[Harp-L] How important is it to be able to read music?

[Sébastien Frémal]

Hi !!

Hot topic haha. Firstly, harmonica is a real instrument, just as piano or
guitar ! There are enough people to consider it as a toy, maybe
harmonicists at least could respect the instrument :)

Secondly, I don't think everybody is on the same page about de definition
of "reading music". I saw people said it's easy and you can learn it in 5
minutes. Reading music, doesn't mean decrypting music. It's not just
looking at the partition to see which note must be played with which
rhythm. It's taking the part, putting the metronome on 150 and playing the
partition correctly while you discover it. Friends able to read partitions
told me it's not complicate, but it requires to train an hour per day to
get quick results. So not difficult, but it's not done in 5 minutes either.

About the motivations. I've decided recently to try to enter the jazz
conservatory with my diatonic harp. You must pass an entrance examination
to enter in this institution. The first test is to read a random real book
partition. If you can't read music, you can't enter the conservatory. Until
now, I mainly learned new theme by listening other musicians playing it. I
only decrypted partitions when necessary. Now, I will learn to read music.
But I don't see it as a requirement to be qualified as a pro. I know many
pro musicians who can't read music. Many legendary musicians didn't read
music (for example :
http://www.nairaland.com/2408051/10-legendary-musicians-never-learned).
They just played what they listened. But it's a really useful skill. So if
you want to make a career in music, it's a good idea to learn to read music.

There are existing tabs. But when you're studying music with other people,
you never get tabbed partitions. You only get the same partition as the
guitarist or the pianist. So either you can read it, or you must have time
to analyse it and annotating it with tab notations. The second solution
worked for me until know. And I'm playing in two jazz bands with
conservatory students. But things will change as I want to upgrade my level
:)

Sebastien