Well worth a...
second. There is another reason; when a Rebel like me comes along and decides I want to explore (think oil-painting) and nothing more and
plays by ear. Wonderful for the gift of creating or your own tunes (in the end) but
lousy for playing with other folk playing other people's songs.
There is a reason music notation and solfège were invented... to be able to communicate and exchange more easily, and to preserve said tunes for posterity. Jazz standards and related rules serve the same purpose, providing a clear framework for improvisation thus making it much easier to improvise live with others. On the other hand, playing by ear is a great skill to have, if you also know a standard notation system, you can easily write down music you're listening to. Of course, the world couldn't agree on a single notation system for notes, well the 2 main western ones are somewhat related and rhythm notation is basically the same... I learned notation the classical way, with do re mi fa sol la si, and five lines with black dots, however, in Jazz, and even more so in rock music, they use A B C D E F G , starting with La, instead, they just write Abmaj.7 and you're supposed to know that's a La bémol (flat) Major 7th chord (Lab - Do - Mi b - Sol) or (Ab - C - Eb - G). Then there are some more interesting baroque and renaissance ways of writing things down, which were once explained to me by someone with extensive theoretical knowledge and include several numbers under the note indicating that any notes you add to the base note should fall within a certain chord. Even musicians are incapable to agree on one good way to do things, every genre, and every period and style introduce new things, and eliminate others, and in the end, even pro's sometimes need to play by ear, if they try to go off the trodden path, that is. Many of the guys who are making EDM tunes and so on often don't have a classical musical education, and I'm sure they have a whole different terminology and vocabulary to communicate with each other, as for them it's all about the electronically generated or modified sound, and both melodic and rhythmical complexity are mostly outside of their scope, and both rhythm and melodies remain pretty basic, in most cases.
In the end it all comes down to what you want, exploration is great, and I pity the musician who doesn't try out new things, on his own, outside of convention, expectations, education, etc.
What I was mostly on about with that, were middle-aged people that I have seen appear and disappear in the public music schools I frequented for many years, most of them aren't there to explore per se, they dream of playing this or that piece, or even just this or that instrument that they have listened to time and again, and loved, all they want is to be able to play the pieces they like, the way they want them to sound, eventually. That's a respectable goal, but the big ticket pieces they like are certainly going to be out of their reach for many years, hell, some big ticket pieces I like are still just a little too difficult for me (not that I haven't tried), and even with easier pieces they won't be satisfied with what they manage to do, when they compare it to what they have been listening to, often for years before making the step to learning the instrument.
Many drop out after a year or two, frustrated, feeling that they don't have enough talent, that they are too old to learn, etc. Much rarer are those who persevere and actually get to a level where they don't just enjoy the act of playing, but where they are content, and even feel proud of how they perform, but they do exist, and they weren't more talented than the drop-outs, they were simply more patient, more disciplined, and often a little less hard on themselves.
What I find harder to comprehend, are those who stop playing their instrument when they go to university... they have often been playing an instrument since they were 6 or 7 years old, and reached a pretty decent level, but then, when they go to university, it's over, they stop playing their instrument, on their own, or with others. Then again, some of them had the instrument pretty much imposed upon them by their parents, but that's still a minority. Often these are people I have played with growing up, and then, I bump into them at university, and when I ask whether they still play it's they explain that they don't have the time, too much work, the usual etc. But they often do have the time to party... go figure... maybe there is something I'm missing here...
There you go, you tricked me again into a big rant... I hope you're proud of yourself... On that note, if you ever want someone to write down your personal best tunes for posterity, I'm sure I could write them down for you and send you a scan... or even better, I might be able to play them on my cello... who knows, I'm always open for some original repertoire... especially during the holidays, when I have a bit more time to explore...
So, I've been busy this week, I painted a watercolour, which will feature in the AAR eventually, but it might take some time, you'll have to wait and see... it was a lot of work, as I started with a bit of technical perspective to make sure the scale was correct as I was drawing and painting something that didn't exist OTL, so there were no pictures I could reliably use...It took me two days, and I still want to add a final touch in the foreground...
I have also been working on quite a long narrative AAR post, and I'm now thinking that I might split it into 2, or even 3, parts, as it keeps growing and growing, and it would be nice for you to have something to read while you wait for the rest of the story... stay tuned, I'll post something tomorrow, and I hope you all had a nice week-end.