>Reading music is whatever. Not the basis for determining
>someones musical ability. That's my point.

it's a HUGE fucking part of it, though. Wouldn't you say? If you wrote a piece for an orchestra, wouldn't you expect them to be able to read the shit you wrote? The violin player might be badder than a motherfucker, but he's holding up the WHOLE show if he can't read the sheet music. You expect him to say "run through it a couple times and I'll play it." You'd think he was incompetent. and you can't even tell him "well just stick to the key of F. Because that STILL don't mean shit to him.

I'll give you a PERFECT example. Me and my boy were at Producer X's crib, and he was playing all these amazing joints that he'd made. My boy then played along, and pointed out a few things like: "oh, I see what you did...you went from F-sharp to a Minor, blah,blah,blah...well let's try that with an A Flat"

Producer X doesn't read music, BUT at the same time, you can't make suggestions to him if you're coming with a musical background. so YES it DOES make a difference in certain situations. you can't send that guy ( who is by ALL accounts and AMAZING musician) sheet music. It's useless. So yes. It CAN determine somebody's musical ability,or at the VERY least, their limitations.


>The system must fall apart but that's a wholy different post.
>Honestly I just don't understand defending notation as the
>basis for music, but it's beside my point now.

nope. You created this mess. Explain how that's beside the point...



>Music doesn't follow any laws. Laws were created to help the
>uninitiated follow music.
>

Okay, so then you're throwing out time Signatures and Beats, Bars, and Measures then, right? Why is there "Free Jazz"? because it doesn't follow the same RULES as Traditional Jazz. Most ( if not all ) forms of modern music follow the laws of Mathematics 8 beats to a Bar, etc...


and if music doesn't follow laws, then why are all defaults on ALL machines set to 4/4 time, Bars, and 8 beat loops? Why is the same scale on EVERY keyboard?