Subject: Reading music..

Right.He knew how to read chord charts I think but not single lines.One of the main things about reading though, if you actually want to make a living doing it-if you can't read you cut out a huge amount of possible work.You can't:
play a pickup jazz gig
play duets with a flute
play in a pit orchestra
do studio work
get a teaching job
etc.
But to me even thought I'm not a great reader just being able to crappily read through a Bach violin sonata or a Charlie Parker solo is an amazing experience- it kind of lets you slightly touch the mind of a musical genius.The thing you said about open tunings is great-I read that Pat Martino used to tune his guitar to a random tuning,record himself playing some of his standard licks (by finger shape)then tune the guitar back to normal and figure out how to play the bizarro recorded licks!

Absolutely! Opens doors to playing situations and other peoples minds. Like when visiting another country, knowing that country's language, can make it easier to get around and be able communicate.

Good point, Damien...another language in your pocket.

I'm not saying anybody's got to do anything. I've played with incredible players who knew nothing about reading or theory...I just know what's worked for me is all...

Hey Mark: I read through those violin sonatas and partitas, too. Some of my favorite music in the world. Nowhere near as good at it as I used to be...but they're fun and often give me new ideas.

You've had lots of good advice here. I'll just reinforce that reading music is a skill, and all skills improve with practice.

There are many, many ways of getting started, such as...

•Work on rhythms only some times, by clapping or intoning the rhythms of lots of different types of music;
•Buy a book. There are dozens of sightreading books available, and I'm sure they are all fine, as long as you work on them.
•Write down music in your head. Write down simple tunes first (Mary had a little lamb, etc.), then try more complicated ones.
•Take a intro music theory course;
•Join a choir!

And of course, lots more things can be tried. The main thing is to try something, and stick with it.

FWIW, I grew up playing music by ear (and I still do), but I decided at the age of 20 to learn more about it, how to read, how it worked, etc., so I took a music rudiments course. It didn't help much, so I started taking more courses, and eventually my reading improved.

In a big band that would never work if he'd been a sax player.

Victor.

My dad was in a big band, Paul Law, they were a pretty big pro band around San Francisco Ca. He actually played the graduating ceremony clarinet solo for Balboa High senior graduation (one of the largest high schools in San Francisco Ca..

So he played a lot even at a young age with Carol Channing (Hello Dolly), he talked about being at her house. I think he said she played the statue of liberty in a play at Aptos Junior High . He would be in the band as the backup for some of her performances.

But Paul Law the leader of the big band wanted him to go on the road and that is when he got in the tile installation business with his step dad. He dreaded being on the road. That is how I got in the tile business.

But we so very often would play together at home. Parties, tons of get togethers. So many, many tunes we would play together when I was young. Georgia Brown, jazz standards, many Tommy Dorsey tunes, Tony Bennett, tons of all kinds of music books. He would play mostly sax and I would play guitar. A lot of rhythm especially when I was in my teens and even latter when I fingerpicked.

So that is how I really got interested in reading music.

I remember when I was about 15 so, there was this incredible banjo player that gave me lessons on the guitar. I was always so happy to take lessons when ever i could. His name is Doug Karr, I think that was with a C not sure. He had a music store in San Rafael Calif. He was such a strick disciplinarian. You didn't want to mess up too much with him, He was indeed a very, very tense guy.
He was a showman, who played the banjo at Shakey's Pizza Palor. He played with orchestras as well.

There was Walt Ulner when I was in my 20's or so. But he really got me into liking jazz fingerstyle guitar and classics like Ligrima, advanced pieces as well. He was quite a good teacher at reading music.

Then when I got into concertos, I went to a primer classical guitarist, actually at the time he was the best classical guitarist at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His name was George Sakellariou

Here is a link for him:
http://www.melbay.com/authors.asp?author=1910

He helped me with a Rodrigo Concerto Fantasia para un Gentilhombre. I took private lessons at his house. Which was near by in Marin County, Ca. That inspired me to learn Concierto De Aranjuez. But mostly I learned that from the music and learning from John Williams playing of it with orchestra.

I used to love to go to parks and play Aranjuez that John Williams would play, that was recorded on cassette tape, play it for people at parks etc. I would take my kids when they were young and play that concerto note for note were you could hardly tell the difference who was playing. I actually got pretty good over-shadowing his playing on all three movements. It was a monster of a piece to learn. It was like an elephant, you sure didn't learn it over night.

That is unless you are a Christopher Parkening, I hear he is a genius sight reader. He learned from the greatest of the great strict disciplinarians Andres Segovia -The Master! classical guitarist.

again...bump.