Re: [LAU] OT: Benchmark Your Hearing

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Nigel Henry wrote: | There is | something to be said for that ability. When I was in college, there was an old guy who was some kind of adjunct professor at the college. I don't think he actually graduated from high school, as he had dropped out to play in jazz bands. But it was a Jazz and Pop school, so that was pretty important. (It was then called North Texas State Univ. but it's now called University of Texas at Denton.) This old guy's first jobs were playing in circus bands in the 40s. The audition was that you got thrown into the band at a matinee one day. Then, when your part was particualarly fast and difficult, the conductor would signal for everybody else to stop playing. If you stopped playing, because you thought you were lost, you didn't get the job. You had to have confidence in your sight reading. The point, and I have a point other than the one on the top of my head, is that there are a lot of different abilities. Both sight reading and playing by ear are really valueable skills, which anyone would do well to cultivate.