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<blockquote data-quote="MikeMorrell" data-source="post: 348887" data-attributes="member: 4674">I wasn&#039;t going to add to this thread because I thought that everything that was relevant had already been said. But I&#039;d like to add just one point.IHMO it&#039;s not a question of either reading music or playing by ear but the extent to which you do both. As other posts have already pointed out, being able to read music (at whatever level) has many advantages. The main one for me is that you don&#039;t have to remember how to play music (exactly). Some people can&#039;t read music and have to remember what to play and when. Other people can play music perfectly from a first sight-reading of the sheet music.Between these two &#039;extremes&#039;, there are IMHO many amateur players who rely partly on &#039;playing by ear&#039; (based on what they remember) and partly on the sheet music that&#039;s in front of them. The most common combination in my exeperience is that musicians look at the &#039;notes&#039; and simultaneously recall how to play them. For these musicians, the sheet music eventually becomes a &#039;memory aid&#039;.It works the other way round too. Listening (by ear) to recordings can often help make sense of correseponding sheet music.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MikeMorrell, post: 348887, member: 4674"] I wasn't going to add to this thread because I thought that everything that was relevant had already been said. But I'd like to add just one point. IHMO it's not a question of [U]either[/U] reading music [U]or[/U] playing by ear but the [I]extent to which you do both[/I]. As other posts have already pointed out, being able to read music (at whatever level) has many advantages. The main one for me is that you don't have to remember how to play music (exactly). Some people can't read music and have to remember what to play and when. Other people can play music perfectly from a first sight-reading of the sheet music. Between these two 'extremes', there are IMHO many amateur players who rely partly on 'playing by ear' (based on what they remember) and partly on the sheet music that's in front of them. The most common combination in my exeperience is that musicians look at the 'notes' and simultaneously recall how to play them. For these musicians, the sheet music eventually becomes a 'memory aid'. It works the other way round too. Listening (by ear) to recordings can often help make sense of correseponding sheet music. [/QUOTE]

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