Do musicians depned too much on the written music?

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Question:

i am amazed by the amount of musicians who read well and have no heart, and no talent at all to improvise a single note well!.
Is this because they too dependent on reading!?
Why would the brass section need the score to play the five notes in "give me some loving" the blues brothers classic!?
and by the way these were supposed to be college of music students!.
I did play the notes for them on the guitar, but no use!.How annoying!., as i play everything by ear!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

dear apathetic poser;
guess what!? in the real world, true musicians train hard to do both (be able to read and improvise)!. most of my gigs come from my ability to read and interpret every bit of ink on a page of music and do it well!. my improv skills are a usefull bonus-that's all!. musical creativity has many facets & one is not superior to another!.i would love to see you sit down for hours and actually write out whole compositions of your own for the readers to read, (but i bet you are incapable of doing much more than making affectations of superiority when in fact you lack entire skill sets)!. go study! learn everything you do not know about music (start with sight reading skills)!. then maybe you can become a star instead of just a legend in your own mind!Www@QuestionHome@Com

I find that to be a wee bit true! I play the flute, and dabble in various other instruments but I learned all of them - except the flute which I got lessons on - by ear!. I had some pointers to help me out but I prefer learning by ear!. I had been doing this since I was young!. When I went to college to do music I became an average student!. I didn't like playing quickly for the sake of it and I most certainly liked putting my own twist to a piece of music!. Unfortunately, all the praise and attention went to those who fit into the 'classical musician' mold!. Needless to say that annoyed me!. There's too much emphasis on sheet music, not enough on listening to music and playing your rendition!. Being a classical musician isn't much fun at a party either if you can't improvise and join in with your instrument! (also, I'm not dissing any classical musician!. I've just noticed a trend!)Www@QuestionHome@Com

We're all amazed by your ignorance!.

Being able to read music has nothing to do with being able to improvise!.

Reading music is an efficient way of communicating ideas!. If I was in a rehearsal where the guitar player was trying to teach all 3 horn parts by playing them on his guitar, I would walk out!.

Instead of wasting everybody's time while you try teaching the entire horn section how to play the song, you could have just shown up with the charts already prepared, then they would know WHAT to play, then they could concentrate on the PERFORMANCE!.

Another thing is that college music programs are usually split between jazz and classical!. If you were playing with classically trained musicians, then they would not be trained at improvisation; which doesn't really matter in this case because you weren't asking them to improvise, they were only supposed to play "5 notes"!. That's not improvising!.

From the sounds of it, you were lucky that these guys even played with you in the first place!. I can almost guarantee that with your attitude, you will find it increasingly harder to find musicians who will play with you more than once!.

How annoying for the rest of us, as we all can read music!.
Www@QuestionHome@Com

Most music readers can learn to play by ear, but do not bother!. Most who play by ear, can learn to read music but do not bother!.
The music readers get as frustrated with those who play only by ear!.

Those who play by ear get frustrated with those who only read music!.

There does seem to be an exception in the world of Jazz where most do both!.
Guitar and Drum seem to be the instruments that are played by the largest % of those who do not read music!. Those who are classically trained are the largest % that read music!.
It is a shame that both are not taught together!.
I think there should be more respect for each group and attempts by both to learn the others method!.
To be able to hear music one or tow times and be able to play it is great!. To be able to pick up a piece of music and by looking at it hear it in your head is wonderful!.
Sitting with a group and developing a piece is fantastic!.
Getting a group of 80 or more together and to read a John Williams Score the first time through and having it ready for live performance in a few hours!.
I wish we could all do it all!.
This is a fierce topic and you have stirred a Hornets Nest!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

reading music has nothing to do with being lazy or stupid infact it takes effort to learn and understand!.people shouldnt rely on it entirely but as has been said reading has nothing to do with impro!.

if im playing alone I personally dont tend to read it much other than to learn the basics of a complex piece beacause its quicker a lot easier and more accurate than picking bits out by ear!.
but if music was never written down how would it have been passed down to modern times!?
And it makes learning a song easier if you are in a group as well as everyone is playing and learning different sections!. Im in a band and we learn and pass around ideas by writing bits down and putting them together when we meet up but constantly improvise/experiment during rehearsals as we are playing!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I have a master's degree in music, and I'm a full-time professional musician, and guess what I get paid to play!?

You're right!. I get paid to play the notes on the page!. Not something I make up!. And learning 150 pages of music a week, I don't have time to figure something out; it's all I can do to play what's on the page!.

I performed for years with people who played everything by ear!. It took them weeks to learn from CDs what they could have read for themselves as the music was being passed out, and I had to sit through five weeks of four-hour rehearsals, whereas if they had been able to read, we could have gotten through everything in three two-hour rehearsals, and I could have used that 14 hours to be playing somewhere else at $80/hr!. How annoying, as I read music!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I completely understand your frustration!. I've a friend who plays flute from sheet music and if you ask her to improvise without the notes in fron of her she's all at sea!. Despite encouraging playing by ear she just don't get it!. Playing by ear can come into its own in certain situations!. I had to learn some songs with a small band on bass guitar (no sheet music available) and was told that not only was the guitarist was left handed, he played an open G as well, turned out he played an open F!. If I hadn't had the "play by ear" skill I would have been stuffed!. As it was it went OK once I realised what was going on!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

AND!.!.!. why is it that, when I see a posting complaining about learning how to read music!.!.!. it's almost always posted by someone who is either too LAZY or too STUPID to learn how to read music!.!.!. so they post their ignorance about it to make theirself feel better for BEING LAZY AND STUPID!.

I can read music!.!.!. but like MOST professional musicians!.!.!. I use the WRITTEN MUSIC as merely a place to start!.!.!. If I am doing stuidio work!.!. I play the notes!.!.!. if I am doing a gig somewhere!.!.!. then I never play the same song the same way!.

Telling me that musicians can't play with heart because they read music!.!. is BULLSH*T!.!.!. and it shows me you are just too lazy or stupid to learn how to read music!.Www@QuestionHome@Com