I've always played by ear ever since I can remember. I've been a two-handed player from the start. My parents couldn't afford to send me for music lessons and, much later, when I was in my mid-thirties, I did start going to a music teacher but I gave it up because I too was mimicking rather than than 'reading the dots'.
There's not to much I can't handle in pop and rock music, but I sometimes wish I had been taught the proper way as, due to my self-learned, improper fingering technique, there are some limitations in my playing. For instance, I don't have the fluidity in jazz and blues licks going up the keuboard as I do in playing down the keyboard. For some peculiar reason, I don't use the third finger of my right hand very much and there are some key signatures I wouldn't touch with a 10' barge pole, i.e., C sharp, E flat, F sharp, A flat or even B (thank goodness we can dodge around that one with the transpose button these days).
I'm a decent enough singer and can read chord symbols easily enough, so with that and a fast ear, I find that the 'skills' that I do have are quite adequate enough. But that old 'what if' does haunt me from time to time.

I've heard very few people who play totally by ear that do a good job. Most miss some of the chord changes, play a F chord instead of a Dmin7, and have no clue what an augmented or diminished chord is. Three chord country or Louie Louie type R & R may work OK for the ear player but let's hear them play "All The Things You Are" or "Wave". My teacher made me play by music, chords and by ear. I think that was a good combination.

Tom

thanks for all your replies. and the duplicates. (?) i taught myself to play three years ago, and i started by teaching myself sheetmusic. so i became adept at reading music way before i started to learn to play by ear. at first i was horrible at the whole ear thing. thank g-d, now i've made a vast improvement and can usually figure out a song with simple chords on the spot. and after seeing all of your posts and thinking it over, i gotta agree that of course they are both important, and that we should concentrate on developing both, because of changing situations and also to develop ourselves as performers. i also agree with scotty, that the crowd appreciates it more if they dont know where its coming from. if they SEE the source, even iof they dont neccesarily understand it, it still cheapens it for them. also, Roel made an excellent point, being that with the music in front of you, its like a guide, your less likely to go off track. i find that when im doing dinners or slow bits, it always helps to have the chords at the very least in front of me. helps me focus. so those are my thoughts. thanks for all your wonderful insights. its funny, though, i feel like a mere simpleton among wise men. you all have been playing for years and years. im just 18, and i only started when i was 15!

Looking forward to sapping more of your wisdom!
Zack

Unfortunately, I did not have the luxury of a teacher. I was grateful that my family even found the money to buy me a modest organ when I was a child. I learned how to read later on to see what I might have been missing.. And I was missing quite a few things. Having said that however, I guess all along I was picking up things and "reading" to a point because I knew what a dim chord or and augmented chord consisted of long before I considered myself able to read music. I started by carefully reconstructing the 8 chord variations on those Silvertone organ chord buttons and then picked up a book of chords and went from there. Later I delved into practice of emulating and reproducing pieces and solos done by players like Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson before trying to develop my own style of play.

I know how to read now but more often than not I play TOTALLY by ear, unless I'm called upon to play a specific piece that has to imitate the original and I'm not very familiar with the piece. Then I use a similar approach to what Scott decribes. I happen to think I do a pretty good job and will gladly sit in and feel comfortable with my skills along side the players who do both and / or don't play by ear and can't play a note if the sheet music isn't in front of them. There is nothing wrong with the latter btw, but I think that it's too much of a blanket statement to say that people who play by ear don't play the right chords or imply that ear players can't play out of the spectrum of 3 chord rock and roll. On the contrary, I play a lot of jazz and jazz fusion and I can improvise, and I think I was doing a pretty fair job of it before i felt that I was really able to read music. Judging by some of the other players I've been priveleged to play with, I know I'm not an exception to the rule.

I agree with the consensus though that it is best to know and be able to do both. Although I rarely read, when I write my own music, even using midi notation, I always in some way am applying some fundamentals. I may do it consciously at times, but more often I think it's subconscious too. I don't picture 16th notes per se, but I know when I'm using them.


[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 07-30-2002).]

Hi Everyone,
Does anybody do this;
Play a song that you know and use the music just for the chords?
I have found a couple of sites that have "chords & lyrics" but no music (notes) not "tab-sites" just fan sites I think, can`t remember.
Anyway I find it easy to play a song that I know and use the chords as a "road map" (like Scott suggested) .
jedi

It almost seems from Tom Cavanaugh's oft-repeated input immediately after my post on this subject that his impression is that few 'by ear' players are able to step outside the spectrum of three or four chords.

Just for the record I will state that I am one of the few, then. I worked professionally in the UK for many years with regular live broadcasts on the BBC and appeared at live functions for the royal family in addition to having recorded a number of singles one of which, the title music from a movie, broke into the UK top 20.

So, I guess this blows Mr. Cavanaugh's theory out of the water somewhat, and I would add that I was not alone. There were (and are) many players better than I with only a darn good ear to go on.

Another point worth mentioning on this topic is that I've known plenty of red hot sight readers who've possessed not one ounce of 'feel' - now there's a real drawback.

Hi Big Red,
Have you ever met an "arranger-producer" Alan Parsons?
Just curio` (I`m a fan )
jedi

A lot of "by ear" musicians have a strange preference for C major and A minor tones.
I think that would be a "Black complex"
Chico

Jedi,
I have obtained music with just the chords and lyrics for years and can play from them. Sometimes if I am with guitar players that is all I can get from them. The fake books sometimes have a melody line and that helps some but I usually add to it either between the notes or include the full chord with my right hand.

I agree with Big Red about the playing by ear musicians. Since I did music theory first I knew about the different chords before I could read music. I admit when I first started playing (under the age of 13) that my chords were basic (major, minor and mostly I chords). Big Red, it is fantastic what you have accomplished. I think its great!

Again I think it is good to know both. But most important to enjoy yourself and have a good time with it.

- Brian

Big Red,

Sorry about all the duplicate entries. Everytime I hit submit yesterday my computer would lock-up. I thought I wasn't being successful in submitting my reply. I've tried to delete the duplicates.

When you say that you play by ear do you mean that:
1. you don't read music and never have
2. You never use fake books or ever have
3. you don't know a C chord from a F chord?
4. you couldn't find middle C if your life depended on it.

I know that there are players who do a good job that meet the above criteria. You must be one. Just because you are the exception doesn't make my premise false. I gave lessons to the daughter of just such a player. He owned a bar and played a B3. It is just that they are very few and far between. Ask most of the members on this forum and they will tell you, that when someone asks to play or sit in and they say that they play by ear, most of us inwardly CRINGE. It is like the "Singers" who come up and want to sing with you.
The first professional job that I played I played for two hours without music (I forgot it). Does that mean I play by ear? No I just played songs that I knew.

Do I play by ear? It's easier to use my fingers.

Tom