Hi Walt,

When taking into account all of the musicians in our world, I think it is safe to say your organ playing friend had/has a remarkable and very rare talent. I have a friend in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and he has played the piano professionally. He is solely an ear player. I also played guitar in a three-piece combo in Saudi Arabia and our keyboardist was an ear player. His repertoire of music was quite limited - maybe 50 tunes at the most. I would venture to guess 90 - 95% of musicians are readers.

I don't want to belabor the point. I am merely suggesting to Ogre that he should be glad he can read music and be proud he took the time and effort to do it. I am also suggesting that anyone wanting to learn to play a keyboard and having the option of learning to play from an ear player or engaging a teacher and learning to read would be well advised to engage a teacher and learn to read. Reading opens up the entire spectrum of music to that person.

If a person is really committed to memorizing music, it can be done. It is an acquired skill. The more you work at it the more you retain. I worked at it and found I could play about 25 tunes from memory in just a short while. I haven't taken it any further but may do so in the future. One thing I discovered and that is if I don't practice the memorized repertoire almost daily, the tunes are soon forgotten. Maybe that is unique to me - a senior becoming more senior every day. Ha!

And finally, I do thoroughly enjoy this forum and all it's members. We have a great group of people here and I am proud and honored to be a member. Nigel and Bebop have given this senior citizen a really neat home on the internet. I visit every day, several times a day. All of you take care.

Chuck