PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic How many of you can take a song you've heard before - with really simple chords in 1 or 2 keys - and

Wonder how many are in the last category?

It depends how far up the musical food chain you are. Pro's who work as studio session players can all read fly specks at 20 feet. They can read a brand new piece of music perfectly the first time through and play it with feeling. They're on the clock, the producer hired them in the first place because they can do that. The big band I mentioned earlier is populated by guys like that. Half of them are session players and the other half are still damn good. At a rehearsal, one chart has a 16 bar piano intro and I casually asked the guitarist next to me what it was and he said, "Read the ink, man". On the fly I could read the top melody note ok but as for the chord voicings I just faked it. I took a pic of it with my phone, found a recording online and worked it out correctly at home so I was ready next time. That won't cut it if this was a studio session. Now, this is in LA and there are studio players all over the place. If you're living in the hills of North Carolina or in the middle of Iowa you may not run into that much.

Here's a question for anybody. If you can't read at all but you have great ears, experience and all that good stuff but you've not heard the song before how can you use your ears and fake that intro? You have the chart right in front of you and you're expected to read it down. You'll hear how the song goes as you're playing it.

Keep going down from there and the percentage of players who read becomes less and less until you're down to the guy who can strum 3 chords on a guitar and that's it.

There are all kinds of players on this forum. They're at all levels of experience so it's hard to give specific advice that any one person can relate to. I spent years doing Vegas shows, reading and writing charts, traveling on the road and some recording studio work until I got married and had kids. I gave it up as a full time profession but I've been gigging regularly all along. I'm at a higher level than some here I guess and not as high a level as others.

Bottom line is music is open ended, it will take you as far as you want it to take you even if you never gig or perform, you're just doing it for your own enjoyment at home. Whatever your level is the more musical education you get the better.

Another point I just thought of. To those who are very good players, have great ears, can hear something once and play it well. You have lots of contacts, get lots of calls for gigs and such and are happy. That's great but...you also probably have contacts who may need players for gigs or a studio session who never call you because they know you can't read. You have no idea what you're missing out on because nobody's going to come up to you and say that.

"We've got this gig coming up with so and so who's flying in from New York and he has all his charts. Bob's a good player but he can't read so who else can we get?"

Just my opinion but it helps if you're not that Bob.

Bob