Hi Duke,
How much formal knowledge of music theory and the guitar had the classic players? I remember reading about T-Bone in an old Guitar Player magazine that he knew how to read music. For instance, it's hard to me to imagine that Freddie King or Albert King knew much about scales, regardles of the fact that their style can be analyzed using scales. Any thoughts on the subject?
Regards,
Mario
Hi Mario, It's certainly hard to know for sure who had formal training and who didn't. Especially when you consider Wes Montgomery who couldn't read but had such an amazing musical vocabulary. T-Bone Walker could play standards to some extent from the private party tracks i have of him playing "Caravan" and "I'm Confessin' that I love you." Louis Armstrong when asked about how much he knew about music theory suposedly responded, "Not enough to hurt my playing" so there is a good example. As far as I am concerned, music therory is great and learning scales is a good thing but the important part is making a good musical statement wether you have music theory knowledge or not. I myself am self-taught and my playing was more developed by listening to the masters and people who's styles I wanted to emulate. Ear training is more important to me than anything. You have to have a sound in your head before you can play it.
