DATE: Fri, 28 Jan 1994 13:46:04 CST From: Rob Frantz Subject: Reading music-revisited
I've got a bit more to say on this subject. In his post of 1/27/94 Tim Moody states ..."reading music does not a better harp player make. Plain and simple. It's all inside of you and reading music doesn't make it come out, in only makes you understand how someone else wants it to come out." I disagree with this on many levels, First, reading music certainly can make one a better harmonica player. Reading won't make a player into an improviser, but it won't inhibit his or her improvisation. It fact, reading and music theory help a player to be aware of the improvisational possibilities of the instrument, the scales, chords and arpeggios that can aid in this. Reading jazz and blues solo transcriptions are a definite aid to developing technique, not to mention melodies. Secondly, reading music cannot make one a compelling musician, it takes more than that. But, reading on some instruments is a large part of the battle. It is a misunderstanding of the purpose of musical notation to say that reading (it).."only makes you understand how someone else wants it to come out." Musical notation is only an approximation, sometimes a crude, approximation of what a composer intends, even composers whose music is immediately written down, as in classical music. If the notation could express what the composer wanted, then the music would be a purely mathematical question and computers would be the best interpreters, because humans cannot and do not wish to perform music with precise mathematical precision of time and pitch. Such "music" bores very quickly and anyone who hears it knows its not human. A composer notates in order to communicate, over time and space, the musical content of the composed piece so others can approximate it. No poet writes a poem assuming it can be read in a completely standard way every time, in dialect, emphasis, meter, etc. Only a programmed computer voice could do that and such poetry does not sound "human. Lastly, reading cannot be view as a mechanical act. The reader must take the symbols off the page and play them, give them life. To say "it's all inside of you and reading music doesn't make it come out" is to miss the point. Reading doesn't give music beauty, but those who learn to read well have a tremendous wealth of great music available to them and with all that music going through your eyes, mouth, tongue, throat and ears, the chances of good music coming out are certainly enhanced. ROB
