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george garside
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1#
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Rank:none
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 00:16:42)
Reply to : u751904
Just out of interest do most gigging folks guys go by ear or read dots or both! (can of worms opening slowly here.... )most of the guys I know (but they aren't folk musicians) don't read , go by ear there are exceptions egsome sax players....Zog
at the risk of furthur opening the can of worms it is my experience that the majority of folk/traditional players either don't read the dots atall or are not particularly good dot readers. Certainly this is born out by the large numbers of people who have attended my workshops over the past ten years or so, of which probably 80%+ are non readers.
My own view is that it is not so much a question as to whether to read the dots or play from memory (having learned the tune by ear) but more a question of the way in which the dots are used, or interpreted. If the dots are seen in a similar way to the charcoaal outline that an artist sketches before adding colour, texture, shade etc etc to transform it into a picture then all is well. The musician using the dots to provide an outline of the tune and then adding character, tone, dynamics, phrasing,rhythm and ornementation will finish up with a piece of music that retains the traditional virtues of improvisation. Similarly the good 'by memory' musician will 'fill out' the bare bones of the tune and make it his/her own.
The fundemental difference between the traditional/folk idiom & the classical idiom is that the traditional player is encouraged to deviate from or add to the bare bones whereas the classical player is strongly encouraged to play precisely what is written and can usually do so with great accuracy but sometimes not in a particularly characterful way. There are of course some who can turn their hand to either format with considerable skill but for most its 'horses for courses'.
please feel free to disagree or whatever!
george
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oonrahnjay
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2#
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 00:22:34)
Reply to : u751904
Just out of interest do most gigging folks guys go by ear or read dots or both! (can of worms opening slowly here.... )....Zog
__. Pretty much the full spectrum, IME. As a general rule, I'd guess that most "recovering musicians" who play melodeons can read dots pretty well; those of us who had a melodeon as first instrument are less likely to. But there are wide differences to all this. I can often take a sheet of music and kinda get an idea of the "shape of a tune" from it (sometimes I can't) but I don't think that anybody would call this "reading".
__. Amongst melodeon players, I think you'd find the curve shifted more toward "ear players" and fewer people who are absolutely glued to the dots. I played a "pickup" dance gig on Tuesday night with a violinist (note that I did NOT say "fiddler") who is incapable of playing a note without her eyes on a note on a page. I'll leave it to you as to her usefulness as a dance musician.
BH, NC USA
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u751904
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3#
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Rank:none
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 00:40:08)
Reply to : george garside
Reply to : u751904Just out of interest do most gigging folks guys go by ear or read dots or both! (can of worms opening slowly here.... )most of the guys I know (but they aren't folk musicians) don't read , go by ear there are exceptions egsome sax players....Zogat the risk of furthur opening the can of worms it is my experience that the majority of folk/traditional players either don't read the dots atall or are not particularly good dot readers. Certainly this is born out by the large numbers of people who have attended my workshops over the past ten years or so, of which probably 80%+ are non readers.My own view is that it is not so much a question as to whether to read the dots or play from memory (having learned the tune by ear) but more a question of the
I don't disagree, I think you are correct. I learnt to read when I was pretty young so it was easy(ish). I live with a musician who can't read is totally self taught and plays completely by ear. So don't ask me how many times we have debated this one. It simply isn't needed in his world. I have probably spent the last ten years trying to train my ear which is harder than the eyes ! I am not at all judgemental about people who can or can't read it isn't important as long as you enjoy what you are doing and feel you are getting out of playing what you want. I was intreged to know what the score was. I suspected most people played by ear, at the end of the day you have to get back to what the music is about and generally on this forum it is folk and folk isn't intended to be scripted and not ever changed or interpretted. I've not entered this world yet other than posting on the forum. I've just posted my cheque to theo for a pokerwork and have my first workshop next week so I wanted to prepare myself - curious to know where most peoples brains were if you know what I mean. The perfect combination is both but I personally haven't met many people who can do both really well. Most sit in one or the other camp. I suspect it is down to how your brain is wired. It would be interesting to know but I suspect there is something biological about it. Zoe
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u751904
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4#
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Rank:none
Posts:41
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 00:41:40)
Reply to : u751904
Reply to : george garsideReply to : u751904Just out of interest do most gigging folks guys go by ear or read dots or both! (can of worms opening slowly here.... )most of the guys I know (but they aren't folk musicians) don't read , go by ear there are exceptions egsome sax players....Zogat the risk of furthur opening the can of worms it is my experience that the majority of folk/traditional players either don't read the dots atall or are not particularly good dot readers. Certainly this is born out by the large numbers of people who have attended my workshops over the past ten years or so, of which probably 80%+ are non readers.My own view is that it is not so much a question as to whether to read the dots or play from memory (having learned the tune by ear) but more a question of the
I can't believe I called myself zog at the end of my post I think I must have had a bit too much wineeeeeeeeee. I think post baby it only takes half a glass to make the fingers slip on the keyboard.
