Re: [Harp-L] Reading Music

[Bob Cohen <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This has been an interesting and enlightening discussion and, to my mind, hits at the very core of how we learn to play our instrument--especially in blues context. This discussion sends my mind to flights of fancy.  Can you imagine a conversation between the aoidos poets and Homer over which was better: hearing the Odyssey poem performed live from memory or read from the Homeric Greek?  The point is everyone on this list can read.  Why would we eschew an important tool or celebrate ignorance?

Most of us learned through trial and error and, if we were lucky, apprenticeship.  Unless you've got natural talent and huge hears, this approach has its limits.  Yeah sure we can point to a small number of innovators who were able to make art despite being illiterate.  But they were geniuses.  IMHO, the rest of use mortals need systems and methods to learn how to listen and to perform.

Bob