I read music well and have a good grounding in theory, but having been raised by a mother who was a bluegrass picker and singer, I've played with a lot of musicians who could not read music and didn't really have a firm grasp on theory.

I think the best way to answer your question is to refer you to your inability to use a capo while the average unschooled picker can do it with ease. I feel like the thinking is completely different. IMHO, it's because you think in terms of absolute notes that make up a chord; whereas most pickers think about open chord shapes and variations off them ( read about the CAGED system for guitar). If you know a shape to hold on a stringed instrument, you don't need to think about the major triad being made up of the 1-3-5 or the notes C-E-G for the C major chord. Most pickers I know intuitively figured out the Circle of Fifths without ever taking a theory class or otherwise being told about it. The musicians who don't read music at least know the notes on their instruments and can hear what the root note of the chord is and put their chord charts together for songs that they have written, refining the basic into the more complex after the root is identified.

But maybe this isn't what you were asking.


Keith
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