I think reading itself isn't elitist, but what some people perceive as elitist is the adversarial, haughty and condescending tone of some of the people who read and think everyone should change to suit their values.
Removing the tabs from a magazine for everybody to suit the opinions of a select few because their opinions are more worthy and because the masses 'don't know what's good for them', IS elitist.
It's been established again and again that both systems have their place, and that for the needs and desires of many players alternative systems of learning are adequate to a highly functional level, not limited to but including tabs.
The fact that so many experienced players keep coming back to this issue to battle it out in an adversarial way is kind of strange.
Some people need to realise that hardly anybody cares about the fact that they COULD work in a function band if they read music. Being a professional musician in that way is not deemed desirable to many people and they basically don't care about whether somebody can get this gig or that gig. They work their own job in their own career and they do music as a hobby and want to learn to do stuff their idols do because it's a thrill.
I teach people with different jobs like doctors, a nuclear physicist, teachers, businessmen, accountants etc etc. They don't give a crap about playing in a function band, cruise boat, getting WELL PAID gigs etc, they just want to learn music for fun. They are the majority. If you get all judgemental with people like that because "they'll never be a proper musician" they'll just think your a condescending idiot who is full of themselves, wants to see everything their way, and doesn't have a realistic perspective on their own importance or the importance of their trade.
It's like somebody running a cookery course going "you'll never be a professional cook who can make a load of microwave pub meals in less than thirty minutes and get regular paid work as a cook" to somebody who already has a much better job earning proper money and wants to learn to cook a few things for their own enjoyment.
Playing in a function band is the musical equivalent of making microwave meals to a lot of musicians so if you're saying 'you'll never be able to do that if you don't read' then most people's reaction would be 1. Who cares. and 2. If that's the main reason to read then I definitely think it's a bad idea.
Lots of people get defensive about reading because it's the only thing they can cling on as making them special and righteous in an otherwise totally bland music career where other people who work less get more adulation and they're jealous, resentful and angry about it. Basically, classic bass players, which is probably why guitarists don't argue about reading music and whether people should do it.
These threads in the 'general instruction' section have nothing to do with instruction and everything to do with experienced musicians who should know better getting into petty squabbles about an issue that they just won't let go of.
but practicing is a very good thing that everyone can and should do, no matter what level you're trying to achieve. And that I don't think anyone can argue!
