[LAU] Reading music (was Qtractor vs Rosegarden)

[Bob van der Poel]

 > Bob van der Poel wrote:
 >
 >> I've got to chime in on this point! Completely agree. To me, at 
least, not knowing how to read music is just like being a novelist and 
not being able to read English (fill in your language).
 >>
 >> The sad thing is that folks have a conception of music reading be 
"very hard". It really isn't ...

Just to jump on my whipping horse a bit more ...

- There's a huge difference between reading sheet music and listening to 
something and putting it down on paper. I'd guess that 95% of the folks 
who read well (even very well) can't do the later. Quite a different set 
of skills. I can do a bit of transcription work, but I am VERY slow at 
it. I think if I did a lot more, like anything, it'd go easier.

- If you don't want to read and do it all by ear, be my guest. I think 
it is great to be able to take a lead sheet for some music I have never 
heard and play it and discover its beauty.

- There are different levels of reading. As a start, I'd suggest that 
one might start by having a lead sheet and simply follow it as a tune is 
played. You'll soon discover that as the melody goes up in pitch, so do 
the note positions on the staff. Bar lines serve to indicate where each 
measure starts (and you should be able to hear that). Repeats, etc 
should indicate just that :) . And, if you really can't follow the up 
and down, you should be able to follow the lyrics and get a feel/sight 
of the sheet.

- I don't understand why someone who can't learn to follow (note I'm not 
even saying read here) a lead sheet due to the mass confusion of the 
meaningful dots on the page can tell me that TAB is really easy to 
follow. After all, TAB is set in bars just like standard notation.

- As far as guitar players go, most only play a limited set of chords. 
Nope, I'm not going to joke about only needing to know 3 chords ... but, 
using TAB to figure out the chord figuring really can't be any easier 
than following a lead sheet with chord symbols ... after all, how many 
times do you need to look up the figuring for C or G chord?

- And to continue on levels: At one point in my life I could read 3 
lines of organ music and do a decent rendition on the first pass. For 
many years I've been concentrating on saxophone (and composition) and I 
need to think hard when anything is bass clef, let alone sight reading 3 
staves. Just depends on what skills you need at the time ...

And having ranted about this ... let me add that like many other 
"classically" trained musicians I envy the shit out of the guys who can 
pick up an instrument and play by ear! I can't even play Happy Birthday 
once the music stands disappear.


-- 
  **** Listen to my CD at http://www.mellowood.ca/music/cedars ****
Bob van der Poel ** Wynndel, British Columbia, CANADA **
EMAIL: bob at mellowood.ca
WWW:   http://www.mellowood.ca