(Here I start with score-reading, but also talk generally about ancillary
musical attributes, particularily perfect pitch)
I used to long to be able to do score reading. At 43 I'm much better at it
that when I first started to try, but I think that, except for a dedicated
or especially gifted minority, only music in a readily recognizable idiom
could be easily read. Even in such a case I find I can go off the rails
pretty quickly if I don't frequently sing or whistle bits of what I'm reading.
I also used to have a bit of an inferiority thing because of the the
things I don't do fluently - but I have other strengths that make up for
it, and anything else is just gravy. Take the example of perfect pitch: at
the music school here it seems to be a big deal, though few of the people
here have it. There is also, as in the world at large, an idea that perfect
pitch somehow correlates with musical ability and worth generally, though
it would probably be fairer to say that people are more likely to develop
this moderately useful ability if they grew up in an environment which
possessed a fairly stable source of musical pitchs, such as a piano, and
with a family that cared about music, or at least about perfect pitch.
But the singing's the thing - I think anything else is a pleasant and
impressive extra - I know singers who play piano much better than I do, but
don't sing as well. I also know singers with perfect pitch, who thereby
sound a little odd because they don't easily adjust to some nuances of
tuning, and another who would sing consistently flat because of an unsolved
technical problem - I also have a hunch that too much awareness of the
pitch may inhibit a fully developed vibrato, and the kind of vowel
exploration necessary for the discovery of the best resonances. Although
being in tune is vital, singing is more subtle that just that.
Likewise, although score-reading is impressive, and completely useful for
a conductor, or a master accompanist, it is of only secondary usefulness
for any other kind of musician.
john
At 10:48 AM 6/23/00 -0700, you wrote:
...>Score reading... I want to be able to do that!
>
>Isabelle B.
John Blyth
Baritono robusto e lirico
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
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