Reading is Not like Riding a Bike

[Scott Abene]

So anyway...

as many of you have gathered I took some time off playing. From 2000-2005 I rarely picked up an instrument. This really was the first time since I was a little kid that I did not play every day.

In the last two years I on the urging of my wife I have started playing again. In the last year I have been playing about 3 or 4 days a week. No real hardcore reading... Just shedding stuff (Scales, Standards, finger exercises etc.).

When I was playing full time I read almost every day. Now I have to work through the technical stuff and think about where on the fingerboard to play it. All this used to be second nature and now I have to think about it.

Anyone else around here take a long break from playing?

Did you experience similar?

What did you do to get past it all?

I do not know... Maybe I am just not a patient person but it is driving me crazy and it is definitely not turning out to be like riding a bike. Maybe I just need to get out a stack of stuff and read through it until it hurts.

[randalljazz]

not having experienced what you describe, i can't speak with any certainty...but it's a pretty good bet that if you read some every day (or as close as you can to every day), you will progress much faster than a newcomer would.

fwiw...coming from one of the worst readers i know...

[senorblues]

I heard that also. I can't say from personal experience because I never could read well. I tried and just can't do it well, It's hurts my head. When there is 3 or more #'s or flat's or ledger lines forget it. I was told it's a learning disability . Anyway I have gotten a little better and can do just enough to get by. A friend of mine who is a jazz pro said he could read a lot better when he was young. He still has to read on jobs but doesn't have to do it as much. He used to read very well but he says now he hates it with a passion.

[Scott Abene]

Age might have something to do with it...

I am 45 now and my eyes are a changing. My Arms are just not long enough some days.

[Mario Abbagliati]

Originally Posted by randalljazz

ahh, yes... the demon presbyopia! oh, how i tried to fight it. but it's a lost battle from the outset.

i have three different strength store bought reading glasses of varying power; old weak prescription glasses that are insufficient for my near-sightedness, but i can read with 'em (newer correct ones for driving or to see beyond the end of the driveway).

with my contacts, i have one lens that is good for reading at the music stand distance (with an extra lens for full correction for that eye that i seldom use), the other eye with the correction i need to see distant.

getting old ain't for sissies!

Yeah, I'm 40 and I'm starting to have wrinkles. Any beauty product you guys can recommend?

[Bob Budny]

Originally Posted by Scott Abene

Age might have something to do with it...

I am 45 now and my eyes are a changing. My Arms are just not long enough some days.

You mean you don't look like Dali? I take it the age on your myspace is a typo.

I solved the vision-reading thing by not taking reading gigs... I did once have the honor of leading Morello to a hot dog stand.

random... hmmm....

[Scott Abene]

Originally Posted by Bob Budny

You mean you don't look like Dali? I take it the age on your myspace is a typo.

I solved the vision-reading thing by not taking reading gigs... I did once have the honor of leading Morello to a hot dog stand.

random... hmmm....

HA!

My Birthday on MySpace is set to "December 5, 1933". It is not my actual birthday

It was a great day to be born!

[engelbach]

You made me think too much, Scott, and now I can't ride my bike.

[Phat Boi]

My reading skills are pretty solid at this point. If I take 1 week off I can seriously tell. It comes back pretty quick but you have to work on reading every single day unless you are some freakish reader. Some people just don't have to work on it. I call those people Non-Guitar players. If I practice reading every day I will still read worst then a sax player who practices every week.

[Jakeweiser]

reading is the combination of recognition of patterns visually and manualy. You have to see something and remember what that is on the fretboard and when you leave it alone for a long time, it all goes to shit.

I'm not the best reader but I survive and dont' really worry a whole lot on gigs for reading unless it's some crazy shit. You jus have to keep at it, work on written music don't just flip to a page and read it down. Read it and find the parts you can't play on sight and work them out, then you start to improve

[RBisanerd]

Originally Posted by Scott Abene

So anyway...

as many of you have gathered I took some time off playing. From 2000-2005 I rarely picked up an instrument. This really was the first time since I was a little kid that I did not play every day.

In the last two years I on the urging of my wife I have started playing again. In the last year I have been playing about 3 or 4 days a week. No real hardcore reading... Just shedding stuff (Scales, Standards, finger exercises etc.).

When I was playing full time I read almost every day. Now I have to work through the technical stuff and think about where on the fingerboard to play it. All this used to be second nature and now I have to think about it.

Anyone else around here take a long break from playing?

Did you experience similar?

What did you do to get past it all?

I do not know... Maybe I am just not a patient person but it is driving me crazy and it is definitely not turning out to be like riding a bike. Maybe I just need to get out a stack of stuff and read through it until it hurts.

Scott,
I have to ask why you want to get the reading up? Reading has virtually no bearing on how good a musician actually sounds in jazz, and it takes so much time/pain to get decent... You are much better off working on stuff that will actually make a difference to how good you sound - unless you forsee needing strong reading skills in the future (theatre/commercial gigs).

[Scott Abene]

Originally Posted by RBisanerd

Scott,
I have to ask why you want to get the reading up? Reading has virtually no bearing on how good a musician actually sounds in jazz, and it takes so much time/pain to get decent... You are much better off working on stuff that will actually make a difference to how good you sound - unless you forsee needing strong reading skills in the future (theatre/commercial gigs).

Well... Reading well will always improve your skills and keep you sharp.

If I decide to go back to playing on some level I should have all my chops up where they should be

My playing skills are dandy and coming back just fine.

My Reading chops should be as they once were.

[Phat Boi]

Reading skills will make or break ya in a lot of circumstances. I've been broken by my reading skills too much in the past to ignore em!

I've been readin the violin duets by Bartok lately. It's fantastic stuff.

[Jakeweiser]

The current Jazz environment demands good reading skills. More and more people are playing gigs with either their arrangements of standards, harmonizations of standards, tunes lifted off CD's you may not know or their own original materials. If you cannot read and play fluidly over changes they give you on site you're screwed pal. Reading is not just those pesky notes but the ability to create and improvise over changes you've never seen before and to do it on sight... those are good reading skills.

Suggesting that reading isn't an important skill is ignorant, sorry if that sounds mean but it's the way it is. Now, if the intention is to be a stay at home guitarist and play for your own enjoyment and just standards etc then that's great and I salute you with all honesty.

My honest reading goal is to treat reading music like normal people read books or the news paper, to sit down with a wonderful piece of music and read it and enjoy it just like reading the sports page or a Harry potter book... or whatever kids read these days.

[Scott Abene]

Originally Posted by Jakeweiser

My honest reading goal is to treat reading music like normal people read books or the news paper, to sit down with a wonderful piece of music and read it and enjoy it just like reading the sports page or a Harry potter book... or whatever kids read these days.

I agree...

"Normal People" HA!