how many steelers,play by ear, or read music?

[Terry Kinnear]

Im just a weekend warrior playing steel guitar but i mostly play by ear,can not read music,but im ok on a fast horse,i play in a country band on the weekends,but .just ordered a mullen g2.double 10. got my wife a second job and a paper route,yea right!steel having fun.

[Mark Eaton]

When people say "they can't read music" are they really saying that they can't
sight read music?

Terry-do you at least know what the lines and spaces mean in music notation, and how long one is supposed to hold a note by reading its value a piece of sheet music, etc.?

It seems to me there are plenty of people that can read music, myself included, but I wouldn't want to depend on being able to sight read it when playing in front of a bunch of people.

I can sight read music and sing at the same time at least passably well, but I'm pretty poor at the practice in regards to playing an instrument in the guitar family, and attempting to sight read.

[Terry Kinnear]

Hi Mark most of my reading music is like, one finger typing, i can do it but , it takes time.but i can usally listen to a song ,and figure it out , preety easy. terry

[A. J. Schobert]

If you are doing just "cover" songs I would guess most players just go by there ear. There has been times for me that reading music notation has helped, go to promat website you will hear John Denver Annie's Song, I figured that out buy music notation. I don't think if it is as effient but it can be done.

[Alan Kirk]

Musical notation is a relatively new thing in the West. (The Arabs had it first.) It is believed to have been brought back by the Crusaders, so that puts it at approximately 900-1200 A.D.

Prior to notation (and after) people learned by sitting at the feet of a master. Listening to records is a variation on that theme.

Notation is a good, if limited, shorthand for communicating musical ideas. There are quite a few "alternative" methods of notation that attempt to address the shortcomings of standard notation, giving more details about the notes. None of them have caught on, though.

I've known plenty of competent players who can't read a note. After all, the most fundamental of all musical skills is listening, not reading.

[Moon in Alaska]

Terry... I think most of us read well enough to learn a song from sheet music. I do not sight read.
I can not play a song looking at sheet music. I can learn the song by taking my time reading sheet music.
I think all steel players play by ear. I sure hope so as there are no frets...LOL.
For a steel player, learning the Nashville number system is a lot more useful than notation.
I like the common statement....."I read music, but not enough to mess up my playing !!"
Moon

[Wayne D. Clark]

What Moon Said. Although I can read Tab. But My Ear is Best.

Desert Rose S10 3/5
Goodrich 120
Nashville 400

[Andy Sandoval]

I find my ear and tab more useful than reading musical notation. There's too many places up and down the fretboard where the same note can be found so the tab really helps.

[Tony Prior]

I play be ear, I can read/write chord charts, and I was able to sight read fairly well when I was just a young kid with good eyes and a lot more ambition.

I have avoided sight reading for the past 30 years and my life has been un-effected. I guess if someone held me to the fire I could sight read , but I would be at least two songs behind the band

Sight reading really goes along with what it is we are doing as musicians. If we are playing orchestrations then that would be something we may do everyday, if we are playing in a local Jazz group playing all the standards, maybe reading from the fake book would be normal. BUT, most of us are out playing with a few folks who's entire theory knowledge was learning D,G and A and putting them in the right place, which would certainly not place us in a situation to sight read. So we don't.

We spin the record, learn a few licks and off to the gig we go...

[David Collins]

I'm somewhere in the group with Moon and Tony. I can sight read, very slowly, so it does help in learning an unfamiliar tune, but I learn it and get to the point of playing without any paper in front of me before I'll play it in front of any kind of audience.

My theory is that music is an audible art, not a visual one. I do not believe that you will ever make MUSIC by reading from a sheet of paper. True music MUST have the performers own inflections, passions, and emotions, none of which can be written.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[Ernest Cawby]

I played trombone in High school and military bands. Nan and I met at the american guitar studio, where they tought by reading music. After they tought eveything they had on notation, we went thru the Oahu course, Nan was playing a year before I was, But she will not play now. Being a mother and a housewife filled her desire in life. I have bought her a 6 string National but so far she has not played any.
She knows music and tought herself how to play accoreian, and has taken fiddle lessons and has a very nice fiddle.

Maby some day we will play together, she may be waiting till I can play well enough, she started first on steel. How we met is another story.

ernie

[Wayne D. Clark]

Tony "We spin the record, learn a few licks and off to the gig we go." Man does that take me back! I can still see my self sitting in the living room at home with my 6 string National and the record player, Stop Start over, Stop Start over. trying to learn "I'm movin on" by Hank Snow. Mom and Dad were sure long suffering parents.

