Old topic, I know, but I have to say that…
I prefer to encounter a tune for the first time on sheet music, not by hearing others play it. I get to put my own spin on the tune.
Later, if I hear it played by others, it’s interesting to hear what they have done with it.
It takes me forever to learn a tune by ear, and when I do learn that way I end up parroting exactly what I’ve heard. Not the best way, IMHO.
I’ve learnt some tunes/songs by ear, but some are really difficult to me to learn in that way.
I like to have the sheet music and to be able to hear the tune/song. Also, when learning a tune/song I like to listen as many versions from people as I can, because I can get ideas from that.
That’s the reason because I love “whistlethis” 
I find that the best way to learn a tune ‘uninfluenced’ is to get a midi file of the tune and listen to that.
The reason for this is that the midi plays the tune with no ‘lilt’ to it, and no ornamentation, giving me a nice clean framework to play with and add my own touch to.
You can also slow it up and down to suit your own speed of playing.
Hi Ceili,
I agree. You can work from a midi file, but you kinda have to know the musical genre first. Having grown up with ITM that’s not an issue for me. But even knowing how the music generally sounds, there are different ways of playing the same “dots” and still “stay true.”
I sometimes hear a tune but not catch its name , only to find it in standard notation. This is very useful. Its good to be able to play a tune by ear, even better if you can read the music. This ability doubles your possibilities to learn. Even though not all musical notation is written with the same skill, it is still highly recommended. 
kbr
Whitmores75087said;
but you kinda have to know the musical genre first. Having grown up with ITM that’s not an issue for me.
I agree, I keep forgetting that not everyone was born in Ireland like myself, or has had a lot of exposure to ITM!!
Standard notation, tablature, recordings, MIDI, etc, are all tools of the musician. The more tools you have at your disposal the more you’ll have access to, and the better you master those tools the more opportunity you’ll have to learn and grow. No one of them is perfect, but together they are formidable.
I like Midi too (as well as sheet music).
I think that it´s crucial to know how to learn by ear, and helpful to be able to learn from sheet music.
In my opinion, dots are sort of Latin - everyone(to an extent) can understand them. On the other hand, I´ve seen many players able to play only from sheet music - the same what´s written down there and nothing more. That´s where notes can lead, and in case of music, such as ITM, it´s way to hell I´d say.
Whitmores, my own experience is just the opposite. When I came to Irish music I learned to abandon the “white page” because if I tried to learn a tune from the sheet music my brain would stay in “sightreading mode” and I would take forever to memorise it, the sheet music becoming a crutch. My brain learned a new mode, that of learning tunes by ear up to speed, which turned out to be much more efficient in that I was in effect learning the tune and memorising the tune simultaneously.
I have loads of tunes I’ve played through over and over again from the sheet music that I still don’t have memorised. But I have a certain CD which I just played along with over and over and soon I had the whole CD off.
Session playing is playing along with others up to speed, using your ear. Learning tunes by ear by playing along with a recording at home is the most suitable parallel.
About hearing different versions, that’s why I like learning things from a session recording, as the various versions different people are playing meld into an overall generic version. I’m not concerned with rote-learning a specific string of notes, rather, I’m getting a more global impression of the shape of the tune. I create my own version which suits my instrument and style which at the same time blends with the session.
Hi Pan,
It seems that different people have their brains wired differently. My father in law plays keyboards, mostly church organ. He can look at a sheet of music (treble and bass clefs) that is almost black with notes and play it right away with few errors. A few years ago he accompanied me to a store to buy electronic keyboards for my wife. I asked him to try one out. He couldn’t. Reason: no sheetmusic!! His daughter isn’t much different.
I know what you are saying, though, about the different parts of the brain. I use dots to get the gist of the tune and dispense with the paper as early as possible, otherwise I’ll never memorize it.
Me, too; mainly when a tune isn’t easily put to memory. Right now I’m working off of the dots to get the Ballydesmond Polka #1, and all I can say is it’s a good thing to have around. Still, it’s harder to memorise from the dots - for me and for most people I talk to - but at least you can have something to hang your hat on. The Ballydesmonds #2 and #3, which I learned centuries ago, were easy ear-learning tunes for me. Not so with #1; so, the dots it is.
If you consider that any dots you use will be a record of the way the tune was played at one particular time, this is fundamentally no different than hearing it so far as a memory source goes. Read or listen, what you get is one version. Every time.
As far as memory goes, if sight memorisation is quicker for you, then go for it. I wouldn’t throw out ear learning altogether, though. Getting “flavor” from sheetmusic is pretty hard to do, and the “parroting” you speak of isn’t so bad - it’s just a version (which is really all you can get from sheetmusic as well, so you’d be “parrotting” that to a degree, too), and I can assure you that you will already have put your own spin on it although you yourself may not hear it. And, the longer you play it, the more opportunity you’ll encounter for more of your own variation however you learn it.
I guess that while I say don’t throw away the dots altogether, go to the ears first and mainly. For those that it doesn’t come naturally to, I think ear learning can be developed with practice. I have proof of it. But that’s what it takes: practice.
I have learned tunes by ear, and found out later that I was leaving out some fast notes. I much prefer learning with music in front of me, and leaving the paper behind as soon as possible.
Interestingly, I have also found that when I whistle a tune with my LIPS for a bit, I find myself adding ornaments that I can later pass to the whistle!
With my music background, I can’t get rid of sheetmusic entirely. I’m still a newbie to the whistle, but I try really hard to learn the song with the sheetmusic in front of me until I’m comfortable enough to play without it.
This to me is actually a variant or an extension of ear learning, no matter what got you there in the first place. Once the memory is there, you hear the tune in your head, which is why you can whistle it at all without the sheetmusic in front of you. That frees you up to make variations.
Sheet music needs no defence, at least no more so than the written word. If my command of the Italian language consists of no more than a cursory read of a phrasebook then I should expect no less than a few 
or worse, 
when speaking it in say, downtown Rome.
It seems I’m different from everyone…(unless I missed a post). I need to hear it and see it in order to play it. I memorize pretty fast, so I can get rid of the sheet music. However, without hearing it first, if I play based on sheet music it sounds completely off. I suppose I have rhythm problems or something: I play the notes right, but it still sounds wrong. So I use all the resources I have.
You might have misinterpreted my first one as I might not have been as clear as I could have been. I use sheet music, but it tends to be the exception rather than the rule.
I was always like that, evnstr. That’s why my piano teacher thought I was so stupid. Because I could never play the music unless I heard it first. Sight-reading was so important and I just couldn’t quite get it, so she thought I was stupid. With Irish music, sight-reading is easier than classical because you already know how it should sound if you’ve listened to enough of it.
Also, I really believe (and can see it happening to myself) that as you progress with your abilities on the instrument that eventually the sheet music won’t be needed. It’s really hard to just toot out what you can hear when you are new to the instrument. Your fingers fumble around so much that you can no longer hear the music in your head, you lose your place or even forget what the heck tune you were trying to play anyway.
I’ve found, being a newbie and all, that for purely ear-training nothing beats playing songs. I can play many Christmas carols, and some Irish songs like Irish Rover or I’ll Tell Me Ma after a few listens. Heck I can even play the National Anthem (Star Spangled Banner for me.) I’m not even going to attempt Humours of Ballyloughlin from ear. (I’m not going to attempt it from sheet music either.)