As I've said previously, I think each individual brings his own abilities to the art of playing music. My teacher tells me that I have a good "ear". That makes playing by ear easier for me than for some. However I seem to find it harder than most of us to play from sheet music. How I envy @trimmy, @Jeanette,
@chadders and even
@Dot-to-dot, who only started on sax last summer, for their ability to sight-read demonstrated last Sunday under
@tenorviol 's tuition while I'd manage only a few bars then get left behind!
It's not that I can't learn to sight-read but it will require much more effort on my part than most people need.
Similarly, I think that some players such as Trimmy and
@kevgermany who are accomplished readers will need to apply great effort to playing by ear to a level that came easily to me. Whether I put effort into reading or others into playing by ear is a matter of personal choice.
@Jazzaferri makes a very good point: listening to music in order to play it is quite different. Casual listening will serve to a degree - I hear melodies casually and remember them so that I can play them but I often discover that there are parts that I haven't memorised and that's where I have to listen carefully and repeatedly to get it into my mind, often struggling note-by-note. That's what I meant when I said that resorting to sheet music is often the easy option. I suspect that Jazzaferri is more advanced than me in that he'll be listening not only to the melody but also to the chord structure so that he can improvise: I've hardly made a start in that direction.
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