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From: Michael Will
Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1996 23:26:59 -0700
Subject: Re: Icky theory (was a funky thumb)

Douglas Tate wrote:
>
> Featherman Mike (why does that sound ~so~ familiar??) says
> #################
> I think that's part of the chromatic mistique that makes diatonic
> players a bit nervous--when you hear a good chromatic single-note
> melody-type player, there seems to be a lot of learning-by-reading-music
> that went into it. I think that many diatonic players just don't want
> to do that.
> ####################
> Learning to read music.... Wow, very difficult. Big Brain stuff, too hard
> for mere mortals, you need to hire the tail coat, white waistcoat, etc
> before starting on that stuff. What rubbish
>snip<
> I used to teach music in school, I've had over 5000 students, I've taught
> all but a few to read music, and in the second half of the lesson they all
> took down the tune Three Blind Mice from dictation at the piano having been
> shown where the first note was. We used to have 45 minute lessons. Sorry
> about the big investment in time but we thought it was necessary.

Reading music is not as easy as Douglas is making it out to be. JonG
can teach someone to play "Three Blind Mice" in 45 minutes. Does that
mean that playing harmonica is trivial?

Sure, you can get the basic note positions fairly quickly. But much
more difficult is the timing and rhythm, IMO. Not to mention the
dynamics or phrasing notations. Or the "effects" notation (head shake?
staccato? tongue slap?). Writing it out is even tougher--there are
right ways (which make it easier to read) and wrong ways (which don't).
Think of a great solo you played. Trying to convey not only the notes
but all the nuances is not necessarily simple.

And it's one thing to have a music dictionary sitting next to you and
struggle through one symbol at a time. Quite another to be familiar
enough with notation for it to be useful. Even harder still to site
read. Yet more difficult to site read and play
non-mechanistically--with feeling and interpretation. Douglas can do
this most difficult of reading. He can also play it! Perhaps he's
forgotten (*how* old is he??? I hear the memory is the ~second~ thing
to go...) the effort it took to learn.

Yes, if you start as a child it's bound to be easier. Tell it to your
kids, but if you didn't do it....

Reading music is quite similar to playing an instrument. The earlier
you start, the better. The more you practice and study, the better
you'll do. Is it useful? Without question. Should a musician know
how? See "is it useful?"

Is it a 45 minute exercise?

If you only want to play "Three Blind Mice."

- -- Featherman Mike