Hi,
anyone prefer to play by ear rather than by sheet music
I learnt my scales off the Heather Clarke tuter but now I prefer to learn
my music by ear I bought I double disc called “Celtic Experience” a couple of years a go there is some brilliant chanter playing there is 11 or 12 tracks by Ronan Brown on a concert pitch rowsome to which I have learnt to play a long to and there also is some excellent Irish flute, and Low whistle playing I think that this disc should be had by all beginners anyone else heard this Disc yet? I have also learnt to play tune’s from other disc’s, or is it just my self who prefers to play by ear or is it just not “hip man”. and playing of sheet music is the only Pro way and end up as another traditional pipe player with a similar style like nearly everyone else but for a few of the old boy’s and a few modern players. 
Well I think that there is a middle situation between playing tunes only with sheet musics and playing by ear …
Yes Irish music (or traditional music in extenso) is transferred mainly by ear but as soon as you want to play with someone, it is better to work on the same tune transcription … no other to do that than the sheetmusic.
Now the playing by ear is highly important because it teach you improvisation skills … What is more exiting to improvise cleanly on a traditional tune … 
My experience is that, since I do not have a musical school background, when learning a tune i’ve got to hear it many times before trying to play it : that is playing by ear. Now when I do not understand what the player is doing I read the sheet : that is not playing by ear …
For me, again, both are really important … and especially when playing with other musicians in a band…
Cheers,
Nicolas
www.itmib.be.tf
www.bardou.be
I can read music but 99+% of the Irish music I know was gotten by ear at sessiuns, listening to recordings or from friends. When playing with experienced musicians I find it easy to agree on a setting without refering to musical notation. To my mind, it is just another step in the way to have to convert a tune to some sort of written notation first before commiting it to memory. Usually if a tune is played through two or three times I can pick it up by ear. I may have to ask someone how an unfamiliar part goes and expect them to play it for me rather than giving me ABC or written notation. Most lessons are given without notation at tionols. I always suggest that beginners try to learn aurally at sessiun or from recordings, if sessiuns are not available. It will be easier to pick up tunes if you train your ear this way, and not add the step of notation.
Ted
Hi Folks,
I’ve never been able to read sheet music although I can read the notes (not the time values). I also find that I can pick up a tune much easier by ear but I sometimes refer to sheet music if I’m stuck with a particular part. The only problem is that the person I’ve been listening to may play a slightly different version than the written version. I find that if I’m messing around on the whistle part of a tune will come to me and I won’t know where I heard it, then I have to search my CD’s looking for it. As I’m only learning the pipes the guy who’s teaching me will play the tune so I can record it. I listen to it untill I’ve got the lay of it, then get it down on the whistle before moving to the pipes. I might write down the notes at this stage, just a,b,c etc for 1st octave A,B,C etc for 2nd.
Cheers, Mac
I loooove that thistle design!!!
Irish Music has long been established as an AURAL TRADITION a few hardy souls notating it for posterity.You will also find that good Irish musicians will rarely play the same tune exactly the same twice but add a little change here or there in order to keep it alive and interesting.Notation is a guide only and I emphasise a guide.People who stick to the strict notation are missing the whole point of the music being a communion between player and listener/dancer indeed with dancing a degree of flexibility is essential.So develope your aural skills and you will be a much better Irish Musician for it.Let us not forget that the music was first and foremost DANCE Music (not session music which developed after the 1st World War nor was it intended to be some sort of arty farty Celtic fairy myth)So get out there and enjoy playing. 
Slan go foill
Liam
For myself, I’m finding it both hard and easy to learn a tune. I try to find a recording of something that catches my fancy, then listen over and over to it, until I can whistle it (by mouth, not tin whistle… I’m a great whistler)… then I try playing along with the recording, and can’t get anything right. But somehow the tune sticks with me and I start whistling by heart, and sort of transpose it to the notes of the chanter, and I start getting snippets down.
Well, after 2 months, it’s starting to get a little easier, as I get accustomed to the notes and where they are under which finger.
Usually I try to get ABCs, but if I’m not familiar with the tune, the ABCs don’t sound anywhere near what its supposed to sound like. For the beginner, I think, one has to listen to a tune and get it inside so it becomes a part of you, then you can learn to play it.
I agree about the aural tradition and i also think some stuff can’t be written down but there are places on the net one could get slagged real good for what i just typed.. 
I always just listen what’s played, get the basics in and mangle the tune till it’s my version.. 
Often putting in triplets and the such after a few minutes where i think they fit and are nice..
Hi again,
one of the reason’s I asked a bout “playing by ear” was when I played in bands when I was younger some of the sheet music we bought was incorrect e.g wrong chords and note’s and some version’s were nothing like songs we had heard on the radio and T.V. I’ve heard a lot of the same tune’s played by PRO Pipers and there version are different from one an other I know some play in different keys but the whole lay out is different of the tunes they play, I think if the truth known that a lot of piper’s end up playing tunes by ear.I know a lot of my friends have who are musicains, Anyone heard “Celtic Experience” its an excellent CD I have not heard any one’s comment yet on it.
Whatever you find easiest.
It’s very very handy to be able to pick up a tune by ear in a sesh, but if you go into a studio on session work, you don’t have time to learn a piece, then reading is also handy.
As long as you enjoy the tune. There’s no law of right n wrong.
Alan
Alan,
I’ve been in recording studio’s before usually you fine that any tunes or songs are only in basic form even on musical script and not totally finished and need rehearsing as well as input and idea’s from other musician’s to get the best version of a song or tune when I
get a new song or tune in my head now I just switch the cassette player on and record it so I’ve got it to work on later that’s the way I like to do it now even though I was taught to write it down on script at music school .