oh well Zoe 
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Lester Bailey
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5#
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 00:47:58)
Play mostly by ear but as a prop when I am lerning something new or for tunes that I have not played for a while (it's my age you know) I play them directly from the ABCs. I find this much easier than using dots, but I am an engineer :-)
I print the tunes on business card size cards and hold them in a filofax business card thingy. Lots of tunes in a convenient sized book that fits in a melodeon case.
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u751904
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6#
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Rank:none
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 00:55:39)
Reply to : Lester Bailey
Play mostly by ear but as a prop when I am lerning something new or for tunes that I have not played for a while (it's my age you know) I play them directly from the ABCs. I find this much easier than using dots, but I am an engineer :-)I print the tunes on business card size cards and hold them in a filofax business card thingy. Lots of tunes in a convenient sized book that fits in a melodeon case.
your obviously not one of those musicians who needs a few drinks before going on stage then if you can read your tabs from a business card. Good idea though.... Seriously how do you read something so small?
I'd like to point out I don't have drink problem, (see previous post) I only dink a small amoint, but you know what happens if you don't dink to much then drink two glasses in one night.
Does anyone one else think that this dot thing is down to how your brain is wired?
Zoe
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oonrahnjay
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7#
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Rank:none
Posts:260
Registered:30/06/2004
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 05:43:28)
Reply to : u751904
Does anyone one else think that this dot thing is down to how your brain is wired?
__. I think that maybe it's the opposite. If you're learnt to read in the past, your brain tends to swing that way. I think if you have a "blank slate" and a person is taught one way, they'll practice until the "neural pathways" are formed and then they'll be there for the learning musician to build on and follow as skills are built upon and extended.
__. How you learn and what you get used to changes the way your brain is wired.
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Jeff H
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8#
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Registered:15/12/2003
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 05:48:10)
Nothing wrong with "reading the Dots", or reading tab or learning by ear...however
meldoeon was an aural tradition......
I played mandolin for a number of years and taught myself to read and play simple classical and most Armerican and Irish tunes..
I am relearning to read now for guitar specifically, but doubt if I will use it to play the box
But: If I do find a tune I like, I find the written music and transcribe it to tab if I can't figure it out
Next is an opiniion which generated a lot of heat on another similar discussion
IMNSHO melodeon books written only in standard music notation are all but useless for most players, particularly when there is no accompanying CD.
However,
WHatever works for you is ok with me.
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GPS
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9#
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Registered:29/03/2006
Time spent: 0 hours
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 07:31:01)
Reply to : u751904
Just out of interest do most gigging folks guys go by ear or read dots or both! (can of worms opening slowly here.... )most of the guys I know (but they aren't folk musicians) don't read , go by ear there are exceptions egsome sax players....Zog
Speaking for myself, I learnt to read music at school and am reasonably competetent at playing a melody line from the page (but don't ask me to read a score or a piano part!). I've aslo played in rock and jazz outfits as well as folk bands over the last far-too-many-to-reveal years, so am used to playing by ear and improvising. I suppose I learn my tunes about 50-50 from the dots and by ear. In any case, I regard the dots for folk tunes as a starting point; in most cases (I'm talking purely traditional tunes here) they are a record of how one musician played the tune in one performance on one day, and in no way can they be regarded as the "right" or "only" way to play a tune.
Graham
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C age ing
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10#
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Registered:20/08/2005
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 08:22:24)
Learnt cello at school so read Tenor and Alto Clef fairly well, took up trombone where Bass was added to the 'fair reading' ability, but faced with Treble it becomes 'err that's a B so that's there' on the melodeon, recorder or flute. Can there be a specific different clef wiring as well?
