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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bobby G" data-source="post: 615892" data-attributes="member: 93"><p>See, intervals I never had a problem with - I grew up with everything going in my ears so that's really how I learned to relate to music. I suppose it does help if you listen to it <img src="data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%20viewBox%3D%220%200%2064%2064%22%3E%3Ctext%20x%3D%2250%25%22%20y%3D%2250%25%22%20text-anchor%3D%22middle%22%20dominant-baseline%3D%22central%22%20font-size%3D%2254%22%3E%F0%9F%98%89%3C%2Ftext%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="22" height="22" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> </p><p></p><p>What I mean is that I was able to follow and reproduce a tune by singing it back from a really early age, and even sing simple harmonies. But what came first was the ability to do this, it was only later that I was able to put names to this.</p><p></p><p>For instance, first came the learning of the notes, so if someone sung a C and asked me to sing, say, a G I could do that with no problem.</p><p></p><p>Then came the idea of relative pitch, all of which I found easy to grasp, so that it was easy to sing a note a fourth, fifth, etc above a given note.</p><p></p><p>Then, during playing of the guitar, came the idea of chords, intervals within chords, extensions of chords etc etc.</p><p></p><p>Finally, I ignored all that and made it up as I went along e.g. I'd discover a chord and put a name to it rather than working out what chord I 'should' be playing. One particular chord never did get beyond being referred to as Bb nasty.</p><p></p><p>As has been said earlier, it's quite clear that in some musical situations you need the common language of musical notation backed up with some theory just to save time, but as a solo performer which for large parts of my playing life I have been, it's not necessary. Useful as a prompt maybe, but not necessary.</p><p></p><p>Also, there's the difference between studying, and playing. The serious student, say a McLaughlin or Coltrane is going to need a lot of grounding in the theory, especially I would think if, as the two examples quoted are/were, you were going to study or incorporate the music of many different cultures into your playing.</p><p></p><p>Not that that approach can't be fun, but what I mean by playing as opposed to studying is that a 'player', such as myself, is doing it mainly for fun, make some noise , jam the Blues or whatever, although it's inevitable you'll pick up some 'knowledge' on the way. Of course, there are many, many types of player, so if the opportunity is there, and we know what we want to do musically, we are free to choose our methods of learning, playing, or studying from nothing more than picking up simple tunes in your spare time right up to making the study of music your life's work.</p><p></p><p>Cheers, Bob</p></blockquote><p></p>

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