Re: [Harp-L] re: being a musician

[Bob Cohen <bcohen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Apr 11, 2006, at 12:08 PM, Chris Michalek wrote:

> Reading skills are not just for studio musicians to play a song in  
> one take.  If you're in a band and you have a great tune in your  
> head how do you convey your original masterpiece to the others?  
> Reading and writing music is about communication.

Like I said (IMHO) you're attached to your ideas about how things get  
done.  There's a big difference between being attached and being  
clear.  The latter leaves room for other ways of doing things.  But  
yeah, of course, being musically literate and versed in theory can be  
extremely helpful when collaborating as well as when you want to  
share your music with other musicians.  Indeed, I ran into this  
problem a couple of weeks ago with a guitar player who was  
accompanying me for a show.  We ended up having to scrap a few  
originals because we lacked sheet music.  Nevertheless, not being  
able to read and therefore communicate didn't mean either of us were  
crap.  You, or others, might say I suck but the reason for your  
statatemen will be my playing, not whether I can sight read. ;-)

Bob Cohen