George's description of the 'fundamental differences' seems a very good explanation of the mind set, but it is wonderful to meet the cross-over-characters. The guitarist who played with a classical guitar octet, yet was the best rhythm guitarists it has ever been my pleasure to play with, and he lifted the whole band, swung like crazy.
Must arrange a brain swap with Wynton Marsalis.
A serious Bill.
Edited to add the 'swung' phrase.
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maggiemoore
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11#
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 09:47:00)
Think I've been really lucky. I used to get up beside my Dad and pick out tunes on the piano from about the age of 2, so suppose I started off playing by ear. Then I had piano lessons for years, and after a struggle got quite good at reading music. However - when I started playing melodeon, I had to play by ear again, until there were really difficult tunes - crossing rows all over the place - complicated basses etc. - and then I would get the tune into my head, right it down in normal music, and then add all the button numbers with the ^ symbol over the top for "bellows pull", and away I'd go, learning the tune. Then I'd file the music away, come back to it after a few years and find it was altered quite a lot!
Maggie
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u751904
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12#
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 11:05:27)
Reply to : maggiemoore
Think I've been really lucky. I used to get up beside my Dad and pick out tunes on the piano from about the age of 2, so suppose I started off playing by ear. Then I had piano lessons for years, and after a struggle got quite good at reading music. However - when I started playing melodeon, I had to play by ear again, until there were really difficult tunes - crossing rows all over the place - complicated basses etc. - and then I would get the tune into my head, right it down in normal music, and then add all the button numbers with the ^ symbol over the top for "bellows pull", and away I'd go, learning the tune. Then I'd file the music away, come back to it after a few years and find it was altered quite a lot!Maggie
thats an interesting point - how to teach children. I have a 12 month old who is into her shacker. Must say we won't do the pushy parent bit because shell end up an accountant and not interested in music. Anyway most kids rebel from their parents so she will probably get a proper job. I read and Ian doesn't. So it will be an interesting mix of influences. I can see her looking at her dad when he is learning a set and wondering when are you going to stop that noise. Sometimes she joins in on her shacker. Will wait and see if she wants to pick up more. Zoe
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C age ing
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13#
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Registered:20/08/2005
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 12:32:20)
Further thoughts triggered by the television breaking into the classic 6th 7th alternating chord Chuck Berry R & B sequence at a communal breakfast. There is a further division in music, the melody and the chord pattern players.
Zoe's partner is much more aware of the chord sequence than the melody, so a set of chord symbols are of far more use to him than the dots showing a melody line for providing a bass line. He is aware that the melody line will be of notes in that chord sequence and can, fairly easily, be worked out.
Zoe is lucky here, as an alto sax jazz player, she is interested in the melody line for theme statement, but she also needs to be aware of the chord sequence as that is the basis of most improvisation along with passing notes.
As melodeon players the melody takes precedence as the limited chordal ability of the instrument, generally (put in there for BCC# and Shand fans) is restrictive.
A still serious Bill.
A serious question, does that make sense?
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BohemianCoast
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14#
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Rank:none
Posts:80
Registered:11/07/2005
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 12:48:00)
Reply to : maggiemoore
Think I've been really lucky. I used to get up beside my Dad and pick out tunes on the piano from about the age of 2, so suppose I started off playing by ear. Then I had piano lessons for years, and after a struggle got quite good at reading music. However - when I started playing melodeon, I had to play by ear again, until there were really difficult tunes - crossing rows all over the place - complicated basses etc. - and then I would get the tune into my head, right it down in normal music, and then add all the button numbers with the ^ symbol over the top for "bellows pull", and away I'd go, learning the tune. Then I'd file the music away, come back to it after a few years and find it was altered quite a lot!Maggie
Adding to the dots debate. I learnt to read music while playing recorder and then piano so I read well and sight-read well enough to follow melody lines (and read melodeon chords). At the moment the thing holding back my sight-reading on melodeon is my playing, not my reading.
However, I much prefer having a tune to listen from. David Oliver said at his brilliant session workshops at Towersey that he was once told 'never try to learn a tune that you don't already know', which sounds a bit mad but which I think is just exactly right -- it's much easier to start trying to play a tune once you already know it pretty much inside out to listen to. And the timing is never quite right in dots; obviously you can interpret it based on your understanding of the style but it's not like having a source recording to listen to. But still. I spent many happy hours as a child playing recorder music from dots in little books that I got from my mother (many of those little books can now be bought collected in a book called '471 Tunes for the Soprano recorder')
But the melodeon gives this an added wrinkle; I cannot (yet?) pick up the chords by ear. So I can pick up a melody line, and probably add some rather dull oompahs, maybe even the three chord trick. But for anything remotely complicated, any row crossing, and so on, I have to revert to the dots, not for the dots themselves, but to understand the chord pattern used.
