The Beatles were perfect musicians. From humble beginnings in Liverpool, their songwriting ability, sweet-sounding tunes, and loveable charm would propel them to become the world’s biggest and most important musicians. Even if you don’t like the band’s music, which would be strange given how many different sounds and styles they adopted throughout their career, their influence cannot be denied. So, the big question is, how much did the four who would change music forever actually know about it?
Understanding music is not linear. There are many different ways that people can understand what music is and how they can use it. Some classical musicians can read sheet music like a second language and put together beautiful compositions in their head and on the page before even playing a note out loud. Contrast that with someone like Rick Rubin, an incredibly famous producer with no technical musical ability yet responsible for some of the most quintessential albums of recent decades. The Beatles fall somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.
There is no doubt that they had an understanding of their instruments; they could play guitar, drums, bass and keys and sing incredibly well. You can’t play an instrument to that standard without having some formal education in music. However, you can get to that level without learning the intricacy of reading music; the proof is in the pudding.
There was logic to their decision not to learn. When you read music, you assign a language to something previously you could not define. For some people, this makes the creation of music more accessible and becomes a process of joining the dots; however, for some, like the Beatles, this comes with too many rules and restrictions. They wanted to be (and were) good songwriters, but they also never wanted to be put in a box. They worried that if they did learn to read music, they wouldn’t be able to write as freely as they had done in the past. And they weren’t alone with this decision either.
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Which classic rock musicians can’t read music?
For many very famous musicians, learning to read music is of no interest. From a technical point of view, it makes no sense, but from a personal one, it checks out. When people learn an instrument or become more engrossed in music, they put themselves into it; it becomes an incredibly personal experience. People are guided by feelings, not by theory; as such, they act on them, moving to what note feels right instead of what note is right.
Some huge names were unable to read music, which shows just how much you can go on to achieve within music without becoming bogged down in the intricacy of it. Some of the most well-known artists who couldn’t read music include:
Prince
Eric Clapton
Elvis Presley
Eddie Van Halen
Michael Jackson
Paul McCartney
Bob Dylan
Taylor Swift
Jimi Hendrix
Slash
Dave Brubeck
Noel Gallagher
Stevie Wonder
Lionel Richie
Do you need to be able to read music to be a musician?
If the above can tell you anything, it’s that you don’t need to be able to read music to be a musician. It doesn’t hurt; the more you know about your craft, the better, but if you want to try and be innovative in what you create, like many of the above artists were, it might be better to act on feelings instead of theory.
There is no right way to play music and, subsequently, no right way to learn it. The best thing you can do if you want to start learning music is just to start. You will soon work out what works best for you, and you can lean into whichever method that is.
