Musicians Who Never Learnt Their Instruments

Believe or not, music has a long history of musicians who have never learnt to play their instruments properly.



Not to be disheartened by this, some of them have become notable for their influence on popular music in a way. It all stems from either lack of resources, like teaching wasn't available in their area, or couldn't afford leasons, or because the player eventually had a natural talent for hearing notes inside a scale, and putting it together in their head and replicating on the instrument.



Many popular artists have accomplished this, most notably a large number guitar players have managed to learn this way, as it is easy to do so than to learn music theory.



Eric Clapton never learned music, he was bought a guitar, and copied note for note the guitar lines from his favourite Muddy Waters records.



Jimi Hendrix- never learnt music theory. He tuned his guitar to what he could hear, his band would play to what key he was tuned in. He used to refer to different colours when trying to describe what key or vibe he wanted the direction of music to be in.



Paul Mcartney- never learnt theory. To this day he's writing material for his solo albums and hasn't needed the aid of sheet music or notation to get him by.



To have a natural ability to hear notes is a great ability to have as a musician. Some musicians could have learned all the theory in the world, and practice consistently for years and still not be as proficient as someone who plays by their ear. It shows you can still be terrible if you try and learn everything right, it's apart of having the natural talent.



Having said that, Jimi Hendrix never learned theory and was a great guitar player, but at the same time he was no pavarotti when it came to vocal ability. In fact, in my opinion that was his weakest attribute, he couldn't sing that well really but he had a lot of presence in his performance which was what his appeal was.



Don Letts, a famous London DJ, who rose to prominence in the 70's london punk scene, as a DJ he started spinning his dub reggae records at the punk clubs and became an influential documentary maker in the later years, was called upon to be a part of a new group, which Mick Jones (at the time, out of the just disbanded Clash) was forming called Big Audio Dynamite.



His input into the band, would be to press his fingers on the keyboard when the lights shone on the keys. So it goes to show you, that you can be in a band without even having to play a note. All jokes aside though, I think Mick Jones recruited him for the gimmick value of it.



Ornette Coleman is another example. He came onto the Jazz scene without knowing a solitary note, he played Alto Sax but never learned to read notation and didn't know any scales whatsoever. He became an innovator in the free jazz movement of the early 60's, and remains still a relevant figure today as he is still musically active. Miles Davis claims in his autobiography that, "I don't know what's wrong with him. For him-a sax player-to pick up a trumpet and violin like that and just think he can play them with no kind of training is disrespectful toward all those people who play them well".

Soon music will become automated, just like everything else in our lives. I've explained in a previous blog that music will not psychically change hands at the counter anymore, we will be purchasing digital files at a music store designed for purchasing tracks at 1.69 and there will be no cover art at all to look at. The fact that musicians don't have to really have learn instruments to get by isn't exactly a revelation in this day and age.

Anyone who saw Britney Spears woeful lip syncing performance at the 2007 MTV Music Awards, knows that she had to get there, and she got there by fresh airing it.

Lip syncing has become such a maligned apsect of television live performances. Australia's hit music show Countdown, every opportunity they got would get the peformers to lip sync their songs on live television. The show ran from 1974 to 1987 in Australia on the ABC network. The live performances often entailed solo artists lip syncing to the background music of their song.

So there you have it. If you want to become a keyboard player, you program your keyboard to light up your keys. If you want to play proficient guitar, try copying all the solos off the old Muddy Waters albums, if you want to sing, get someone to autotune your voice in the studio and sync it up when you're singing live. If you want to become a critically acclaimed jazz musician, just pick up a violin and start wailing on that bow.