Permission denied to connect with table only privileges set

• MySQL 5.1.41 community (Windows Server 2003)
• .Net/Connector 6.1.3.0

I've just created a new user and rather than grant schema privileges I've granted rights on only specific tables. In other words, there are NO global or schema level permissions set, only permissions set are for a couple specific tables. This seemed like a perfectly acceptable policy and from what I've开发者_如何学Go ready MySQL will search:

1. global
2. schema/DB
3. Table
4. Column

for appropriate permissions. However when I try to open a connection to the server using this new user account I receive a permission denied error.

Access denied for user 'xxxxxx'@'%' to database 'xxxxxxx'

If I grant SELECT on the schema in question I can connect just fine. Am I misunderstanding the way the permission system works or should it work like I think?