If you're a classically trained pianist, you probably can read music extremely well. But you probably can't just go to the piano, sit down, and play what you feel!

It's a sad but true fact. For most classically trained students, improvisation and just "being" at the piano is not an option. This isn't to say that they don't want to improvise and create their own music. They just don't know how to do it!

Listen.. It's not their fault at all! You see, their training consists of spending years upon years learning how to play the music of dead composers. And while the music of "the masters" is great and worthy of hearing, it isn't something coming from you.

Writers don't have this problem. If someone interested in learning the art of short-story writing was told that they would have to spend 4 years copying another novelists work, they would go insane.

Painters also don't have this problem. A watercolorist would laugh in your face if you told him that you learned how to paint by assiduously copying another painters work. In fact, music may be the only art where students are actually taught NOT to be creative! Think about it.

Reading music is just one aspect of the process. It's like reading the words in a good book. We all can do it but most of us wouldn't be able to actually create what was on the written page. Now all of this begs the question of why so many people devote so much of their time to note-reading. I think the answer is simple - it's what's always been done and it's something that piano teachers (usually on a pedestal) push their students into learning.

Listen carefully... You don't need to read music in order to play piano! As a matter of fact, learning how to note read before learning how to improvise and use chords at the piano can be a major deterrent to creative piano playing.