in. No music reading involved there either because swing often incorporates pentatonic and mixolydian scales that allows the player to spend more time on emotion than focusing on notes on a page.

To each his own.