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 For lurkers: Do you want to read music on the Stick? 

How would you like to learn to play the Stick?
I would prefer to learn to read sheet music on the Stick. 48%  48%  [ 11 ]
I would prefer to use chord and scale diagrams. 22%  22%  [ 5 ]
I would prefer to play by ear. 30%  30%  [ 7 ]
Total votes : 23

 For lurkers: Do you want to read music on the Stick? 
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Post Re: For lurkers: Do you want to read music on the Stick?
Awaiting as well. Sure, I want to be able to read, and can already read from various other instruments and voice. But to me it makes sense to be able to employ whatever is available, whether it is a score, playing by ear, using a leadsheet, using chord diagrams, tab, or whatever else. They all have their uses.


Tue Nov 28, 2017 6:49 am
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Post Re: For lurkers: Do you want to read music on the Stick?
:D Definitely don’t learn how to sight read, being able to learn tunes quickly and efficiently is completely useless. Everybody knows that once you develop it, you will be forever chained to “the score”, and you will never be able to do anything without having written sheet music in front of you...

I also heard that looking at those little black dots can cause severe memory loss, and cause all of your hair to fall out. Also, understanding that language makes it nearly impossible to communicate with other musicians.

Literacy is bad. Bad.

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Tue Nov 28, 2017 7:20 am
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Post Re: For lurkers: Do you want to read music on the Stick?
I know you are poking fun Scott and as a confirmed "ear" person I must admit that even
though I knew you were playing I agreed with you :twisted:.

If the dedicated musician who plays by ear is essentially a musician who improvises
as their approach to music then listening and responding is essentially what they do best :geek:.

I have a friend who is second violin in an orchestra, the real deal, gets paid and everything 8-). How I met her was one time when I was playing at the looping festival (Y2K) in Santa Cruz and afterwards she introduced herself and wanted to play and maybe do some gigs. I had no idea who she was but said sure. I went to her house a week or two later and she told me a little about herself and I said "well you should know something about me, I can't read a lick of music". She said "no problem just play". It was a great experience, I could improvise and she could find the groove and compliment everything I could come up with. After a few more practice sessions we did several performances or house concerts together at these Tibetan Buddhist homes and a retreat center in San Jose. I would have continued playing with her but I think she wanted me to
go 'all Tibetan" and I wasn't into it :|.

My point is that she could improvise and play by the seat of her pants and she could read fluently. Not everybody can do that...

Some time after my experience with the violinist I met another "professional" musician who was a cellist
in another orchestra, a more prestigious one, if that matters and embolden by playing with
my Tibetan friend I said that "we should get together and play sometime". She looked at me quizzically,
and with a touch of distain she said "well, do you have a score?". I said "no, we can just improvise".
She was serious and maybe a little bit arrogant too, but I questioned her further to find out and she admitted that she did not know how to improvise :?...

Jayesskerr wrote:
Everybody knows that once you develop it, you will be forever chained to “the score”, and you will never be able to do anything without having written sheet music in front of you...


There's some truth in them thar dumpsters :twisted:.

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Tue Nov 28, 2017 8:53 pm
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Post Re: For lurkers: Do you want to read music on the Stick?
I'm an "ear" person too.

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Tue Nov 28, 2017 9:38 pm
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Post Re: For lurkers: Do you want to read music on the Stick?
JRJ wrote:
I have a friend who is second violin in an orchestra, the real deal, gets paid and everything ...

My point is that she could improvise and play by the seat of her pants and she could read fluently. Not everybody can do that...

Some time after my experience with the violinist I met another "professional" musician who was a cellist in another orchestra, a more prestigious one, if that matters and ... she admitted that she did not know how to improvise :?...


Both reading music and playing by ear are skills. It seems to me there are people who can't read or play by ear. There are also people who can do one or the other, but not both. And there are people who have mastered both. Not surprising, the people in the first category are most numerous and people in the last are the fewest.

Equally unsurprising, I suppose, are that some people in the middle two groups are intimidated by the people who are in the group they don't belong two, and so loudly proclaim their group to be best.

I mostly want to be able to make music. I think that's what we all want. How we get there depends on a lot of things. How much work we're willing to put in, and what resources we have available to us in terms of teachers are probably two of the biggest, but innate musicality, coordination etc also plays a role.

I can't play by ear, and have no one to teach me how.... so I I'll be trying to build on my poor reading ability to get me where I want to go. I hope I'll be able learn to play by ear a little along the way, because my reading ability is slow, and I'd like to get there faster. Also, I think the two complement each other.

