This is wrong. Played piano all my life, and never learned to read sheet music fast enough for it to be any use. This has not stunted my development. I play by ear and chords.
I play by ear and chords too, but being able to jot something down, or read something someone else has written down, is as useful to me in music as it is in English. Literacy is just plain practical.
Practical and useful, yes! Stunting development is something different. I do know how to read sheet music, but I’ve never practiced it to be fast enough to sight read. I’ve never felt that this has stunted my development - if it had, I probably would have picked up speed naturally.
GP might not want to play that kind of music. You can easily get away with no reading ability if you play in bands, pop groups, etc. (not that it's not useful to read)
Who is it for, you asked. Do you think there might be a few beginner pianists who see value in being able to play other music than 300-year-old fugues? If an interest in developing musical abilities in a different direction constitutes a “ceiling” and “stunted development” for you, you have a very narrow view of what it means to play an instrument.
That's not remotely true. if your objective is to play keys in a rock band, you really mostly just need chords and a little fill here and there.
I completely agree with your fundamental point, but it's a mistake to say someone needs to be able to be technically excellent in order not to feel like they've hit a ceiling in what they can do.
It’s not an objective ceiling when we disagree on which way is up! You have a super-weird and specific idea of what it means to play piano. I really can’t think of a less inspiring goal than playing “advanced” or “technically challenging” music. If you like to do that, go nuts, but don’t assume that anything else is meaningless.
How is that "super-weird" or "specific"? If anything, your idea of advanced pieces not being "up" is obscure.
> I really can’t think of a less inspiring goal than playing “advanced” or “technically challenging” music
Really? You can't understand how aiming to conquer a highly technical and musical piece is inspiring? It's the same as tackling any other difficult goal.
Music at a less technical level isn't meaningless, but it's an inherent limitation on your musicality if your repertoire is limited by technique.
Technique facilitates greater musicality. Sheet music facilitates greater technique.
Regardless, do as you please, but it's like saying, "I'll never learn code, because I can build no-code products!"
> You can't understand how aiming to conquer a highly technical and musical piece is inspiring?
You are putting words in my mouth - I am saying it’s not inspiring to me. I can understand that someone else might find it inspiring, sure! Like speedrunning a video game, some might find it an enjoyable challenge - but I think they can see that there are other reasons to play games. They wouldn’t say “who’s it for?” about a strategy guide because it’s not about speed.
For what it’s worth, I disagree with almost all of your descriptions of what musicality consists of. It’s not about repertoire or technique. If you see what types of music most people enjoy listening to and playing, you can see that you have a niche point of view. Technically challenging music is not more enjoyable to play or hear. Sheet music is irrelevant to most types of music, both historically and today - music is fundamentally heard and felt, not written and read, nor conquered.
I’ll leave this conversation now as it doesn’t appear to go anywhere meaningful.
Yes, and, it's a niche view even if you restrict things to America/western music. From a global perspective it's even more niche, limiting, and boxed in.
You’re probably not very good at playing the piano. I’m not sure what you mean by far enough, but not being able to sight read a piece is not the same as being unable to read sheet music at all.
I've noticed that across my many hobbies, there are always people who insist that THEIR way of learning how to do a thing is the ONLY way to learn how to do a thing. This seems more prevalent in the music world, though. Especially if they had strict teacher.
Yeah it's a moronic comment. I'm not even going to bother to compile a list of musicians that smoke everyone else without reading sheet music, but you can't throw a rock without hitting one.
In the professional music scene, you can go for an entire career without running into one. It is a relatively small set of outliers, and even then, there is a narrow set of genres (most of them Western and modern) where a professional player can get away with not reading or writing music.
Even in the poster child of learning by ear, Jazz, something like 99% of session and pro players learn to read music.
