In some respects I am what many would call a “classically trained musician.”
That is, I learned music in the context of reading sheet music, playing with large orchestral bands, etc. For awhile, I thought I might even be a band director.
(Heck, in another life, I might still would!)
So I have traditional music education under my belt. I also happen to have studio music education under my belt, in the form of real-life, hammer-to-nail experience.
For around a decade of my life, I spent almost every waking moment in the walls of a recording studio…
What I learned there truly changed everything for me. I learned things that I could never have dreamt of learning about in traditional music education.
What’s interesting is that the one concept that makes it possible for studio players to do what they do (play a song perfectly after only hearing it once or twice) is barely given a moment’s attention in traditional music education.
Now—okay, I understand why that is. The very nature of classical/orchestral music requires that individual musicians play exactly what is written on the page.
But this experience often robs the classically trained musician of the ability to learn how to play without sheet music.
It’s pretty common to run across someone who has had traditional music education and can read sheet music like nobody’s business, but would have trouble trying to play a fairly simple song by ear.
So while I acknowledge that traditional music education is fine for what it is, I also want to emphatically declare that is is BROKEN if one is going to rely on it to carry them much beyond an orchestral context.
This is what I learned in the studio world that allowed me to become the player I am today. Not that I’m some great musician—that’s missing the point.
Actually, it’s the opposite of my point. I’m really not that great a musician. But there are folks who ought to be able to run circles around me if you look at their education vs mine, but simply can’t.
In this way, I have an “unfair advantage” when it comes to music. I can play by ear. I can improvise. I can play a song I’ve never heard before on the fly almost perfectly.
The reason we created Worship By Numbers™ is to give you the same unfair advantage.
Beyond that, the reason we created it was to give as many worship bands as possible that same unfair advantage.
Think about it—if all it did was boost your confidence and reduced your rehearsal time, what sort of difference would that make?
…a big one, right?
Well, here’s the good news. It’s free for your first 14 days! Come hang out with us and let’s see how quickly we can get you playing worship music by numbers.
Here’s the link: www.WorshipByNumbers.com
Steve Schramm