Anyhow, just my $0.02.

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Sun Dec 03, 2017 4:15 pm
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Post Re: For lurkers: Do you want to read music on the Stick?
Music is heard by the ears. Performance is seen by our most developed sense, the eyes. Both go together but the ears have precedence - it's sound after all. Take away the visual and you can still enjoy a recording. Take away the sound and all you have is gymnastic gyrations, a party on the next block.

The human gift of music varies on a bell curve from person to person. Some need to see it in order to appreciate it, a combined sensory experience of sight and sound. I don't need to see the score in order to be "literate" as a musician, but I always love a good performance, that human striving for excellence that is evident thru all the senses (the Experience as Jimi would say). (Well, his music would shake your bones!)

Then again, I do have a need to experience visual music, any and all faculties of mind at work in an attempt to really know music. So I create my 12-spoked scalar "wheels" for the twelve chromatic tones, two dimensional on paper but a spiraling helix thru the octaves in concept. It helps me to integrate chords and scales and to relate remote harmonic progressions.

Yes, the visual element assists and compliments my "ear for music" and my love of improvisation. I just had to invent my own presentation on paper. Notation? It was created for those keys in three genders. I've done it now and then but only for the Copyright Office.


Sun Dec 03, 2017 6:43 pm
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Post Re: For lurkers: Do you want to read music on the Stick?
There is a lot that goes into developing aural skills, sight-reading and singing skills, rhythm, relative pitch, chord identification, theory and harmony, arranging etc etc.

None of which are necessary to be able to improvise or compose. (Improvisation is spontaneous composition) - You don't have to have a good ear to be able to make stuff up, you don't need any theoretical knowledge, nor do you even need to be able to read. Not really, especially these days... (Drag and drop, loop mashups, midi transpose, pitch-correct, audio quantize, etc...)

But y'all are in for a seriously rude awakening if you believe that the above mentioned attributes will any way have a negative effect on one's ability to play.

If someone can't "improvise" or "compose" it's because they have chosen not to.

:D Anyone seen "Whiplash"? Now THERE was a demanding instructor...

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Sun Dec 03, 2017 8:32 pm
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Post Re: For lurkers: Do you want to read music on the Stick?
I think that there are two unspoken secrets here that could continue this dialogue and even include Madd Monk...

First there is the curious phenomenon that is we often 'hear' music in our heads yet there
is no actual sound. How does this occur? Does everyone experience this?

I once read that Frank Zappa could look at a score and hear it in his head. Does anyone here
on the forum who reads have that experience, Monk?

I think most everyone has had a hunch or a new idea, of course, but how far from the idea :idea: is a musical phrase that you can hear in your head?

And the one step beyond experience that is perhaps more rare; 'synesthesia', in this case
where you "see" the music as well as hear it.
In my view synesthesia is possibly a lost quality of mind or equally possible, an evolutionary
next phase of body-brain-mind-integration :twisted:.

It is odd too that if you hear "voices in your head" the cultural warning signals are supposed to
come on (unless your Kevin Keith 8-))

ArmyDoc wrote:
I can't play by ear, and have no one to teach me how.... so I I'll be trying to build on my poor reading ability to get me where I want to go.


Maybe there is playing by ear and also playing by inner ear (?) It could be just a switch and you turn
it on and there is the light, I mean sound ;) . But getting practical here, there is the idea of the "etude" :|. It just means "study" and it is for readers and non readers alike. Etudes are usually written out but if you don't write and or can't read, invent :ugeek:. An etude does
not need to be a whole song and can start with just a phrase, heck even just a lick :?.
But when you start to play the part repetitively, invented or otherwise it will want to
expand or advance. If one is reading the etude then I guess you go on to the next part of the song. But if you are inventing the etude in the first place then the door is open to completely
new material. "Parallel Galaxy" anyone?

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Sun Dec 03, 2017 8:53 pm
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Post Re: For lurkers: Do you want to read music on the Stick?
Well, there's solfege, sightsinging and pitch practice, reading and clapping rhythms, and transcription, etc. Internalizing pitch/sound/rhythm is such a critically important thing to do for any musician.

Combine those aural skills with an ability to decode, and interpret the written language of music, and one is well on their way. Now, whether the individual in question wishes to utilize that skillset towards composition, or improvisation, or repertoire, so be it. All good.


Why it is people can remember pitch, sound, color, rhythm, poetry, art, events or scenery in their mind's eye well, I don't know but it's a gift.

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Sun Dec 03, 2017 10:08 pm
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