[dosland]

Originally Posted by SouthpawJeff

Are there musicians who can sit down and play a complicated piece of music they’ve never played before at full speed and sound correct just by reading the music? Again not trying to be snarky, I honestly don’t know. I just figured even accomplished musicians needed to practice?

A very long time ago we had to demonstrate our ability to pick up an unknown piece and play it - to a certain standard (nowhere near perfectly, in my case) - in order to be assessed for our progression reports. It's a bit different on a guitar from something like piano, given the range of choices to be made, especially in terms of left hand position, and in that sense maybe it makes sense to compare to other stringed instruments like the cello and violin, where similar decisions are required. The guitars we had available back in those days never had fret markers and I didn't ever think about why - it's just the way it was. There's also a certain class of instructor (or there was, anyway) that did not look kindly on the occasional peek at the left hand position. Is it wrong to check where your hand is? No. Do I occasionally feel a twinge of panic/shame when I do it? Yes. Yes I do.