[Harp-L] Playing in your head and reading music

[rwredington@xxxxx]

Just a thought to add… 
At my church there are a lot of great musicians, and most of them play off of sheet music. They are “Schooled” musicians! 
We also have a number of vocalist who can pick up a sheet and sing “in Key” from the page. This kind of talent blows my mind. 
I can use sheet music as a kind of a “guide” but I wouldn’t say that I can site read. I can count the lines and tell you the name of the note, but what I’m doing is translating… not reading. Its like when children are first learning to read, they learn to “sound out” the words. That’s kind of how music reading is for me.
But play me a tune, and I can reproduce it on the harp. Give me a sound track and I can play with it “By ear”  – Give me a sheet and you will see a look of concern come across my face. 
I’ve been told (by a friend who site reads) - ask a lot of site readers to improvise, and many of them will give you the same look as I give when you hand me the sheet. 
I think both approaches are learned, and some of us are more wired one direction or the other. Not to say that a site reader cant improvise or that a someone who plays by ear can’t learn to read. But that we might tend to be stronger in one approach or the other. 
Something I’ve noticed is that site readers tend to be more stringent with playing what’s on the page… ear musicians will tend to wonder around in the music. 
Of course these ideas are generalizations .
For Christmas, I’m going to be playing harmonica in one of the songs. All the musicians a re site readers and I was handed sheet music 😊 
Then the leader (how know me well) said – Ok, play what your going to play for us….
Then we organized the song and I made notes on my sheet so I know where I start and where I end.  – It should be FUN ! 
I’m lucky enough to have “Trained” musicians who are willing to work with an ear player like me. 
Sincerely,
Randy Redington

From: Emily Keene
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2016 12:42 AM
To: harp-l at xxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] Playing in your head and reading music

Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2016 09:26:29 -0500
From: Tin Lizzie <TrackHarpL at xxxxx>
To: harp-l at xxxxx
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Playing in your head and reading music
Message-ID: <8FC0914B-5DE5-4C96-A003-BB95D8ED4C75 at xxxxx>
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Hi, Aongus!

I am not a neuro-scientist, but I have a keen layman?s interest in that
kind of stuff.  I heard someone say, once, ?I could never learn to juggle
well until I tried to  *talk*  and juggle at the same time.?   Something
about forcing your brain to ?automate? a skill by increasing the workload
with an added skill.  So, clearly, we should all start playing harmonica
while riding unicycles!

Tin Lizzie

Also not a neuro-scientist but also with a layman's interest. The automated
skill is referred to as "procedural memory" and seems to be located in a
different part of the brain and utilizes a different circuit than what we
think of as the conscious part of the brain, so maybe it's a matter of
practicing something consciously enough times to teach the procedural
circuit the motions and letting it "fly" on its own by consciously doing
something else. It works the opposite as well. We've all heard the story of
the centipede that got stuck in the same place because it started thinking
about which foot went first. As far as learning to read music to play the
harmonica, I would say not to bother if it gets in the way of actually
picking up the harp and trying to play. Being a good sight reader is a
skill in itself, and I've known some great musicians that understand theory
on some level but don't "read".  A lot of the really great stuff in
folk-based music can't really be notated accurately. I've also known some
great readers, and some amazing players that are both great readers and
have a great ear, but if I had to choose between one or the other, I'd
rather play with a player that's developed their ear. I'm totally behind
the mental practice idea. I'm totally against riding the unicycle. Cheers,
emily