Tony,

I don’t know if this is pertinent to your situation or not, but your post made me think of it.

A few years ago my wife invited an old friend from college over for dinner. The friend mentioned that she was the music director for one of the largest high schools in the state. I asked what instruments she played and she named several and piano was at the top of the list. She also said she gave lessons on all of those instruments and had majored in music at college.

I told her I was a musician, and then my wife told her I was also a songwriter and asked me to play a specific song that I’d written about my wife and son for her friend. The friend agreed and asked me to get my “music” and guitar and play for her. I’m thinkin’ “I don’t need no steenkin’ music”, but I fetched my guitar and I played the song. She complimented me on it, but she then asked how long it took me to memorize it. I told her the only thing I had to memorize was the words. She looked confused, but then asked me to play another song. I did, (without sheet music), and had basically the same response from her.

She asks for another song, so I launch into “Minor Swing” for about a 4 minute instrumental. She asks how I can remember that entire instrumental and I told her I didn’t remember anything but the first verse, (or the basic melody), and that I’d never heard the other 3 verses until the time I had just played them, (i.e. improvised).

She then stated that she "couldn't grasp" improvisation and that she couldn’t play “one complete bar of anything” without the music in front of her. I put down my guitar and began to “gently” quiz her and found that she didn’t understand “basic” musical concepts when you actually tried to apply them to an instrument or song. She could recite the theory, but she had no idea how to use it on any instrument. Remember this lady is the Music Director and teacher at a High School in the largest city in my state, and has a degree to go with it!

So if you can relate to any of this, may I suggest the following:

Put up your sheet music, and think of the most basic melody you can think of. (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star). Play just the melody in the key of C by ear until you’re comfortable with it, and then add the chords. Think about how the melody “relates” to the chords.

After you have that down, pick another very simple song and do the same without referring back to the sheet music. If you do this by ear daily for 3 months and refuse to allow yourself to even glance at sheet music, then I would guarantee that you’ll find it much easier to memorize what’s on the sheet, and you’ll enjoy playing much more.

Last edited by bobcflatpicker; 11/17/10 04:47 PM.
Bob
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http://soundcloud.com/bobcflatpicke/music-in-the-mountains