So my favourite sequence for learning a new tune is
-- understand the tune in my bones from listening to it, preferably for decades;
-- pick out the tune on the melodeon, but not learn it too much in case I need to row-cross to play it with the chords;
-- find the dots to work out what the chords are;
-- learn it along with the music, referring to the dots when necessary;
-- stop using the dots.
Obviously that won't work with 'real' music unless you're in the happy position of owning the dots as well.
For example, I bought a copy of Dave Mallinson's Easy Peasy Tunes earlier this summer, mostly with the intention of getting my daughter to play the tunes on the violin (she's been playing for about a year). But I've been having great fun with them too *except* that, as written out for melodeon, they're not remotely easy peasy, not even the very first ones, because the chord progressions, whilst sounding good, are (a) hard for me to play, (b) even harder for me to play from memory and (c) often require row-crossing. And I also have Maggie's Pluck & Squeeze, and those tunes are even better and even harder! (Yes, Maggie, I know that your melodeon tutor is now out and I am going to buy it except that we're practicing frugal living in September, and due to the rather non-frugal event of our dishwasher breaking down irretrievably, probably for the first part of October too. So look for Paypal from me in late October or early November!)
The tune I'm working on at the moment is one I've known all my life -- Pop goes the Weasel. I love it madly on the melodeon; the dots I've found use practically every chord on the box (er, G,D,C,A,B,Em,Am(faked)) and it plays like it was written for a melodeon though I understand it's an older tune than that.
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BohemianCoast
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15#
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Rank:none
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Registered:11/07/2005
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 13:30:55)
Reply to : u751904
I've not entered this world yet other than posting on the forum. I've just posted my cheque to theo for a pokerwork and have my first workshop next week so I wanted to prepare myself - curious to know where most peoples brains were if you know what I mean.
Oh, and welcome Zoe and I hope you love your melodeon. I bought mine (both of mine) in a sudden turning-40 midlife crisis and I'm having huge amounts of fun with them.
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Dazbo
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16#
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Registered:08/08/2004
Time spent: 0 hours
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 14:50:50)
Reply to : BohemianCoast
David Oliver said at his brilliant session workshops at Towersey that he was once told 'never try to learn a tune that you don't already know'
I intitially found this an appalling statement but I guess it does make sense if you're trying to learn to play by ear. But it is an excellent example of why I believe in having the ability for learning from dots. You don't have to have heard it before to play it. A few of my favourite tunes I play I learnt from dots never having heard them played by anyone else.
it's much easier to start trying to play a tune once you already know it pretty much inside out to listen to
True to a large extent, especially if there are odd timings in it.
For example, I bought a copy of Dave Mallinson's Easy Peasy Tunes earlier this summer, mostly with the intention of getting my daughter to play the tunes on the violin (she's been playing for about a year). But I've been having great fun with them too *except* that, as written out for melodeon, they're not remotely easy peasy, not even the very first ones, because the chord progressions, whilst sounding good, are (a) hard for me to play, (b) even harder for me to play from memory and (c) often require row-crossing
I find this is true of many tune books. Malinson's preference for row crossing has been discussed in other threads. However, Brian Peters (who sometimes appears here) has told me that many of these books are not chorded by the author for the DG melodeon but either using a program to do it or someone else (a guitar player perhaps) hence the number of occassions where you get a mis-match between the bellows direction you need for the suggested chord and the bellows direction for the treble note. The best thing to do is either work out your own chording or use the published version as a basis and if you get a difficult chord/note combination try some easier ones and pick what sounds best.
Stick with the row-crossing though as it is a very useful trick to have up your sleeve.
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Mike Gott
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17#
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Registered:05/06/2005
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 17:13:13)
It's just whatever works best for you. I play by ear and wouldn't swap to being a dot reader for anything, I've encountered too many people to whom the dots are a lead weight around their kneck and a smothering blanket to their ability to put any kind of expression and feeling into their playing. If you can regard the dots as the starting point to playing a tune rather than a fence surrounding it, you're in with a chance...
