Rant: Music lessons should be FUN

Mr Miyagi : "Wax on... Wax off. Now you do." Lindy : "When do I learn to kick some ass!?" Mr Miyagi : "Huh huh huh. Patience, Lloyd san. Wax on... Wax off. Now you do."

I can understand teaching sight-reading in a group context. If you have 100 fifth-graders and you need them to all play at once for their parents, you really can't do anything other than teaching them a song that they can play the exact same way every time, and can't easily forget. So sight reading makes sense. And really in an academic context at all, you need some way to grade the student, so "he played 92% of the notes right" is an easier thing than "he played good-sounding music". But for years I've just been 'soloing' on guitar (and now mandolin), I find it fun, and it's been sounding better, and over time I am starting to understand how music works, without ever seeing the notes on paper.