There are plenty of tools we use to make music.
  • The physical skills of playing our instrument(s)
  • The ability to listen to music like a musician (as opposed to a non-musician)
  • Musical phrasing, dynamics, and ornaments
  • Ear training (how to learn parts by ear)
  • Music theory (from basic to advanced - whatever you need)
  • Reading music
  • Composing music
  • and others that I'm sure I've missed


Not all of us have all those skills, but for most of us, it's better to have the majority.

Since this thread is about reading music.

I work in a duo, and I make my own backing tracks. That means I lay down the drums, bass, keys, strings, backing vocals (on synth voices) and everything else except the most fun parts, which I leave for Mrs. Notes and I to play live. (Can't let the machine have all the fun).

I could do this entirely by ear. But it would be very time-consuming. Even though I have very good ears, I'm bound to get a few things wrong (just what chord was that, two or three seem to work, but the inner voices aren't coming out).

I could do this entirely by reading music. It would be very quick. Rather than pick out every note the musicians are playing by ear, I can just read them. But notation isn't exact. I'd miss a lot of the nuances that turn the empty notes into the song.

So I use a combination of both, notation and ears.

In my case, it's better to have both skills.

I've done over 600 backing tracks so far, and the combination method works best for me. If I did them entirely by ear, wouldn't have had the time to do so many. If I did them only by reading the music, they wouldn't sound as good.

Fortunately, in this day and age, I can get copies of the music for almost any song I want to learn.

We all have different needs, and different skill sets. Use what you have, and learn what you think you need to add.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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