“A guitarist that reads music? Whaaaaa…?”

                  I’ve seen these types of memes floating around Internet-land; they always give me a chuckle. I think I may be the demographic they’re poking fun at too: I can write music, but I have the literacy of a middle school band student when it comes to reading it on the fly. But we can work on things that we’re not too good at, thankfully.

                  Lately, I’ve been practicing my music-reading skills and while I haven’t noticed a huge improvement yet, I have been enjoying learning some tunes out of my “Real Book.” It’s not serving as just a paperweight anymore! Success!

                  Life sure is busy, but I’ve been having a good time tacking on 30 minutes or so just trying to pick out a random tune in the book. Better late than never…

                  Many things led to me finally pulling up my breeches and tackling the behemoth of learning this skill of sight-reading that I’ve wanted to learn for a while. One of the more influential pushes toward practicing this was my involvement with Cooper’s Cave Composer Consortium. We just had a concert at the Strand Theater in Hudson Falls, New York, and simply put: it was fantastic. I had the honor of sharing the stage with some of the best musicians in my area; and most of them can read music extremely well.

                  What are some things that you’re not especially good at, but some may consider a regular skill in your career?