From robjackson_2002@yahoo.com Thu Aug 07 06:21:46 2008
Subject:Re: Reading Music versus Learning by ear Suggestions?

Hi guys: I have been reading this thread and was surprised to find
out that nobody had mentioned Jamey Aebersold's books and CDs.
Aebesold is really the foremost jazz educator in the USA, based out
of the Louisville area. He has a company that distributes probably
approx. 150 different jazz and blues play-along Cd/book sets for
people who are working on their improvisational chops. Even though I
am primarily a rock and roll guitar player, I learned to read music
on piano at an early age, and still use the music- reading skill for
many various things, like figuring out some of the cool licks that
are in guitar magazines where you cant tell the timing if you dont
read,etc. I can also write horn charts for some of the R&B stuff
that I record in my home studio. I can then hire a couple of good
high school horn players who read well, and I have instant Memphis
Horns (almost)!!! Even a little reading ability will give you an
exponential advantage over just being an ear player, because of the
sheer number of ways that you can expand your vocabulary in terms of
chord voicings, different styles of playing, learning scale/chord
relationships, etc. As a guitar teacher with 31 years of 50-60
private lessons a week behind him, I know the importance of
developing your ear--a big part of what I do all day long
is figure out note-for-note transcriptions of guitar solos by
EVERYBODY from Hendrix and Zeppelin to Steely Dan to the Allmans to
weird alternative bands that cant even play at all. As most of you
know, there probably aren't 3 guitar players in the world who read
music, thats not the way that modern popular guitar styles are based--
the basic vocabulary of contemporary guitar players really goes back
to a lot of the great early blues and jazz players, most of whom were
probably not readers. Piano( and organ) historically have been taught
generally by people who have been classically trained--I am sure that
most of the great jazz piano players read at least functionally,
because the ability to read a fake book was a standard skill for jazz
players for years, and still is. So I would reccommend any serious
musician to learn to read even though finding a "cool" piano teacher
is almost impossible unless you just want to play Bach and Beethoven.
There are many instructional tools available in book and CD sets now,
and even DVD lessons on just about every facet of every instrument--
there may be something that you could use to teach yourself basic
reading. The reason that I mentioned Jamey Aebersold (Aebersold.com)
is that his company offers tons of educational materials for people
who want to learn good jazz skills. He has a number of EXACT
transcription books of players like Oscar Peterson, Thelonius MOnk,
McCoy Tyner, etc. I could not find any transcritions of Jimmy Smith
or any of the Organ guys, but Aebersold.com still has a huge
selection of stuff, including CD sets and books for specific styles
and even scales, like Latin Jazz or Modal Jazz.He has many cool books
just for piano, covering all kind of cool voicings and
transcriptions,etc. The books that accompany his CDs are well written
with some killer explanations of things like modes, chord structure.
I use his play-along CDs to work out some of my hotter guitar
students that can really improvise, even though they are mainly
rock/blues guitarists. So check out Aebersold.com--he may even have a
DVD or book about basic reading skills. Even a little reading can
open up a huge new world for you because of just the sheer amount of
information that you can take in to expand your vocabulary. If you
already have a strong ear, reading would be the easy part!! Also ,
music theory such as chord structure, and a knowledge of what scale
to use when,etc., is pretty easy even with very basic reading skills.
That's why every music major in every college everywhere has to learn
basic piano skills, even percussionists. Ultimately it just depends
on what you want to do, but I definitely think basic reading is
almost essential to be a functional player at a pro level, even
though there are always exceptions. But a little reading can go a
long way. Sorry to be so long-winded!! Rob J.