I wonder about that too. It's like being able to read, but not write, a verbal language. Part of it is, again, practice -- we have to learn to make the symbols. Letters or notes, making them accurately, consistently, and legibly takes practice. Music notation suffers from being much more tedious to write by hand, making it a real chore to say anything significant. Computer notation software has helped a lot there. (But that's yet another layer of language that requires proficiency.) Another part might be not having anything to say. I don't always have words worth writing; neither do people always have tunes worth writing. And if you have a tune, can you figure out the notes/intervals/durations/rests? This may be akin to figuring out the words to express your thoughts, and knowing how to spell them.taking a tune you know on one instrument, say a guitar, but not really "by ear" so much as "in the fingers", and trying to play it on another instrument
I've got a weird parallel to that -- when I learn a tune by ear, I first have it as a series of notes; later, when I know it better, it becomes a series of intervals. Two distinct forms of internal representation, and usable in different ways.
(no subject)
musicians who can read music but not write it.
I wonder about that too. It's like being able to read, but not write, a verbal language. Part of it is, again, practice -- we have to learn to make the symbols. Letters or notes, making them accurately, consistently, and legibly takes practice. Music notation suffers from being much more tedious to write by hand, making it a real chore to say anything significant. Computer notation software has helped a lot there. (But that's yet another layer of language that requires proficiency.) Another part might be not having anything to say. I don't always have words worth writing; neither do people always have tunes worth writing. And if you have a tune, can you figure out the notes/intervals/durations/rests? This may be akin to figuring out the words to express your thoughts, and knowing how to spell them.
taking a tune you know on one instrument, say a guitar, but not really "by ear" so much as "in the fingers", and trying to play it on another instrument
I've got a weird parallel to that -- when I learn a tune by ear, I first have it as a series of notes; later, when I know it better, it becomes a series of intervals. Two distinct forms of internal representation, and usable in different ways.