I hope you all are well and getting your grooves on wherever you are in the world tonight. I wanted to touch upon a subject that often gets pushed under the rug so I thought that I'd mention it here and now.
I'm often asked the question... "Which is the most important to having a successful music career... Reading music, or playing by ear?"
I can tell you from having done it both ways that it is definitely best to learn to do both if you're just starting out. It's also very important to begin learning to read music and studying theory if you've just been winging it by ear all these years.
What's my reason for saying that? It's because having both sets of skills makes you much more of a bankable commodity in the industry. It makes you a better player and more self-confident. And it allows you the luxury of being able to handle any music, anytime, anywhere. Now how free does that make you feel!!? Reading music is basically memorization anyway. Get yourself a set of note flash cards, a metronome, and a note chart for your particular instrument and begin to work with them a little bit everyday.
After a while, you'll begin to pickup on the patterns of written notation and then you'll start translating them to your instrument.
Remember, one or the other is great, but having both skills (reading and playing by ear) in your back pocket will make you more money and it will be very satisfying to you in the long run!
Drop me a line if you have further comments or questions right here on the blog.
Peace and Light,
LK
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