Proficiency In Illiteracy

Reading music can be very difficult and of course it varies from person to person to how proficiently they can play or how fast they can get it.  If you want to be proficient in reading music you need to be able to spend a lot of time on music.  Think about this: students that enroll in the band program here at the high school are usually ones that have been in band for their whole school career.  Once they get to high school they really start to get into it.  They can read music but not like a master yet.  They can probably read a music sheet but can’t go in deeper and explain the sheet or be able to go through the piece without a simple mistake.  They have already gone through most likely 6+ years.  Imagine how long it would take you to read music on your own without the help of musically adept from an institution.  Not a whole lot of people have that time.  

When I went through a search on google to find out how long it would take for someone to be able to learn a music piece proficiently when they haven’t taken music lessons, the typical answer of a decent song was around 1 year.  That’s one year to learn one song.  When I learn a song proficiently, it doesn’t take me more than an hour.  There are other and more efficient ways to learning songs musically.

Alternative Methods for Reading Music

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                                                           Reading Alternative Options

There are other ways to learn a song than to know how to read music.  You can look up tabs, which have a number that corresponds to each fret and then are on a certain number of lines depending on your instrument, you can listen to the song and figure out the song by ear, and there is a growing of apps lately that promise to teach you better than any other.  A new app called “Meludia” is very different than others in the way that it teaches through emotion, creativity, and the usual practicing.  It puts musicians in a different spot that not many are used to which is good because musicians like to go out of their comfort zones here and there.  You may be asking “How can one learn music through emotion?” Well, in an interview with Paul from Meludia, he said “Vincent [the creator] found that music geniuses all had two things in common: accurate hearing of the primitive elements of music and a strong inner emotional vehicle. We have created a universal way to acquire those elements.”  Through creativity and emotions, anyone can learn the universal music talent.

Personally, I stick to either listening to the song and learning it by ear, or using tabs when I’m stumped and can’t figure it out.  This helps me get better at problem-solving.  There is a certain feeling you get when you learn a new song and put in your vast library of songs that you have memorized.  You feel joy and pride that you just learned something that another musician put his/her heart and soul into making through their musical talent.

Can you be successful in the music industry without being able to read music?

Rock...it has been the symbol for destruction, the devil, and rebellion for generations.  When you actually take a look inside the minds of these musicians, though, they are sophisticated, intelligent, and creative geniuses.  All musicians have a gift.  The gift of musical talent.  Many musicians can read music, basically another language to some.  This means they can decipher musical notes on a paper and make it into a sound and can relate music with proper vocabulary.  But for some, they didn’t think that reading was all that important and just took off and learned what every note sounded like and memorized the whole fretboard.  I have a powerful connection with these musicians because I can’t read music.

   If you think that this gives a disadvantage to musicians, you are mistaken.  If anything, I think this brings me confidence that I can hear a note and be able to play that same one just through memorization and not because I had an instructor teaching me how to play every single musical note since the age of 3, like some others.  But I am definitely not alone in the musical world.  There are many others that have made their own “Stairway to Heaven” or “Highway to Hell” even though they had a constant remembrance that they can’t read music.  According to Ultimate-Guitar.com, (a respected website that delivers tablature and interesting articles on everything music) some musicians that can’t read music include but not excluded to: Robert Johnson (the father of Rock n Roll), The Beatles, Slash, and Dave Mustaine of the early metal band, Megadeth.  According to, Ultimate Guitars Slash is musically illiterate.  He said "No, I can't read music," the axeman, [Slash] said during Snakepit Q&A. "I play by ear. I try to make what I hear (sometimes just in my head) come out my hands into the guitar. When I write music, I usually write on my own at least to start."Also they included a past interview with John Lennon which said  “None of us could read music," John Lennon said during a 1980 Playboy interview. "None of us can write it. But as pure musicians, as inspired humans to make the noise, they are as good as anybody."All of these musicians have made their fame without the way of reading music.  Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith once said "most rock musicians play by ear - if it sounds good we do it,"

Musical Illiteracy

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• KEY ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES I’M ADDRESSING: Because of Scarcity, People Choose, All Choices Have an Opportunity Cost
• OVERALL RESEARCH QUESTION: Is reading music that important for musicians?
• SUB QUESTIONS
• What does reading music look like?
• Who are some successful musicians that can't read music?
• Are there alternative ways to learn how to play songs?
• Do rock musicians need to learn music theory?
• How long does it take to be able to read music proficiently?
• RESOURCES FOR RESEARCH:
• DATABASES: ProQuest and Student Resources in context
• WEBSITES: http://intenseproductions.blogspot.com/2010/06/top-10-reasons-not-to-learn-music.html,
• https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/columns/artists_discussions/15_iconic_axemen_who_cant_read_music.html,
• https://caseewilson.wordpress.com/2011/11/05/music-theory-do-real-musicians-need-it/