Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Does Playing By Ear impair your reading ability?

Up until now I have been working through various pieces of printed music but decided I would devote some time to playing by ear and structuring songs myself. This has really dumbed my ability to read and for the several weeks that I have been playing by ear I seem to play with less structure, less discipline and find that playing chords on the left hand na dmelody on the right hand - isn't really the best technique (or is it)?

The technique is to be organized and do a little of each every day. Easily said.

And integration of the two skills, kbk? If so, how as suggested strategy?

In my opinion, it really depends which genre of music you are playing...

Take classical for example...playing by ear impairs my reading ability A LOT...like I've mentioned in my previous post, I tend to take the short cut of listening to CDs, or listening to people play the piece that I am suppose to play...and I pick it up by ear...it results to me, being a clone of the CD/teacher...and ZERO ability to sight-read...or even learn a piece by score...I'm just too over-whelmed by the notes...

Ah, thank God I'm out of it...I still listen by ear...but I make myself read and prepare my piece first...before I am even introduced to any interpretation...

That was classical for me...jazz and blues are slightly different...I believe that each musician, will sooner or later develop their own feel and touch...attach different emotions to their playing...which is why playing by ear is important...scores are there to assist...but when it comes to 'searching one's soul', it hardly suffice...

By playing by ear for jazz swings...you will pick up licks by other music artist, say...Art Tatum and Herbie Hancock...mix a bit of both together...and you may find it quite satisfying!!...while looking at scores especially solos, for me...makes me feel quite redundant...and limited...as I may not understand the approach of every lick made by the specific artist...

Music scores, in jazz...are great for reference...and to pick on, when brains are dried...but other than that, I play by ear all the way...and transcribe licks that I like...

Hi,

I like to do both. I'm not sure than my non-reading playing actually impairs my reading. But it does seem to make me feel a little impatient and slow when I switch back. It tends to feel like harder work decoding all those dots, and working bar by bar through somebody else's instructions. I'm not a fast reader, so it always was a relatively slow process, compared to the freedom of choosing what I play and how. So I think that for me it's more like a reality check than an impairment. But as Keyboardklutz suggests, I try and keep a foot in both camps.

Cheers,

Chris

I know I have a tough time doing both. At a band rehearsal earlier today, I played most of the songs with just chords. When I'm playing that way I don't exactly play by ear, but earlier today our lead singer needed me to play some melody to help her stay on track for a couple of the songs. So I was having to play more by ear than usual.
Then later I had the staff music for one of the songs, and I had a tough time shifting gears to play the notes as they were written.
I wonder if you use different parts of your brain when your playing by ear and when your playing by music. I know for me, it's tough to do both well.

No, most definitely not. As long as you keep reading sheet music every day and keep learning things by ear, you will not lose any of these skill sets.

It's the other way around

I have been playing by ear for a little while now. And being a jazz beginner I must say that I do listen to the songs I want to learn, before looking up the lead sheets just to get the chord progression right. Usually I have the main melody in my head already.

It also seems counterintuitive to try to get the jazzy, syncopated rhythm out of written scores. You are supposed to "feel" the groove, the beat, not counting it on page.

I guess I am quite biased on this matter. Perhaps on more complicated classical pieces accuracy from scores is more of a priority over one's "owning" the music.

If available practice time and energy were without limits, I'd say there would be no correlation between playing by ear and sight reading.

However, in the real world, both time and energy are very much limited.

Every hour you spend playing by ear represents time that could have been spent developing sight reading skills. Perhaps one is more important to you at the moment. Perhaps you view both as being equally important. Logic would dictate that if you have to divide your practice time into two pieces, the progress for each will be half as fast.

I think its great you've taken a well-balanced approach. Like with most things, there is a price to be paid.

Personally, I believe the more appropriate word is "impede," rather than "impair."

I could be wrong, but that's what I think.

I've found that playing by ear has enhanced my ability to read. That is, playing by ear having improvised in all 24 keys and all their constituent chords and inversions for years...doing this gave me intimate knowledge of intervals and chords I might not have acquired otherwise. Thus it is easier to relate sheet music to shapes I know from improvising. Of course, I've been reading all along too. Perhaps what you need is to just keep it up...keep reading, and keep playing by ear. Nothing says you can't do both!

Playing by ear and reading music are two different skills. Both are wonderful and have to be practiced to keep at a certain level(unless you've reached a high level already). If you only play solely by ear and neglect your reading skills, your reading ability will be negatively affected - you'll be rusty. Since you're still learning, you need to do both.

Absolutely, Zom. I think you're spot on.
And I would add that reading can also enhance your ability to play by ear. It makes you familiar with patterns you may not have explored otherwise, and keeps reinforcing that symbol/sound connection. You don't just use your eyes when reading (read a note, push a key). The ideal is to use your ears always, whether reading or not. It all should go together to build up overall musicianship.

I do both, but what I find very useful is to combine the two - taking the written music which I can play, and then using my ear to enhance that. This is especially useful where you are only supplied part of the music or a simplified version (or an overcomplicated arrangement which needs to be de-cluttered!) *** and need to produce something closer to what you or the listener would like to hear or is expecting if, like me, you are often producing covers.

I have got to the point now that I probably never play what is written the second time through and I really do think that is down to my ear. It also lets me put my own style on the performance. Of course, that means that sometimes it all goes wrong - but that doesn't matter as long as you can hide it!

I would want to emphasise that I consider this to be a reasonably advanced way of playing and you must have a good base skill. Your ability to play by ear (and improvise to an extent) will always be limited by your technical capability and this will probably improve more through playing from written scores.

[ *** If I had a penny for every time I have been presented music to play where they hasn't been a single note on the page I would be very rich. My favourite is TAB, especially if it indicates that the original piano part has been converted to TAB for guitar playing! Words and chords seem to be a regular think too, followed by the question - how does the melody go? ]