Don't forget the Virtual Session! Some great tunes, you can see the score, and you can play along. It's at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/
As for learning by ear, I am always really simply amazed to hear it advocated
in place of (contrast that with "
along with") sheet music.
Maybe the people I have known are peculiar; I don't know. I do know that even among accomplished musicians for every one I have known who could pick a tune out of the ether just by listening, there have been ten who could not, but were still fine musicians--sometimes extremely accomplished--in their own right.
I am developing the ability to learn a tune in real time, but it's an ongoing process, and there are some days I'm better at it than others. And you know what has helped me learn to do it more than anything else?
Sightreading. That's right: sheet music. I love to take something like O'Niells 1800 and sit down and just open it anywhere and start playing through the tunes.
You know why this works? Almost all trad tunes seem to be made out of the same common "building blocks." Just as an example, how many reels can you think of off the top of your head, for instance, where an e-g-d alternation (pedal) is a cornerstone of the tune? The New Policeman, the Traveller, Trim the Velvet, Touch Me if You Dare, the Four Hand Reel, Glen Allen...and that's just a few off the top of my head. There are many more.
My point to this unexpected rant of mine? Expecting a beginner or even an advanced intermediate player to be able to record the tunes at a fast session and then just go learn them seems really pretty out there to me. I think it's a recipe for frustration, although I'll grant you it's probably an effective way to weed out all but the pathologically dedicated players.
What do I advocate?
It's already been said, here in this thread, and in other places also: listen to the tunes while following on the sheet music. Listening is vital, because there is so much style and rhythm that just can't be notated in this music. You can't learn it without spending some quality time listening very attentively to it.
What the sheet music can help with is getting the notes down in the right order--and, later on when you're past the beginning stages, looking at the sheet music can often show you the basic structure of the tune.
I think using the dots, along with your ears, makes the most sense and gets the tune under your fingers the fastest.
Sorry about the rant, folks...I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...
--James