[chimpansteve]

As a kid, I learnt violin and trombone to a very high orchestra level standard, and could read sheet music from a very early age. I then moved on in my late twenties to guitar, bass and keyboard in a rock band, and never looked at a piece of sheet music again in my life, and would have no idea how to translate musical notation to those instruments.

I know people who cannot play a tune without sheet music. I know some of the most talented musicians on this earth who cannot read sheet music. There is no right and wrong to this. It's what works for you.

I do think some form of formal music theory training is an absolute cheat code when it comes to playing multiple instruments, or just jamming and playing by ear though

[tkgally]

I’m similar to you, and I agree with your points completely.

I learned to play classical piano as a child and teenager and got reasonably good at it. But as my interests expanded to music that is normally not written down, I had less need to read music notation. Fifty years later, I still play the piano every day, but the only reading I do is occasionally looking at the chords and melody lines for jazz standards.

The music theory I learned when young has been very helpful over the years, and it would have been more difficult for me to absorb it then without using standard music notation. But I no longer think about music in terms of notes on a stave; I have gradually developed my own mental representation of it.

I still listen to classical music, and I do wish that I had acquired and maintained better sight-reading skills so that playing it would be a pleasure for me now rather than a chore.