When I was a child my mother sent me to summer with country relatives. One summer it was with an aunt who was a piano teacher. At the end of summer, I played in church from the Baptist (Broadman) Hymnal. I went back home to no piano and forgot it. I cannot sight read on any instrument that I play now, ruined by tablature or chord charts.

I play with people who use songbooks with notation and need to work on learning it since I am often limited to playing chords without that ability. For songs with long strings of chords with 3 Major & 3 minor chords with two different chords in each measure at the speeds they play it would be easier to play the melody. I need to work on that since one of my reasons for music is to exercise my brain now that I've retired from my thinking job. The task is complicated by my playing instruments with different tunings, so the notes are in different places on the fretboard. I need to do it even though it is contrary to my goal of being able to play anything I hear or have in my head without paper.

I just looked up figured bass. Good grief!