I had a revelation today from something that happened a few days ago.

I was in Guitar Center looking at the keyboards. On the way out the door, I noticed the guitar salesman playing around on his axe. I asked him to show me how a guitarist plays so that I could emulate him on a keyboard. He was only too happy to show me what he was doing. Until...I started mentioning things like scales and 4ths and 5ths, and voicing, etc. Then he just clammed up and said "if you want lessons...sign up at the desk!"

I dismissed his strange behavior, but this morning it hit me. This has been happening to me over the years. The same scenario. Not only guitarists. Musicians in general. The common denominator I figured out. I'm hypothesizing that there are many musicians out there making great music who never had any formal training and who wouldn't know a 4th from an egg salad sandwich.

It's about as clear as a bell to me now. As soon as the person realizes I DID have formal training the lesson is over because...they can only "show" me what they're doing and can't explain in words.

Looking back over the years that's happened to me periodically. It's not a big deal but I've always taken it personally. Either they didn't like ME or they didn't like my after-shave lotion. Now I'm thinking if this were true (their lack of musical training) then it's about them and not me.

Which leads to a bigger question for me? I'm wondering now how many musicians DON'T have formal training? What do you think? P.S. I personally think that non-trained musicians play better as they don't deal intellectually with music structure and rules!