Why is learning by ear preferable?

[Azalin]

I dunno. When I hear someone say that, what I'm hearing underneath is "I have no idea, but I don't want you to realize that I don't know what in the h*ll you're talking about."

Well, really, when I listen to these amazing musicians, who are mastering the art of playing irish music, whose music make your mind and spirit fly away in total delight, I don't really care about the fact that they don't know what music theory is. I just know that I need to stay away from sheet music if I want, one day, be half as good as them and play music half as well.

[StevieJ]

Redwolf, it's not reverse snobbery on Azalin's part or mine. It's just the result of experience with musicians who try to migrate from other fields to Irish music. In nearly every case (and I put in "nearly" only to allow for the possibility that one day I might meet an exception) those who cannot learn by ear never get the music right and are just no fun to play with.

This is not to say that everyone who cannot read music or learns by ear is fun to play with!

Nor is it to say that written music is not an incredibly useful tool in Irish trad. music (for those who know how to play the music already).

But it is to say to those who think they can learn how to play Irish music without relying on listening rather than sheet music are utterly fooling themselves.

[Nanohedron]

You know, my theory is pretty close to nil. I don't find it to be a necessity in trad music. I've seen it be both help and hindrance, depending on the musician. For my part, I have no problem letting those steeped in theory know that I don't know what they're talking about, because if they know me and have heard me play, my musicianship (humble as it is) is not in question, if I may be so bold. And I'm being pretty bold. Frequently it's a matter of differing terminologies: one "established", and the other traditional. Those of my friends that are thoroughly classical in their training will often engage in talks with me just for the discovery of these differences, and I pick up a few concepts here and there for clarity's sake during conversation. Actually, I enjoy discussing trad with them, because it helps them understand better what had previously been rather baffling to them. To suggest that a dismissal of notation or theory is a smokescreen for inner issues may or may not be valid, but in the final analysis they are irrelevant. What is not irrelevant is learning and communicating in the language of any tradition. This is where the ears come in.

Jeez, you guys have me going, today!

[arythmic]

A very interesting discussion. I am not classically trained. I taught myself to read music when I first began with the whistle, mainly because it seemed like I needed to in order to learn the tunes. Later on, when I started taking some lessons, I found that was not necessarily the case and began learning to play (some) by ear. In my own experience, it is generally best if I can learn and play a tune by ear. It really stays in my memory, and I have better luck spontaneously adding ornamentation, breathing, etc.

However, I still find it useful to be able to refer to the skeleton of a tune found in the sheet music. As Redwolf mentioned, just knowing the first note can be very important--I seem to be better at figuring out intervals than pitches. Further, my aging brain sometimes just can't take in a very complex or fast (especially that) tune. My 15-year-old seems able to hear a tune once, then remember it. Then it is just a matter of figuring it out on whatever instrument he is playing. For me, it doesn't always stick that well.

While I accept that ITM players at the highest level, and all completely traditional players, just don't use sheet music, I don't think it should be out of bounds for us memory-challenged, fumble-fingered pilgrims who find some benefit in it. I will continue working on my 'ear' skills, but might never make it to completely dispensing with notation. FWIW.

[U2]

Playing by ear is a skill that can be and, in my opinion, must be developed to proficiently play ITM. Once a certain level of proficiency is achieved, playing tunes becomes more about recall than mechanics. How best to "burn a tune to memory" is an interesting thing. For me, learning/knowing a melody by listening to it for pleasure is distinctly different than what occurs when I start to learn it on an instrument. The guessing goes out the window. It has to because one has to know where the melody is headed to be there. After repetition, another level of familiarity kicks in, and playing the tune requires little thought about mechanics, or anything but listening to the other players and being in the mix with them.

I've never seen sheet music used in a Irish session (in Ireland), and the sessions I've visited where sheet music was used in America lacked energy and power. The tunes take on a life of their own when bracketed by other tunes in sets. The freedom and creativity the emanates from a group of musicians playing tunes together is captivating when it appears uncontainable and natural. I can't envision that happening with sheet music and stands, and binders full of tunes. Plus, isn't it nice to be able to say where the particular setting of a tune came to you? "This is a tune called Dewdrops on the Corn. I got it from ...at ....'s house in 1997..." It's an aural tradition that reserves a special combination of skills and tools and talent, not the least of which is listening. I'm certainly not advising anyone to stop using the tools you have now, but I can assure you will enjoy the freedom that comes from playing by ear, which is at the heart of the tradition.

