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

[philharpn@xxxxx]

As several people have pointed out before, tab tells the player where to play the note. What hole on the harp, what fret on the guitar or uke.

Music notation tells the player what note to play. It's up to the player to decide what position to play the guitar: 1st position (1st fret) 5th position (5th fret). Some Mel Bay books put middle C on hole 4 and that works out because on a diatonic there is a complete major octave from holes 4-7. But the music reader knows that hole 1 can be used as middle C and with the use of a couple of bent notes ( F & A) the complete major scale is also available.

Ever tried to hum tablature? 

There was a time -- long before I had any interest in the harmonica -- when the only way to learn most blues and jazz songs was by listening to the recording and playing along in unison by rote.

Nowadays, virtually all forms of popular music is available in a legal (Hal Leonard) fake book. I know. I know because I own them and have for several years.

Want to learn blues, country, jazz, dixie-- get the fake book. For a few cents a song, any song is available. Some people may not like the chords in the fake book but I've never heard or read of anybody complaining about wrong notes. 

Or check out the internet for free harp tab and discover that about half the tab is inaccurate. 

When I teach my Harmonica 101 class, I use a book that has tab and notation. I tell my students to read the tab. But if they want to know whether the note gets one beat or two beats etc check out the notation and use the notation as   a road sign.

As one of my favorite sax/harmonica players once remarked at SPAH: "Reading music is about as hard as Third Grade Math. 

If you can memorize the Circle of Fifths, you can learn to read music in 5 minutes.

 





-----Original Message-----
From: bad_hat <bad_hat at xxxxx>
To: harp-l <harp-l at xxxxx>
Sent: Mon, Dec 26, 2016 6:59 pm
Subject: [Harp-L] How important is it to be able to read music?

That was the question from the original poster.  Owen P.Evans had an 
outstanding answer, he posted this video link,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X7qgBVnMfY

It got zero comment.  The video talks about what musical notation is 
good at and compares it to what tab is useful for.  It's looking at it 
from a neural cognitive point of view as well as a practical point of 
view not that they are at all exclusive.  I also didn't find the video 
to be judgmental at all.  My take away is the standard notation exists 
because it fits a set of skills that human being possess in other words 
we created it because it serves us well.  What it doesn't say is if you 
can't read then you won't get the gig.  I really like how it's just 
there for you to see however you need to see it at that moment.  It's 
also about the first original thought on this topic I've heard in a very 
long time. So thank you Owen P Evans, I for one clicked that link and 
really found it provocative.