How do you confuse a guitar player?
Put sheet music in front of him.
Shitty joke. Anyways, if you are serious about learning jazz or classical, reading music is very important. I am just starting to delve into the jazz world and that stuff is difficult as fuck. I can't note read very well at all. But what you should do is learn songs by ear. That is another thing i neglected for a long time, and am only now starting to get better at. It will help you a lot.
Anybody who says that you need to know how to note read to be a serious musician is a bit ignorant though. I would say the majority of bands out there right now can't or don't ever need to note read because it is irrelevant to what they are doing. And i am not just talking about shitty folk bands that can only play simple chords.