mad_monk wrote:
Forty years, six thousand instruments and not one solid reader.
There is something profoundly wrong with that.
Mad Monk.
Time to revisit this thread, here's hoping Mad Monk comes back, I do have a few questions for him..
One, one (working towards being a) solid reader. Getting better every day, too.
For every comment in this thread that says things along the lines of "
oh you might be better off to just spend your time just learning the instrument" or "
It won't help you learn to improvise" or "
I learned that, but it's just not usefuI" I humbly submit the following list...
Eric Clapton - Layla
John Coltrane - Giant Steps
Duke Ellington - Satin Doll
The Imperial March (Darth Vader Theme)
Kansas - Carry On My Wayward Son
Bach - Minuet In G
Metallica - Enter Sandman
Charlie Parker - Billie's Bounce
Steve Adelson - Tap Dance
N. Paganini - Perpetual Motion
Paul Simon - The Sound Of Silence
Yes - Owner Of A Lonely Heart
Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues
Steve Adelson - Like Jeff
The Who - I can See For Miles
Can't remember who the hell did it - Low Rider
Sleepwalk
Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Dreaming
Metallica - Sad But True
J.S. Bach - Two Part Invention No1
Bob Marley - I shot The Sheriff
Miles Davis - So What
Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon
AC/DC - Hell's Bells
Greg Howard - Del Mar
Greg Howard - Requiem for Persephone
Greg Howard - Adrift
Greg Howard - Sangre De Cristo
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Blackstar
The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun
The Beatles - Eleanor Rigby
All Of Me
L.V. Beethoven - Fur Elise
Stella By Starlight
Autumn Leaves
Rush - Tom Sawyer
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
They are all on my Youtube and Soundcloud page. Sure, some are better than others but meh... I think the point that learning to read well will really help with all aspects of this instrument has been illustrated. That was the objective.
It's quite a few tunes since mid-July. Plus there's some original stuff in there also that I didn't mention, and a LOT MORE stuff that I just didn't post. I hit record at the end of each practice session and sightread a new bit of music every day.
I've done the experiment, I'd say that musical literacy and the ability to read well is a HUGE advantage, it frees up all kinds of time to work on other stuff... So yeah, this reading thing, there might be something to it...