I Should’ve Learned To Read
Music has been at the core of who I am, right after I learned breathing. Seriously, I can still remember as a child, my mom, dad, brothers, even my stepdad playing guitars, fiddles, banjos, bass, and mandolin - which was my first serious musical instrument of choice, mainly because no one else wanted to fool with it. Back to my point. My earliest memory was being held on my mom’s hip as she and my dad played in church. I was trying to grab the microphone the whole time. I had a friend say, “there’s no way you could remember back that far.” At two or three years old, I wasn’t making a mental note at the time of being sure to recall that moment someday. It just happened! I remembered!
Naturally, through family osmosis, I learned to play the guitar before the age of 10 then moved on to the bass, which was surprisingly much easier than the guitar. I learned the way my folks and brothers had - from listening and copying what they did. ‘Put your fingers here. Play the strings this way.’ Those were the rudiments of my musical learning. After I learned my chords. I found out I had a natural voice for singing harmonies - added bonus! Now I could play in bands and sing the high harmony part - which to me at the time was the most important harmony.
After my very informal musical training, I played in local bluegrass bands bands. In eastern Kentucky, those groups made up the majority of any band formation in my town. My oldest brother did have a rock band which doubled as a comedy group. That was definately a gimmick for our area. They called themselves, Johnny Flush and the Commodes. I kid you not. And they were good! They even got an offer from Nashville comedian Archie Campbell to come to Nashville. They never did of course. That would require having to leave eastern Kentucky - my family, with the exception of me, would never, never, ever consider the notion.
I progressed in my playing and got pretty good. In my late teens and early 20’s I played with full-time groups crossing over into country and rock. It was then I soon found out my musical education had a huge gap in it. Most other musicians could read musical notation. I, having learned the ‘by ear’ method, did not. So I found it harder to play songs blindly. The band leader would hand out the lead sheets, and I would have to ask for the chords to write over the various musical bars. I was illiterate. Sometimes other players would scoff and make rude comments. I would take it most times because I felt bad about my musical lacking. I’d learned like the hillbilly rube that I was. I got what I got and that’s all.
But when it came time to take a solo I found out my playing had something that most of those “readers” didn’t have. A soul. Sure, they had the right notes and their timing was good, but it came off mechanical and unfeeling. When I played I put my whole self into it and the audience picked up on it, wrong notes and all. I usually got applause after such a solo. Wasn’t that, after all, was I was hired to do? Mission accomplished?
Now in my 50’s I wish I had learned to read music. I’ve found that in my church, it sure comes in handy when someone requests a hymn or contemporary song I’ve never played. Instead I still have to listen to a recording and make a chord chart. I did learn the Nashville Number System which has help emensely.
I intentionally didn’t learn to read music after the years of being made fun of. I used to respond back to their hateful remarks, '“How much money did you make last night?” I usually had played some honky tonk and made a few hundred bucks. That shut them up, but only for a while. So, if you’re just learning to play an instrument by all means, learn to read music and save yourself the trouble that I went through. Full disclosure - I cqn read the notes if you give me time to count the lines and spaces. I think I’m still a little rebellious about it.
