April 2022 Guitar Newsletter: Let's learn how to read music but also dare to use our own ears!

My profession has surrounded me with hundreds of amazing children with open and intelligent minds that are eager to learn. It is a wonderful blessing to witness a child’s progress in their understanding of the guitar along with learning how to read music.

Children never ask why reading music is necessary and just accept it as part of the program, but it’s actually a valid and important question. In the real world, there are far too many successful musicians, especially in jazz, pop and rock genres, that do not know how to read music and yet have excelled in playing, recording, performing and ultimately in finding their very own music to share with all mankind.

The Beatle’s guitarist George Harrison falls into that category. In fact, none of The Beatles knew how to read music. In Joshua M. Greene’s beautiful book “Here Comes The Sun” there is an enlightening anecdote about George’s initial encounter with the master classical Indian musician Ravi Shankar when they met for George’s first Sitar lesson (62).

“Do you read music?” Ravi asked, settling in at George’s home in Esher (England) for their first lesson.
“No,” George said, thinking he really shouldn’t waste this man’s time.
”Good,” Ravi said. “It will only confuse you anyway.”

Ravi, who was highly musically trained and knew how to write and read western music, embodied the pinnacle of mastery of Indian classical ragas, which, much like American jazz music, is highly improvisatory and not dependent on written music.

So why submit to the painstakingly tedious task of becoming skilled at reading music on the guitar? For one thing, it is a very joyful experience to be able to play a piece of music written by someone else, and all of classical music is based entirely on playing someone else’s compositions. Musicians with proficient reading skills can congregate immediately and play difficult music together with little or no need for discussion. Understanding the music staff also sets the foundation for music theory, and the notes on the guitar fretboard will then make more sense. Musicians will be able to notate and share their own music quickly with others when they understand how to read music. In the past, reading music was of great value for studio musicians recording complex songs without spending much time on rehearsals. Melodies from all over the world and ages have been notated and knowing how to read music grants access into this tradition of notated music. Even now with so much use of modern music computer software, basic music reading skills are still beneficial for programming music. Let’s not forget that apart from all the rewards of being able to properly read correct notes and rhythms, the act of reading music itself is a form of brain training and requires a great deal of discipline and concentration.

Teaching a child how to read music is no mystery. It is a process that takes a lot of repetition and patient supervision by someone who knows how to read music well. I spend a great deal of time with all new students, regardless of age, on learning how to develop basic reading skills, and I fully stand behind the benefits of reading music well, but I also strongly encourage the bold journey of learning how to improvise.

Having been touched deeply by George Harrison’s biography and blessed by so much of his music, I leave you with a link to his very last album titled "Brainwashed." It features amazing musicians from England and India of various musical backgrounds. Some are highly, formally trained in reading music and others are completely self-taught and dependent only on their ears.
If you are interested in the non-western sounds and meditative depths of classical Indian music, check out George and Ravi’s collaboration on "Chants of India.”
Wishing all of you a hopeful entrance into spring with an open mind to listening and learning,
Chris