[Nanohedron]

Well, U2, I think you've hit the nail on the head.

[Azalin]

I've never seen sheet music used in a Irish session (in Ireland), and the sessions I've visited where sheet music was used in America lacked energy and power

Well said!

[Nanohedron]

Written notation is a tool, like any other. Refusing to learn it because "it's not traditional" seems just plain silly to me. I see as much slavish devotion to "how so-and-so plays this passage" or "this is the RIGHT way to learn" among traditional musicians as I've ever seen among classical musicians. Listening is important; playing it for yourself and developing confidence in interpretation is important; but the ability to read music is also incredibly useful, and a talent I encourage anyone I teach to cultivate.

I find your use of the words "slavish devotion" in this paragraph offensive, and I wonder if you have read this thread carefully. If you can't open a can without a can opener, and somebody asks you "How should I open the can" and you tell them "You will have to use a can opener", is that slavish devotion to can openers?

...There's always the option of using an axe.

[Ridseard]

I don't mean to insult anybody, but I think that if it's absolutely impossible for someone to play for ear, then maybe it's because they don't have a good ear for music. (The situation is not hopeless. The ear can be trained. Singing is good for that.) Good musicians (emphasis on good) in any genre, including classical, do not have a problem playing by ear.

[U2]

Ridseard - There's absolutely no question playing by ear is a skill, and that that skill can be improved and developed. Anyone who can sing "Happy Birthday" and didn't learn it from sheet music is a testament to that fact. There are various techniques that are helpful to me in learning tunes. Singing the tune, as you suggest, is beneficial. Breaking tunes into phrases, or sections, is helpful. I particularly enjoy getting a tune under my fingers from back to front. Listen, then sing, then play is another.

[Ridseard]

Ridseard - There's absolutely no question playing by ear is a skill, and that that skill can be improved and developed.

Yes, indeed. I think that if one knows how a tune goes (and it's playable on a whistle), then it can be played by ear. Just figure out the note it starts on, and work it out from there.

I fear that someone who has to rely exclusively on sheet music may be translating the written note directly into fingering and breath pressure, without first "hearing" the pitch. That's would be a mechanical procedure analogous to the operation of a music box, and I would expect the results to sound rather mechanical and generic, without soul.

[Jack]

I haven't read all of this post and I probably won't, because I am learning how I want to, however comes easiest. And I don't really know what 'by ear' or 'by sheet music' means to me, because I think they mean slightly different things to everybody and that everybody uses combinations of the two, generally. If you played a random song to me on whistle, I could not play it back to you. That's not how I work, at least not at this point in time. If you gave me the sheet music and a recording and came back in 2 weeks, I probably could play it for you.

Without ornaments, of course.

[arythmic]

There is no doubt in my mind that hearing the tune is more important than reading it. And total reliance on sheets will never produce music by itself. That shouldn't mean that the written form can't be useful, or will actually impede learning. I think we may be saying much the same thing here, I just want to defend the use of notation when it can help unravel a tune that is proving difficult to pick up purely by ear. It can't replace the actual sound and feel of the living tune, but when combined with attentive listening can still be useful in the initial phase of learning a new tune. I aspire to learn only by ear, but while I am working to build that skill, the notation, in combination with listening, allows me to acquire new tunes. I very much admire players who can pick up a reel on the first repeat, but I'm not there yet. On the other hand, I would not inflict myself on a session of players who can do that. If I know the tune, I'll play it. If I don't, I will sit out. Sightreading at speed, even if one had sheetmusic, would be even harder.

[janice]

*Research shows* that when a tune is played aurally it is processed in a different part of the brain than a tune which is being played with written music.

When you've got great ears, theory doesn't matter very much.....and the more I'm around 'mediocre' classically trained musicians the more I believe this (very fine musicians, regardless of genre, have "good ears").

I just finished my first year in a doctoral Music Education program- it's interesting-music educators are starting to examine the "informal" aspects of many musical genres (like Irish trad, jazz, pop, and other world musics) and are just beginning to realize how valuable many of these informal practices are in the development of one's musicality (and how often these practices are overlooked in a conservatory music education).

I recommend "How Popular Musicians Learn" (by Lucy Green) for anyone wanting to read further on the subject. Even though she looked at the informal learning of pop musicians, I found her study to be analagous to informal learning practices amongst trad musicians.

[Jack]

*Research shows*

Can you post links to the research?