Chained to the music😯
 

Do you feel sorry for people who must read the music, in order to play songs ?😢😢😢

No. I play by ear and can get a song in about one pass. However, my music-reading friend can get it right off the page. We often comment that we are both amazed the other can do it.

Absolutely not! Reading music is a valuable learned skill and whether or not musicians take the time to acquire and/or use that skill is an individual choice. To each their own. I'll bet those famous singers who have forgotten the words to the National Anthem for millions to see/hear wish they had been "Chained to the music". Have Fun making music !

I'm trying to learn to play by ears. When my right one gets tired, I use the left one.😉

My brother, who learned to read music 40+ years ago, is jealous of my ability to play a song from a chord chart ... I’m jealous of his ability to play a song (on piano) he has never heard before.

There are some of us who are very capable at both. This is one of the many false dichotomies continuously perpetrated by those who choose not to learn to read notation. Its really another "my-ignorance-is-just-as-valid-as-your-knowledge" false assertion which is one hallmark of social media.

A person who is unable to play by ear is no more pathetic than a person who is unable to read music.

Its not either you can read or you can play by ear. You can actually do both.

Well I can't do either, even after a whole life of on and off playing. I find I just need to commit to memory and that is a slow process even for a simple couple of chord sequences and a few riffs or hooks. I still can't seem to make the into for Let Her Go stick in my brain and I've tried a few times recently.

Would love to be able to read music well enough to play from it. The freedom would be amazing! I can hardly imagine how great it would be to decide to play and song and just play it rather than decide to commit time to learning it.

Part of the problem is that I'm normally playing and singing and the mental workload of reading notes, words and producing both is just too great for me.

I can do words + chords, but not well.

I have a friend who plays the piano and she can just play and sing anything straight from the page and it blows my mind. If she wants to play 50 new songs she can just buy a book and shes done. I have to buy a book and then spend a few hundred hours learning it all.


I will also add that I suspect very few people able to read and play are unable to commit to memory, they just dont need to; like the stories I have to read over and over to my kids every night, sometimes my mind is miles away on something else because I can easily read aloud without consciously mentally process it. Does this mean I'm 'chained to their books'? I guess, but better that than having to burn 100s of hours to learn them all off by heart so I can recite them from memory.

My ignorance is just as valid as your knowledge is as old as humanity. Social media does seem to amplify it. I can remember friends in the eighties who said that music reading and music theory get in the way of playing from the heart.

No. I feel more sorry for those who can't read music, so are unable to play vast swathes of great music, simply because [groan] they can't find tab for it :rolleyes:, and can't work it out by ear.

If you mean people who have to read because they are unable to learn by ear, I kind of agree, but that's more down to laziness. Anyone can learn a piece by ear if they really want to. It would obviously take some people a long time, maybe longer than they can sustain enough interest in the piece. But now we have free (or cheap) slowdown software, nobody really has any excuse for not being able to learn something themselves by ear, without relying on either notation or tab.

No I feel sorry for people who think the ability to read music is a negative thing.

So what about someone like me who cannot read music to translate directly to the notes I need to play on the fretboard but I can interpret or understand the music notation? Anytime I buy tab, I always make sure I try to get the music notation also. I would assume a lot of folks here are like me.

Playing guitar involves seeing, hearing and feeling the music, with none of these senses being more or less important than the others. The goal is to make music and enjoy doing it -- and each of us does this a different way. IMHO there is no reason to feel sorry for anyone. I learn new things about playing guitar all the time -- after 45+ years of playing.

I think the ideal is being able to play by ear well and to be able to read notation well. I certainly don't feel badly for anyone who is an accomplished sight reader. I think it's a super valuable skill.

I can read music, but it's not my strength. I am slow at it, but I can do it when I need to.

We tend to be good at the stuff we do a lot. I spent quite a few years recording top-40 songs off the radio and figuring these songs out for cover band work. So my ability to play by ear is quite good. If I had spent years learning to play guitar pieces by reading notation, I would be a whole lot better at reading music.

- Glenn

I took music classes in college and can read very well. I also can tab out songs for my students but playing by ear is more fun for me.

"If it sounds good it is good.", Duke Ellington.

What difference does it make how you get there. As long as you get there.

Sight reading music scores is a lot of fun. Are you ever sorry you can't sight read music?

I can, I can, but being free with my iq of 55 using my right and left ears is more fun.😉 And if the wind blows my sheet music away the ears are still a hearing.😂😂😂

Being able to play both by "eye" and "ear" would be ideal. I'm way better by eye than ear.

I've recently switched focus to my ears. Since music enjoyment is by ear, I'd rather be best at playing by ear. It's closer to the music, closer to improvisation and there is more raw material easily available. I think even rudimentary skill be eye is enough to give your ears what they need to take over. We'll see how it goes for me.

Hardly. Some of them are the best musicians out there.

For my part, most of what I play these days I learn by ear, which is fine for, well, most of what I play these days.

However, I can read music, too.

Learning by ear alone limits one to music which they've heard someone else play first. There is a whole world of compositions out there that can be discovered only by reading the musical notation language they were written in. It ain't on the radio.

I have books of guitar and piano music with pieces that I may have never heard of before but because I can read music, they are available to me. There's gold to be found.

I've known people who can only play what they read. I was once one, myself. I'm very glad I learned and play by ear, too...It saves a lot of money on sheet music. :)
On the other hand, there are situations where written music is passed out to be performed and the play-only-by-ear person will be lost.

Both ways are fine if it makes one happy, but each exclusively on their own can be limiting.

Who says if you're reading the music you are "chained" to it?

While there may be musicians out there who can read music but can only play what's on the page, most can read what's there and still add their own interpretation--add dynamics and embellishments like vibrato, strumming patterns, throw in a non-notated lick here and there.

I'd say musicians who can read music but are "chained" to it are very, very few in number, (or perhaps are beginners who are just learning their instrument).

Fantastic!☺😊😁