The Learning Curve

Neville Marten bemoans his lack of music-reading skills as he and some 'old' mates attempt to compile songs for an upcoming gig

- By Neville Marten

I recently moved from Bath back to north Essex where I lived on and off from infants' school up to my late 30s. Bath, of course, is beautiful and I have some great friends there. But here is where my oldest mates and colleagues reside. Already, I'm collaborating with a few to get the creaky wheels oiled and to climb back on that musical horse – to mix a metaphor or two. Our research suggests that many readers fall, as I do, into the 'people of a certain age' category. So my minor struggles with learning new songs for this project made me ponder whether you experience the same issues I do. I've said before how my single biggest career regret was not learning to read music. I'll confess that this was partly because back then I misguidedly believed reading damaged a player's 'feel'. I mean, Eric and Jimi didn't read and it didn't hurt them, did it? Luckily, guitar magazines quickly knocked that nonsense out of my head, but I still didn't bother to do it.

The other 'problem' is that I found learning the guitar relatively easy, so I became good enough quickly enough to get asked to join bands. Then I stopped getting better because in those bands I didn't need to be better. I have, of course, learned tons in the intervening years, especially the theory side of things, and hopefully by way of note choice.