some of you are telling me it's not hard to learn to play w/both hands in all keys, yet you can't spell Sophisticated Lady (suffisticated?yikes!) even though you must have seen it in print many times..or sight reading (site reading? that's for surveyors). hey, Irving Berlin had a special piano built with a moveable keyboard because he could only play in Db, because he learned by noodling on the black keys . "Hey, Irving, stop that cheating--you'll never get anywhere in music unless you practice in all the keys." The point is, he was writing songs--what would have become of many of them if he spent a lot if his valuable time pointlessly learning "the right way"? So he, in essence, invented a transpose button. And that's what I do and what anyone with any common sense would do unless they needed to play a non-transposing keyboard. Musicians too often confuse degree of difficulty with musical virtue. Sometimes they overlap, but "it ain't necessarily so." Listen to Count Basie's tinkling piano..think that band would swing as hard w/ a virtuoso?
Miami Mo

What comes first music or notation.
Notation is a relatively recent invention.
A great one I admit but people were singing and playing primitive instruments before it came along.
I treat a musical score as a guide to what the composer had in mind.
There are many nuances that can be applied.
I object to people picking up on incorrect spelling and had been impressed by the fact that it had not been pick on before this.
The dictionary is also another relatively recent invention and speach came before it.
It is also another great innovation and a great tool in our modern society but I polietly ingnore it when people do not conform to its dictates.

Cousin Ken

keysvocalssax, of course it is only the music that matters in the end. No-one can possibly deny that.

But although your initial posting was made out to be a question I think you weren't really asking a question but making a statement as you already knew how you feel about this issue before you began. But you did ask for input from others and of course you got a range of opinions.

As I said it's all about the music and how each of us go about achieving that is a personal thing. Reading music and being profficient playing in all keys is a very desirable thing. Sure it may not be essential to play good music, but that is a personal choice in what disciplines bring out the best in us.

Neither approach is right or wrong. We all have to make the right decision for ourselves for the right reasons. However we end up going about it just make sure the music sounds good. That is the bottom line.

( PS I work with some very talented software engineers who are very accomplished mathematicians but whose spelling skills aren't perfect .... there is no connection between the abilities so I really don't think that is a valid arguement one way or the other )


I think we all got to put in our 2 cents worth. It was a very worthwhile thread but I think it's all been said now.


[This message has been edited by Nigel (edited 08-18-2006).]