There are some great musicians who have no formal training, but far more who actually do have formal training.
Musical pedagogy follows classical music out of tradition, but there are plenty of contemporary pieces available as well.
The thing about the classical pieces is that they're good showcases and practice pieces for the fundamental techniques of music (hundreds of years of development will do that), which you absolutely will use in your musical career, regardless of whether you're even aware of it.
The difference is that when you can read and speak music, you can read, understand, and construct music far more easily than you could without the named concepts, nomenclature, and writing system. It's no different from the power that language and writing in general confers. An illiterate person can make himself understood, but a learned person can do so much more with far less effort.
> Musical pedagogy follows classical music out of tradition
i think at some levels, of pedagogy, there's also an element of "and because it is cheap to free".
my piano teacher bemoans how we only teach music from "dead white men" (a common refrain in some parts of the internet), but is hesitant to suggest i spend money to purchase anything, instead, referring me to IMSLP for everything.
if you want music from living folks, it is still under copyright, regardless of their color or gender. that costs more.
Musical pedagogy follows classical music out of tradition, but there are plenty of contemporary pieces available as well.
The thing about the classical pieces is that they're good showcases and practice pieces for the fundamental techniques of music (hundreds of years of development will do that), which you absolutely will use in your musical career, regardless of whether you're even aware of it.
The difference is that when you can read and speak music, you can read, understand, and construct music far more easily than you could without the named concepts, nomenclature, and writing system. It's no different from the power that language and writing in general confers. An illiterate person can make himself understood, but a learned person can do so much more with far less effort.