[quote name='musophilr' timestamp='1352153327' post='1859538']
some might say you don't need it, but even if you do find yourself not needing it, it won't do you any harm. proper notation tells you so much more than where to put your fingers. it tells you when, and explains the relationships between what you're playing now, what you played before, and what you're going to play after. you see music as patterns of rhythmic and melodic devices, and because it's easy to spot scale fragments and arpeggios when they're written down (and those are the basic manoeuvres you've practised - haven't you) you can just pull the relevant tricks out of the bag.
Plus you can also access music that was written for other instruments. It's a universal language. Pianists don't read tab! In fact it always amazes me that guitarists and electric bass players seem to be the ones who refuse to do what students of all other instruments do (in the west, anyway) which is learn to read as they learn to play.
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I like the way you have put this.
Superb and really says it for me.