Originally Posted By: ZeroZero
I am beginning to wonder if all ths notation and analysis stuff is necessary at all - in fact it isnt, with practice, you can just go to an instrument and play.


Originally Posted By: ZeroZero
I am beginning to wonder if all ths notation and analysis stuff is necessary at all - in fact it isnt, with practice, you can just go to an instrument and play.


Until you get called in to do a session for $250 an hour.... and they sit sheet music in front of you for a song you have never heard and it's in Db and you have no more than 4 takes allowed before they fire you and bring in the next guy.

This is all relative. Someone who wants to play 3 chord oldies as a hobby on weekends requires a different set of skills than someone who makes a living playing jingles for soda pop, shoelaces, an asbestos eradication company and a fish market all in the same day.

Much the same as a home hobby woodworker is not likely to be as precise or creative as a carpenter who works 50 hours a week making custom kitchen cabinets. There is really not a "better than" piece to this puzzle. Just a "different from" piece.

A professional musician, and again that opens a can depending on how literally you define "professional" (to me it means the guy who writes and records and tours in the big bus and sells t-shirts and baseball caps where to some it means nothing more than "I get paid to play"), really needs to know those fundamentals and theory. And please do not start telling me about how Sinatra didn't write. When you get to Sinatra's international level of fame I'll give you a hall pass on the writing side of things. Given the choice between being Sinatra or Diane Warren I'd take the writing side of things every time, mainly because I don't want to live on planes and in hotels and have to gear myself up mentally to perform every other day. I have an annual reunion show coming up next month. This year we are doing 2 nights. 2 consecutive nights of performing is going to drain me physically and emotionally that I won't recover until January, because I don't do this regularly like so many of you do. It's a big deal to me because of how long I know the rest of the guys and how close I am to them personally. For me, the people in the crowd aren't even there. I have too much to focus on as far as what I am playing on what song, which synth sounds I need, lyrics to remember, harmony parts.... the people are just there to pay me! LOL!!!

Again, it's all relative.

grin