Reading music/playing by ear

[chrisp]

I have never learnt to read music, and learn new tunes on the whistle by ear.
I have played pretty basic guitar for many years without really reaching another level.
How important is learning to read music? I can learn new tunes by following the notation, but know nothing about reading the feel and tempo of the tune from paper. I have to hear the tune first to understand what's written.
I sometimes think, had i learnt the mathematics of music it would help me to
improve.
Any thoughts?

[Bothrops]

They are different ways of learning new tunes.
People say the traditional way is learning everything by ear.
Of course it's VERY important learning to HEAR, because without a good ear you couldn't be a good musician, IMHO.
On the other hand, when I want to learn a tune, I prefer to do it reading the sheet music because I can learn it in 2 minutes, instead of being hours trying to figure how to play it by ear. ANYWAYS, I'm like you, I can read more or less a sheet music, but I can't realize exactly the rhythm and feel of the tune. So, I use BOTH ways. I read the sheet music and I search as many recordings of that tune as I can, hear them all, and that helps me to figure not only the rhythm and feel of the tune, but also helps me to make variations.

I find both methods very helpful, as they can be complemented.

Regards,
Martin

[larrym.]

Neither of you should feel alone or left out. I took piano lessons for eight years in my youth (8 y.o. until 16 y.o.) and although I can still read sheet music fairly well after 40 years away fro that training, I need to listen to a piece being played to get the proper timing down!

______________

Larry

[Ronbo]

Good points. Your learning to hear is very important, because if you can't learn to hear, you can't really get the "feel" of the tune as it is played.

On the other hand, my ear is not too good in picking out lots of the intricate stuff, especially when it is played at speed. If I am trying to learn a new tune ( I am up to 1), I like to get the dots, and play through those to get the structure of it in my mind, then go back to learning by listening. Sometimes the music as played varies a great deal from the dots, and having the structure in front of me or in my mind helps me to hear what the player is doing. sometimes. YMMV.

[walrii]

I'm no expert but my guess is that the percentage of people who can pick up a piece of sheet music they've never heard and play it well on the the first try is about the same as the percentage of people who can hear a new tune once then play it well. That percentage is very small in both cases. The rest of us use some combination of verbal hints ("the B part starts ede"), watching others fingers as they play, reading dots/abc/tablature and listening to get it right after some number of tries.

[charlie_butterworth]

I have difficulty picking-up a tune straight from sheet music. However, I learn best from sheet music and for whistle it is very straightforward as there is only one clef and a single "voice." In fact, my tempo may be slow, but for whistle music, I a can usually play a piece first or second time around. My only difficulties come with triplets, which require a bit of practice.

Bear-in-mind that I am a beginning whistle player myself, but I would strongly advocate learning to read music as it is a great method of summarizing music (even for the whistle). BUT.... because note lengths in Irish traditional music are not rigid lengths, but have a "lilt" to them, I would strongly advocate listening. For me this idea was most strongly reinforced when I began to learn The Boys Of Ballisodare from Grey Larsen's Whistle Toolbox. One listen to his recording really emphasized the flow of the piece that wasn't anywhere near as obvious from the sheet music.

Charlie

[missy]

I, too, have 8 years of piano in my background, so can read music well.

However, if I want to really "play" a song - with feeling, with expression, and without a piece of paper in front of me - I need to work it out by ear instead. This is a completely different way than I learned piano - in fact, I had to "unlearn" first before for I could learn to play this way.

While I may not get every single note absolutely correct, I do a fairly good job of at least getting the bare bones of the song. Since I don't play sessions - but play mainly with my husband or in "jam" settings, I get along fine with this style of playing.

Oh and this holds true whether it's whistle or dulcimer.

[chrisp]

Thanks for your views,
I usually learn the piece by listening first, and then, if i get stuck on a difficult part i study the dots of that section till i get it right.
My other problem is that i do everything alone, and have never had the opportunity to play along with another instrument. Playing solo is ok but another instrument enhances everything.
I have played along with cd's and it feels great to go with the flow, supported by other instruments. I really miss sitting down and learning a piece together with someone to finally sounding good together.