Well homie, if you're looking for someone to blame, both you AND your teacher. I would say that your teacher takes a lot of the blame for not holding you accountable as a player and making you learn to read. I don't you well enough (at all) to call you out, but you do have to assume your share of the issue.
I was in the same boat as you in middle school. I made it all the way to captian of the drum line in the 7th grade in our middle school marching band without reading a note of music. I always had the interest and wanted to learn, but my band director never taught the drummers any of the theory. We played all of our cadences crisp and clean, but we learned them by rote. I didn't think much of it until it came time for me to get into high school.
Went to the performing arts high school in Kansas City (Paseo Academy class of 2004). There was no such thing as show up the first day of school. You had to audition to get in. I show up to my audition and play Dave Weckl's "Tower '99" lights out. My future band director (who also happened to be a drummer) asked me to sight read a "simple" snare excersize. I played the first 2 bars and fudged the rest. I knew I bombed that part. He looked at me and said, "You must be able to read. I'll give you 4 days to get a basic understanding of what notation is. You will have to read to get anywhere in this school and in the music business." He told me to go to the drum shop and buy a beginers snare method book. He also gave me his phone number to call him and ask him any questions that I may have. I shedded that book night and day for 4 days. There was no way that I was going to let something like that keep me from taking the next step in life. I ended up getting into school, but I had to take a beginners band class for my first semester in high school because my reading skills were nowhere near my technical facility. Knowing how to read gets even MORE crucial in college. You will not be accepted to the conservatory at all if you can not read. That, or you will be stuck paying for remedial theory classes that will not count towards your degee. Not only that, it will be extremely hard for you to gain the respect of your fellow musicians and ESPECIALLY the "legit" percussionist that can read and play. You may be able to smoke them on the kit, but if they asked you how many flats are in the key of Eb and you look like
and they can play it.... Catch my drift?
I say all of that to say this to all of the cats on the board. If you want to learn you can. If you want to learn how to read, there is nothing that says that you can't do it. The same way you practice licks and chops, you can shed the same way on the theorettical aspects of music. You will be respected even more in musical circles if you can read AND play lights out. Look at the recent comments on the board. I know everyone read the thread that had the comments from the gospel cats in ZTIMES. They are telling cats not to wait until late in life to learn to read. Chris Coleman is telling cats to read. It is a MUST HAVE in your tool box if you want to work. There is no way that I could so the majority of the work that I do (musically) if I could not tell a quarter rest from a dotted eighth sixteenth figure.
God gave you a gift. He also gave you the recorces to cultivate your gift. The desire to get better is only the first step. The persuit of knowledge is an on going process. Just because 90% of our teachers may have done us an injustice by not teaching us how to read does not mean that we must keep doing the same injustice to ourselves. Don't miss the boat cats....
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