Music knowledge of the greats...

Apparently Steve Rothery didn't know the names of many of the chords he used.

rileydog22 wrote: Syzygy wrote: Rick Wakeman never actually graduated from the Royal College of Music, and offhand I can think of only a few 70s proggers who had any real musical education. I seem to remember that Kerry Minnear of Gentle Giant was a music school graduate, as were Richard Harvey and Brian Gulland of Gryphon.   Remarkably, none of the core members of Henry Cow had much formal musical education, which didn't stop Fred Frith (BA and MA in English Literature from Cambridge) from becoming a professor of composition. The same applied to most of the RIO bands, although I think Gerard Hourbette of Art Zoyd may have graduated from a conservatory.   Regarding Henry Cow, Chris Cutler rejects the use of musical notation (and so by extention much of music theory) as he believes it is responsible for the rift between composer and performer.  After all, Cow was largely into improv, or "spontaneous composition," rather than note-for-note composition.  This raises an interesting question: do they resist note-for-note replication due to a resistance to music notation, or do they resist music notation due to a resistance of note-for-note replication?   Even more suprisingly, one of the biggest reasons for the addition of Lindsay Cooper to the band was her rigorous classical training.

I know Phil Collins aint the best of the best, but I once had read that he can't read a note.

Non prog but Jimi Hendrix couldn't read music and didn't even know what notes he was playing. I've read stuff that he associated sound with colors like "lets play this in blue" or something like that.

Kate Bush -prog related- has extensive education in the performing arts - music, dance, voice..
Igor Khoroshev is classically trained, it shows on The Ladder.
Alan White can read music, he can play the piano- it was his first instrument. 
Trey Gunn has not only formal education in music - college degree, but is also a Guitar Craft graduate.
Tony Levin can read music, he used to play the tuba in his high school band.
Does anybody know about Tony Banks' musical education, or lack thereof? I'm curios

frippster wrote: Does anybody know about Tony Banks' musical education, or lack thereof? I'm curios

It says here on PA that Christian Vander is a classically-trained drummer. So I suppose he knows how to read and write notes.

Ok... now a FAMOUS one...  (just kidding, It's me the ignorant one).

Anna Holmgrem (Anglagard), is classically trained.

Negru Voda wrote: It says here on PA that Christian Vander is a classically-trained drummer. So I suppose he knows how to read and write notes.

That doesn't surprise me at all.  From watching videos on youtube I can see the his technique is very very good.

Also, about Dream Theater, they didn't drop out because they were bad, but to start the band.  Apparently it's not rare to use Berklee as more of a place to meet other serious musicians than to get a degree.  And about Jordan Rudess, according to Wikipedia, he didn't actually go to Julliard for College, but actually went to Julliard's pre-college division at nine years old, so he was obviously very good.

Anyway, it's pretty safe to say that pretty much all the members of any respectable jazz-rock-fusion band know their theory, and are well-trained on their instrument.