Originally Posted by
BluesDawg
I have learned just enough about music theory to allow me to fake it most of the time. I play by ear and feel, not by notes.
I have a funny story about this, BluesDawg....
When I was a kid I was really, really good at playing the viola. My dad refused to sign the permission slip for it, wanting me to play something more normal, like a guitar. But I loved the viola and that's what I wanted to play. So I'd race home from school and practice every day before he got home.
Anyway, I'm sure I got good because it was forbidden. My 3rd year playing, I auditioned for a summer camp where we would get lessons by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra members. It was tough to get in, but I did, and I was first chair there! Well, at that point we had to tell my dad, and he was OK with it. So I played until I discovered boys at age 15, and then stopped. I picked it up again in my early 20's when I moved to Arizona and was bored.
In Arizona, they had a city orchestra that was an amazing gem.... all these retirees were down there playing from the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, etc. It was something else. So I auditioned and was accepted, and when I showed up at the first practice, there was no more viola music. So they handed me the Messiah in 2nd violin part. Not in my key. I couldn't read it.
I took it to my private teacher, and she tried to explain how to transpose and discovered in the process that I NEVER LEARNED TO READ MUSIC! I just kind of looked at the key and knew how my fingers should move, and the notes kind of went directly from the paper to my fingers and I didn't think about it at all! I knew I always struggled with rhythms, but I didn't know it was because I wasn't counting!
Isn't that crazy? So my viola fun came to a quick end. I later found out my beloved viola was really a violin (they often do this with children) so I converted it to a fiddle. To this day I can't read music... I've tried to learn, but it's just insanely boring to me. With the Hardanger fiddle, there's no written music... it's all done from master to student by ear. So it's all cool.
I've had boyfriends who were jazz musicians, and have tried to get me to appreciate Jazz. But I just don't get it. No doubt because I don't really have any understanding of music!