"Musicians who cannot read music play better than those that can"

[Andy B]

I'm not sure how you define "good," but most good violinists I know/know of do not have perfect pitch. Perfect pitch is fairly rare, and I don't lack thereof precludes one from being a great musician. There was a kid in my high school with perfect pitch whom I didn't consider to be a particularly strong musician. I remember a conductor from years back who had perfect pitch. He talked about not being able to enjoy performances where the orchestra was tuned too high or too low. I think that the suggestion that being able to read music somehow holds musicians back is suspect. I can sort of see how having perfect pitch could be a hindrance, though.

I think that it goes without saying that it's almost impossible to be a good musician without a good sense of pitch, however.

[Andy B]

I'm not all that familiar with Opeth. I bought a CD earlier this year and I like it, but I don't know anything about their training/background. It seems to me, though, that most touring rock guitarists have these really long bus rides where they'll dink around on their guitars until they hit upon something they like. Even if they're classically trained, know theory, etc., it shouldn't be all that surprising if they occasionally lose track of what notes/chords they're playing.