I do all three and I know there are other members in the group who also do so. The best solution is to employ all three methods. Start off by learning to read, then leave the printed sheet and play by ear. Finally, practice reading “charts” and improvise off them.

Of course, there’s more to it. Learning your chords and how they move in a song is important to “ear playing,“ improvising and memorizing.

You’re story hit a “chord” in me. In high school I had the same situation. My friend played by ear and I was being academically trained. While I played real well (so they tell me), every time I visited my friend I got jealous because he played circles around me. Years later I realized that because he didn’t read music he was forced to “play around” on the keys. So he was constantly full of arrangement ideas while I just “played technically well.” Now I’m glad I had the training, but I still sometimes wish I didn’t rely on it so much.

What is the Nashville Numbering System? What helps ME to remember songs is studying the chord progression in each one. Most of the songs move in predictable progressions (as in: All The Things You Are).

Lucky