Reading sheet music is the traditional way of learning music. You read everything that you play. It is a straightforward way of learning music. It is what most music teachers teach.
Advantages of reading and playing from sheet music include:
It is comparatively easy since you get detailed guidance throughout the whole piece, therefore, no need to remember or improvise. Of course, it’s only easy once you know how to read music or tab notation.
There is a lot of learning material for guidance. Many books on learning music will give you ample material on this technique.
In a group performance such as an orchestra or a band, having to read from a sheet music ensures everybody is in sync. It guides the whole performance.
It provides the essential foundational skills and principles of music. Therefore, it prevents pick up of habits and practices that might derail your progress.
Playing by the Ear
While many wish they could read music, all of us admire a person who can pick up an instrument and just play a tune on it without any notes.
This technique, admittedly, can be harder to master.Your mind will have to learn to do the reverse of reading and playing sheet music. However, some people find playing by ear much easier than reading notes – and some people find reading notes much easier than playing by ear!
You listen to music playing and translate it into a mental sheet music. Finally, you then play it yourself. With practice your brain can go directly from hearing a song to knowing how to play it.
In my school, the band and orchestra students are learning how to do this. They are playing along with the 5th-grade singers on “Let It Snow” and “Winter Wonderland.” There are instrumental breaks in both of these songs.Here, the melody instruments take the lead.
The students are listening for when to come in.They are figuring out their parts by ear. It’s a lot of fun. It is a new exciting way to play the flute, trumpet, violin, viola, cello, euphonium or clarinet!
The pros of learning by ear are:
You’ll learn new pieces faster this way because no time is used in processing the written sheet music first.
You develop the ability to improvise a song and add your signature style.
It improves your ability to create your own compositions.
It is a fun and exciting way to learn in addition to being handy where no sheet music is available.
In conclusion, none of these techniques is superior to the other. Both of them are efficient and useful.
Some teachers tend to focus more on reading sheet music and not so much on playing by ear. Doing this limits the students’ abilities. What if they don’t have the sheet music? What if they need to improvise the piece they are playing?
We, therefore, think it necessary to learn both techniques. As earlier mentioned, playing by ear is not exactly an easy thing to do. Most people start by learning sheet music first. Through disciplined practice, they eventually learn to play music by ear too.