RE: Unpopular opinion: Knowing how to read music is not that important.
I am a musician who never formally learned to read music. I am a fantastic singer and never thought I would need to.
I was SO wrong. I think a lot of this depends on where you live. Where I am, you can't really make much money doing studio work, or playing live or anything that might involve not needing much formal training.
Where the bread and butter is for musicians here is lessons, training, classes, teaching etc. Most of my musician friends perform for fun and teach to eat. They are at a significant advantage over me, because of my piss-poor abilities to read and play piano. I can play things by ear, but that does not help me when I have a student come in and need me to accompany them in a song book.
My hubs on the other hand is not as strong of a singer/performer but he has the formal training to lean on, which has proved to be much more profitable.
I REALLY wish I had learned more at a younger age. It's a lot harder to go back now and try to!
Just my two cents!
See that's really interesting. I appreciate the perspective!
When I was looking to teach because of how, I guess, 'unsatisfied' I was with my formal training, I built curriculum excluding it rather than letting it dictate what I could participate in personally. This meant I had to start my own private organization, and technically I am not 'certified' on paper. But I've gotten 100% positive reviews from parents and students on my kind of unconventional style. There are pros and cons for sure, but one of the pros being I have a much easier time keeping kids engaged, which I think is huge.
I think there are most definitely benefits to being able to do it - I'd never argue that part of the equation - but I think the emphasis on it is so heavy so early, and unless you want to be a classical/jazz performer, it's not abundantly helpful. Not to say I don't teach it at all nowadays - I teach note names, piano theory 101, etc. - but the act of reading itself I mostly leave out.
Bottom line, it's a fun conversation to have for me. I like to get perspectives on the matter.
Nice to hear from you @bethwheatcraft! Hope you're doing well!!