thanks you. music and the arts are so important.

yes a strung up my guitars and basses? Oh, you meant because I'm interested in meeting people that have an understanding and love of music. as someone that has spent my entire life living and loving music, for much of my life used it to earn my living?

It takes a lot of work, more work, practice, and love.

@Bob4Health It was a pun

Interesting thing: just about any classical musician or vocalist I've ever met gets seriously stressed if you ask them to go without the music. It's weird — like someone getting anxious because you've taken away a picture book and asked them to tell the story of Cinderella from memory.

@DaveMania Yup. That's because it's always about sight-reading, understanding the new musical language on the paper, and rehearsing the sight-reading without looking at the instrument.

Well I've been reading music and playing without music all my life. reading music is a great way to communicate musical ideas, just like literature is a way to communicate ideas.

there is no way stravinsky writes the rite of spring for an orchestra, my favorite piece if he can't write for an entire orchestra, hear this unique, world changing symphony in his head.

and, yet, I'm a jazz musician, and am quite comfortable with or without music, as are most serious jazz musicians? do you think Louis armstrong, bird, duke ellington, or the like couldn't read music? the best musicians in the world and history knew how to read and write music.

that's how we learn and communicate.

people who can only read music, and not understand it, are simply reading dots on a page, and that's not about feeling or ideas.

I can not think of a musician that changed the world that could not read music.Pop stars that got famous for words do not count.

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@DaveMania People unable to function without music are not really musician. A musician should be well rounded, able to read the language of music, understand it, and make music without looking at the music. No musician should have the need to look at their hands.

I for example, play jazz, classical, Latino, read shows, and if I have to, rock or pop. I love to learn from great composers when I play classical, and I can sit down at a piano and just make stuff up.

Most musicians can. If you knew someone that just could read music, they certainly were using music as a crutch and not complete musicians.

Do you think for example, Duke Ellington could not read music, or play without music?

How about Yo-Yo M> He reads music, but loves to play original improvisation music with Edgar Myers and Mark Oconners or others.

The only really great living musician I know that can't read music would be Stevie Wonder, and he gets a pass, but he learned from all the great musicians, that all understood how to read music, and a solid basis in music theory.,

You played with Leon Russell? Holy shit! That guy is one of the most underrated artists ever in my opinion. I'm an amateur songwriter, but he's one of my influences.

I'm sorry, I'm glad you enjoy Willie Nelson, but understand, he may be an entertainer. You may well enjoy his social stances. I like his advocacy for cannabis. But musically, really, he plays diatonic chords of a key. They did that in the 1400s and before the Greeks.

Let's just say, he's not a musician in the sense of a Miles Davis, Jacos Pastorius, or a Yo Yo Ma.or an accomplished, knowledgeable musician. He writes cute lyrics. Who cares how many people watch him? Since TV came out the musical abilities of the American Public have degraded as have pop music.

Popular Music used to feather great musicians, people like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, than TV came out and people went brain dead. That was followed with three chord rock and roll, some simple folk music, and the death of classical music as a whole.

I have played in some of the finest concert halls in the world, with some great musicians. I assure you, no real musician would consider Willie Nelson anything but a pop star.

I didn't know that.

Ditto, with some theory. Don't believe it's a fair criteria of a "musician".

@nvrnuff yeah it helps to be classically trained in piano brass or winds if you wanna play classical n jazz but if folk roots and blues rock are your thing, playin by ear will get you close enough for jazz. Er skiffle. ***edit: until you try to play skynyrds piano parts. Classical training would help there too lol

@nvrnuff I am saying I'm interested in communicating with people that have actually studied music. It's like saying I'm a literature major, and I would like to communicate with people that have actually learning to write in a language, and read and understand great works in the field. That is the kind of people I would wish to meet.