Desert Rose S10 3/5
Goodrich 120
Nashville 400

[Charles Curtis]

I don't know if anyone has thought of this idea; on tablature, why not put the count of the note to the right and above the note, either a smaller notation or in parenthesis, similar to a mathematical exponential position? This would be helpful when the actual recording of the "idea" is absent.

[b0b]

I'm a very slow reader. I play mostly by knowing my chords and scales. Is that playing "by ear"?

[Mike Ester]

I couldn't sight-read to save my life. I fly by ear.

[Jani Peter Sandvik]

when playing with the ear is what i call fantasy and thats a talent

[Jody Sanders]

In the immortal words of Jerry Byrd," I can read music, but not enough to hurt my playing". Seriously, learning to read music and understand music theory is a big plus for the player. Jody.

[Gaylon Mathews]

I couldn't tell you the difference between a cleft note and a hamburger!

[Tommy Allison]

Terry, did Mike give you a delivery date for that G2? Don't forget, you said I could be the second one to play it. You being the first of course.

[Jerry H. Moore]

When Beethoven "created" symphonies, he played them first or at least heard them in his head. He couldn't have read them because they didn't exist. So afterwards we all benefit from his dream and can play it note for note. But is that really fun? Not for me! Of course I don't play Beethoven ...far from it! Written music is the only way we can share the "sound" of music without hearing it. So.....tab helps us play that Mooney lick or that new Paul Franklin solo. Or now you can kick of "Night Life" just like Buddy Emmons. Sounding out the trademark licks has always been rewarding and kicking off a cover tune just like the record has it's rewards but after that I feel we should play by "ear" and let you own sound be heard. The tabs found here on the forum and other pages have kept me busy for hours and I do depend on them but I don't want to bog myself down feeling I have to hit every string and pedal just right. I feel too many new pickers lay it aside and give up because they can't do the Brumley sound. Why not just keep on playing every day and listening to all pickers and all styles and create one more style...."you". Everybody ain't Emmons or Mooney but I bet "they" would enjoy what comes out of a tasty solo and would want to have the tab for it. Does this make sense or am I justifiably NUTZ? I am far from being a decent picker with only a year or so behind the steel but when I am playing I do hear in my head what I want my guitar to do. Some of it is happening and I hope the balance is waiting for me. Researching tab and lots of time fixes that. Thanks to the SGF we can get advice and answers to all our problems. And I will repeat "ALL" our problems... 30 years ago I wanted a steel guitar and everybody said it was the hardest instrument out there to play. My regrets is that I listened to them. I would say it's the most challenging but not the hardest. I'll hang that label on a fiddle. Thanks

[Dennis Schell]

Hi Mark most of my reading music is like, one finger typing, i can do it but , it takes time.but i can usally listen to a song ,and figure it out , preety easy. terry

Same here...

Dennis

[Alan Brookes]

Musical notation is a relatively new thing in the West. (The Arabs had it first.) It is believed to have been brought back by the Crusaders, so that puts it at approximately 900-1200 A.D.

That's my excuse. I learned music before the crusades. All my songsheets were written in Anglo-Saxon.

[Andy Sandoval]

I had a friend that could sight read and play classical guitar beautifully. One time I suggested we just jam a little with any chord progression and he was totally lost and didn't have a clue where to start. I think bein able to read music can be helpful at times but even just a basic knowledge of music theory and a good ear goes a long way. I can read music some but I'm not very good at it. I wish I knew more about music theory but even my limited understanding of it helps me to listen to a song and figure out how to play it and bein able to jam with other musicians has really helped me more than bein a good sight reader.

[Dennis Coelho]

I can read standard notation but only haltingly, and there are a few tunes that I have been forced to work through the notation on in order to play. It's my own fault. I just didn't have the patience or the resources when I first started to play. However, I do have a pretty good understanding of theory. I have spent some time with other notation systems, namely the four-shape Sacred Harp hymnals and the newer seven-shape system found in some of the Stamps-Baxter hymnals, which really helps for "ear" training.

I brought up my daughter to play fiddle by ear, though we insisted on regular piano lessons. She took up the concert harp in high school and when she got to college, the other students (and most of the faculty) were astonished that she could play melodies and harmonies on the harp without the standard notation. "Show us how you do that," they asked. As if it were that simple.

It seems to me that for learning the pedal steel, a solid knowledge of music theory is a whole lot more helpful than an ability to read standard notation. Anyway, the concept of tablature is older than notation, if that makes any difference.

The kid now reads music like I read the newspaper. She hums along the parts as she scans the page. I am really envious.

Dennis

[Terry Kinnear]

hey Tommy, as soon as i get my new mullen g2 i will be calling you,thanks for letting me play your mullen,awsome guitar,thats why i bought a g2.cuz i played yours. Mike didnt give a delivery date as of yet.