Yes i can sight read but very slow .
As far as killing creativity it could if you sound like,
your playing from the paper with know feeling.
I do care because if you can read music you can learn,
songs or tunes without hearing the music plus learn the,
correct timeings of the songs plus the melody.
If you use Tabs you will need to listen to the song on a cd ect to find out what the timeing plus what the melody is supposed to sound like plus the notes.
In answer to can you improvise on jazz standards yes,
you can improvise on jazz standards if you can't improvise,
on a jazz standard then your what i call a paper player.
Which means you can't play by ear or play with a feel.
Learning to read music is a must for writing songs ect.
If your going to go the self taught way like i did,
learn your theory plus how to read music later its,
a lot harder.(Below self taught way below)

1.Learn the finger-board like you know your name,
backwards and forward.
2.Develope your ear playing.
3.Learn about a 1000 songs then memorize them plus,
make sure you learn more than one style of music.
4.Learn all the notes on the guitar,plus basic and
Advanced chords mabee 1000 or 2000 of them.
5.Then get around the best guitarists you can and steel,
every thing you can from them.
6.Then at last learn some theory plus how to read sheet music plus how to read tab then never stop learning.
Note:I will share one thing with you about one guitarist,
i met in nashville tenn.
His name is Jerry Reed and he will not hire a sheet music,
guitarist not unless you can play or learn your parts in his band by ear.(This a true story)

P:S I recemend learning to read music plus developing,
your ear plus alot of praticing to be a good guitarist!
Its hard but its worth it if you love music.
Mark
Peace

[Edited by skee1 on 01-18-2002 at 01:49 AM]