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GPS
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18#
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Registered:29/03/2006
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 17:16:00)
Reply to : Dazbo
David Oliver said at his brilliant session workshops at Towersey that he was once told 'never try to learn a tune that you don't already know'I intitially found this an appalling statement but I guess it does make sense if you're trying to learn to play by ear. But it is an excellent example of why I believe in having the ability for learning from dots. You don't have to have heard it before to play it. A few of my favourite tunes I play I learnt from dots never having heard them played by anyone else.
I agree, Darren - I would find only being able to play tunes that someone else has played to me first (not specifically or uniquely "to me" of course - just generally in my hearing, either live or via a recording) very limiting. I sometimes spend a couple of evenings playing through tunes in tune-books (of which I have far more than is really good for me) in the hope of finding another little gem that I've not come across before, and quite a few tunes have found their way into my repertoire by this means. I don't think either by ear or from the page is either "better" or "more correct" or "more melodeony"; they are both equally useful skills, either of which might happen to be the more appropriate one in any given set of circumstances.
Graham
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Lester Bailey
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19#
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Rank:none
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 19:02:26)
Bit of cross-fertilusation from the MudCat Cafe
Louis Armstrong , when he was doing the 'Virtuoso' bit with Big Bands in the late thirties was asked if he read music- His reply , I love !! "Not enough to hurt my playing!"
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george garside
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20#
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Rank:none
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 19:35:10)
Reply to : Mike Gott
It's just whatever works best for you. I play by ear and wouldn't swap to being a dot reader for anything, I've encountered too many people to whom the dots are a lead weight around their kneck and a smothering blanket to their ability to put any kind of expression and feeling into their playing. If you can regard the dots as the starting point to playing a tune rather than a fence surrounding it, you're in with a chance...
ear,ear!
george
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Steve_freereeder
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21#
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 19:36:57)
Reply to : GPS
I agree with you entirely, Graham.
I..... I sometimes spend a couple of evenings playing through tunes in tune-books (of which I have far more than is really good for me) in the hope of finding another little gem that I've not come across before, and quite a few tunes have found their way into my repertoire by this means. I don't think either by ear or from the page is either "better" or "more correct" or "more melodeony"; they are both equally useful skills, either of which might happen to be the more appropriate one in any given set of circumstances.
I do exactly this with tunebooks too. If I find one that I like, I'll run with it and give it whatever life I can. The dots are just the starting point; bare bones to be clothed in many colours and textures, and probably different every time too.
I've been able to read music since I learned the recorder at primary school in the early 1960s. It was easy for an eight-year old. But I suspect, like learning a new foreign language, it may well be much harder in ones mature years. For myself, I am grateful that I learned this skill, for as an orchestral as well a traditional musician, it has stood me in good stead for well over 40 years.
At the end of the day, reading and using written music is just another form of communication. If you have the skill, then your life is enriched by it; you have the choice whether to use it, or not.
Just think what a sorry state we would be in if we did not have Shakespeare's plays written down and the ability to read them. We would have to pass them down from one person to another as an oral/aural tradition; goodness knows what sort of a corrupted state they would be in now ("To wee or not to wee? That is the question....."). Yet because they are written down and nearly everyone has learned to read written words, we can perform them as often as we like, and each time we do so, new life is given to the same words, through our emotions and actions.
There are those who would argue (quite strongly in some cases, especially some of those who can't or WON'T read music - to the extent that they make a false virtue out of their shortcomings) that using the dots takes the life out of traditional music. I would say most vehemently that is not correct. The real life given to music (traditional or otherwise) comes from WITHIN the player; that is what musicianship means. Poor musicians, whether they read dots or not, will never give life to their music. Good musicians always will give life to their music, whatever their background, upbringing or the sort of music that they play; and it certainly doesn't depend on whether they use the dots or not.
