Reading music-revisited

[Rob Frantz <rfrantz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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