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DATE: Wed, 26 Jan 1994 14:32:45 CST
From: Steve Jennings <100010.11~ompuServe.COM>
Subject: Harmonica & Reading Music

Gordon,

Lawks-a-mercy!! I wouldn't *dream* of suggesting any such thing, and if
that was taken as an implication of what I said, put it down to my
inadequacies as a writer. There is categorically *nothing* wrong with
not being able to read music, (I'm not sure there's much right with
it, either) and I do not lay claim to any sort of moral high ground
because I can - I've been doing it all my life and I take it for
granted and believe me, I know what a struggle it can be for an adult
to get to grips with it - and I don't necessarily believe I'm a better
player because of it BUT I am undoubtedly a better musician.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by learning to read,
and not only learning to read, but also learning how chords and scales
work together - this will enhance your improvisational abilities no end
and enable you to communicate far more readily with other musicians for
one thing, and also enable you to know what will work and what will not
in a given situation.

What the ability to read gives you is access to a far wider repertoire
than you would otherwise have. I entirely agree that the gent in
question should have been more self-critical, but he was *very*
convinced that what he was doing was good (whatever that may mean) and
very unwilling to stand back from it and take it apart in the way you
suggest, and basically he was not approaching his tuition from
a point of view that acknowledged that he had something to learn. One
of the great benefits I have found in teaching other people to play is
the amount that they teach me - that makes it very exciting.

On the other hand, if you choose not to learn to read, that's cool too
- you have your own rainbow to follow, and it's not up to me or anyone
else to tell you how to follow it. However, to pick up on Rob's point,
it's worth considering that Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, James Cotton,
Brendan Power, Mark Feltham etc etc etc and all the other great
non-reading musicians you can name, were/are great musicians *in
spite* of their inability to read, not because of it. Similarly, there
are plenty of bad musicians who can read music, but it's not their
ability to read that makes them bad musicians.

The bottom line is that you're doing it for yourself, and you're
perfectly entitled to do it your way, but as George pointed out he
simply could not have done those gigs if he had not been able to read
(and transpose at sight by the sound of it).

Steve Jennings
Editor, Harmonica World