------
edited to correct a couple of typos
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u751904
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22#
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Rank:none
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Time spent: 0 hours
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 20:05:48)
Reply to : C age ing
Further thoughts triggered by the television breaking into the classic 6th 7th alternating chord Chuck Berry R & B sequence at a communal breakfast. There is a further division in music, the melody and the chord pattern players.Zoe's partner is much more aware of the chord sequence than the melody, so a set of chord symbols are of far more use to him than the dots showing a melody line for providing a bass line. He is aware that the melody line will be of notes in that chord sequence and can, fairly easily, be worked out.Zoe is lucky here, as an alto sax jazz player, she is interested in the melody line for theme statement, but she also needs to be aware of the chord sequence as that is the basis of most improvisation along with passing notes.As melodeon players the melody takes precedence as the limited chordal ability of the instrument, generally (put in there for BCC#
Exactly that is why when we attempted to go for dancing classes - tango it was a disaster. He was listening to one thing and I the other. We could dance perfectly with other people or else I could ! 
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Pushpull
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23#
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Rank:none
Posts:265
Registered:08/07/2004
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 20:21:55)
Reply to : u751904
There are those who would argue (quite strongly in some cases, especially some of those who can't or WON'T read music - to the extent that they make a false virtue out of their shortcomings) that using the dots takes the life out of traditional music. I would say most vehemently that is not correct. The real life given to music (traditional or otherwise) comes from WITHIN the player; that is what musicianship means. Poor musicians, whether they read dots or not, will never give life to their music. Good musicians always will give life to their music, whatever their background, upbringing or the sort of music that they play; and it certainly doesn't depend on whether they use the dots or not.
Quite right. It is ridiculous to suggest that someone who reads the dots somehow will automatically play less musically. Back in the days of the Free Trade Hall and Tommy Ducks in Manchester I witnessed some excellent impromptu jazz sessions put on by the Halle players post gig.
Roy.
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-risto-
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24#
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Rank:none
Posts:185
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(Date Posted:28/09/2006 21:01:58)
Reply to : Pushpull
Quite right. It is ridiculous to suggest that someone who reads the dots somehow will automatically play less musically.
Exactly. I would also add that knowing enough theory so that you can recognize modes and scales and can harmonize them is a tool worth while learning.
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Lester Bailey
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25#
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(Date Posted:29/09/2006 00:42:01)
Reply to : -risto-
Reply to : Exactly. I would also add that knowing enough theory so that you can recognize modes and scalesandcanharmonize them is a tool worth while learning.
Couldn't agree more about having a grip on the theory of music, I recommend this book
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Veloce
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26#
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(Date Posted:29/09/2006 01:30:57)
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D_mentias
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27#
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(Date Posted:29/09/2006 08:48:20)
diatonic instruments have freed me from dots!
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Howard Jones
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28#
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(Date Posted:29/09/2006 21:38:01)
As an "ear" player, not only can't I read the dots, I don't even know what button plays each note.
I learned recorder at school and can read music within the range of that instrument, but too many leger lines above or below the stave lose me. I can sight-read (slowly) on the recorder because I learned the fingering at the same time as I learned the note on the stave. But I can't sight-read at all on melodeon because I don't know what notes map to most of the buttons. OK I know the root notes D and G, and I can find an A because the fiddlers always want to tune to it, but if you asked me to play a B for example then I'd have to start counting up the scale. But I know instinctively how the buttons relate to each other in terms of relative pitch.
I'm the same on the other instruments I play (concertina, guitar, dulcimer). I know how to get the sound I want but I don't know what the notes are called.
Learning to read the dots so that you can look at a blob on a line and understand what it means is one thing. You then have to know where to find it on the instrument. That's something I've never managed (or bothered, to be honest) to learn.
Thank god for ABC - it's easy to transcribe a tune and play it back, then I can learn it by ear.
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Lester Bailey
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29#
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(Date Posted:29/09/2006 21:50:03)
Reply to : Howard Jones
Thank god for ABC - it's easy to transcribe a tune and play it back, then I can learn it by ear.
How to make a complete muppet of yourself:
1. Go to friends party/session
2. Meet nice guy who plays bagpipes
3. Go on and on about how good ABC is and how the guy should check it out
4. Find out said bagpipe player is Chris Walshaw, he who started the whole ABC thing off.
Doh!
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Martin Milner
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30#
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(Date Posted:01/10/2006 19:03:10)
Saying that people who can't read music play better is like saying people who can't read can speak better.
I learnt to read music as a kid, for both violin and singing in church.
Now I have access to thousands of tunes I would otherwise never meet.
Also, remember that many traditional musicians like John Clare and Thomas Hardy wrote down tunes as an aide to memory, but didn't feel constricted by the dots when playing.
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