Reading music might seem like a rather crucial part of being a musician, but it’s not as important as one might assume. In fact, some of your favorite musicians likely don’t know how to read music, which is comparable to being fluent in another language. To learn the language, you have to memorize and understand its unique symbols, notation systems, and so on.
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It’s not an impossible task by any means. But for musicians who didn’t learn how to play by reading music, it almost seems impractical. They already have their methods and practices down, so why implement a new one? At least, that’s what these three musical icons seemed to think.
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney is one of the most innovative and talented songwriters and musicians in the history of the world. The man has a knack for the craft and a special set of ears any aspiring musician would kill for. That being said, McCartney never cared to learn music, and did it hold him back? Well, you can answer that yourself.
In an interview with 60 Minutes, McCartney attested to this fact by stating, “I don’t read music or write music. None of us did in The Beatles. I don’t see music as dots on a page. It’s something in my head that goes on.”
Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page has always had an uncanny ability to take what is in his head and perfectly articulate it. He’s successfully done this for years, and without the full fluency of the musical language. While Page can understand some basic chord charts and musical notation, he is by no means fluent.
Concerning his lack of fluency in the language, Page told Trouser Press in 1977, “I still don’t really read music, to be honest with you. I read it like a six-year-old reads a book, which was adequate for sessions.”
Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton seems like he would be a technical guitarist, given the tightness and deliberateness with which he plays. However, that is not the case, as Clapton, like many of his other contemporaries, never learned to read music, as it hindered the creative flow during sessions and practices.
In his book, Clapton: The Autobiography, he attests to not being able to read music by recalling the time he played in a recording session with Aretha Franklin. During that session, Clapton felt nervous because everyone was reading music but him. Still, as his track record shows, this “inability” did not slow him down in the slightest. Indeed, one could argue it’s one of the many elements that make Clapton, Clapton.
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