I'm catching up with this thread after a long day at work yesterday and a rehearsal last night.
Someone suggested that people who don't read aren't musicians. That is utter nonsense. People who make music are musicians. It doesn't matter whether the source of the music they're making is a sheet of paper.
With that said, non-readers are musicians who lack a skill that readers have. That skill is absolutely essential to many areas of music, and less essential to others.
Along the same lines, the answer to the question, "am I missing something by not being able to read" is clearly and unequivocally "yes." This is not a gray area, or an unanswerable question, as some have suggested. If you don't learn to read, you are lacking a skill that readers have. Period. Will the lack of that skill ultimately prevent you from making the type of music you want to make? That's a harder question and one that is ultimately going to depend on each individual and what he or she wants to be able to do as a musician.
People keep mentioning Paul McCartney as an example of someone who has succeeded without being able to read. The inability to read was a limitation for McCartney; it is well-documented that the inability to read music made it difficult for McCartney to communicate with many of the session musicians that the Beatles hired. Moreover, without the help of people like George Martin, songs like Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby, She's Leaving Home, For No One, Strawberry Fields Forever, etc. would never have been possible.
Finally, with respect to comments like, "in my experience, people who read music can't play as well as people who don't" or "in my experience, people who read music don't play with as much feel": I don't doubt that you are accurately reporting your experience, but keep in mind that if you do not read yourself, you are probably not working with the musicians who are the better readers, so your experience is not necessarily representative.
Someone suggested that people who don't read aren't musicians. That is utter nonsense. People who make music are musicians. It doesn't matter whether the source of the music they're making is a sheet of paper.
With that said, non-readers are musicians who lack a skill that readers have. That skill is absolutely essential to many areas of music, and less essential to others.
Along the same lines, the answer to the question, "am I missing something by not being able to read" is clearly and unequivocally "yes." This is not a gray area, or an unanswerable question, as some have suggested. If you don't learn to read, you are lacking a skill that readers have. Period. Will the lack of that skill ultimately prevent you from making the type of music you want to make? That's a harder question and one that is ultimately going to depend on each individual and what he or she wants to be able to do as a musician.
People keep mentioning Paul McCartney as an example of someone who has succeeded without being able to read. The inability to read was a limitation for McCartney; it is well-documented that the inability to read music made it difficult for McCartney to communicate with many of the session musicians that the Beatles hired. Moreover, without the help of people like George Martin, songs like Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby, She's Leaving Home, For No One, Strawberry Fields Forever, etc. would never have been possible.
Finally, with respect to comments like, "in my experience, people who read music can't play as well as people who don't" or "in my experience, people who read music don't play with as much feel": I don't doubt that you are accurately reporting your experience, but keep in mind that if you do not read yourself, you are probably not working with the musicians who are the better readers, so your experience is not necessarily representative.
