Reading Music Vs. Playing by Ear

Whistle
1

Another whistler brought up a very interesting point in an email to me, and I thought I’d throw out the question to everyone and hopefully get some good discussion about it.

Is reading music more or less important than playing by ear? I confess I’m better playing by ear than I am at reading music. However, it’s possible that reading music will make it easier to practice certain techniques and fingering combinations that a new player might not otherwise get a chance to develop. I’m still starting out, so I appreciate all comments and suggestions!

2

Hi Belcatar, I too am better in learning by ear, however I do think you get the best of both worlds if you can read music too, that’s why I’m trying to learn to read music as well, think of it, you’ve got sheet music in front of you of a tune you’ve never heard before, you look at the notes and can start playing, sure, at a very slow rate, but nonetheless it’s a start. On the other hand you’re listening to a tune you don’t know from a cd, and, of course, it’s being played pretty fast, too fast, for me anyway, to translate all the notes into my fingers.
Anyway, I made little cards to learn from, one side the note in the notation staff, on the other side the name of the note and the whistle fingering. If you like I’ll email them to you, just gotta cut them out and paste the two coresponding cards together.
Cheers, Amar.

3

Hi Belcatar,

you probably won’t get many bites on this because it’s been discussed a lot over the last three months or so; do a search on “learning by ear” and you’ll turn up loads threads.

I use sheet music, but combine it with listening A LOT because the sheet music can never convey all the nuances of Irish music, which is what most of us here play (but not all!). I’m starting to try to learn all the jigs & reels in the 110 Best Irish Tinwhistle Tunes Book & CD. Without the two parts together I would struggle (more than I am).

If I had to take in all my music through the ear, I’d still be struggling with my first tune. If I took it all in through the eye, I’d know a lot of tunes, but break the heart of every Irish music lover who heard me.

4

Belcatar, I’ll reply since I have a new twist on the subject. I’m a longtime music reader, and I’m learning by ear so I’ll have more options. Yesterday I received the book and CD of 110 of Ireland’s Best Tinwhistle Tunes, the same that Martin Milner discussed above. It’s a great collection, rated from beginner to advanced, and the CD has a guitar accompaniment to make it easier to “get” the song and hear/play it in context.

Anyhow, the transcribed version in the book wasn’t exactly like the version on the CD. Even in the beginner songs, the whistler on the CD was cutting and rolling and sliding some (the cuts seemed to be every other note, in fact). But the written music didn’t reflect any of this, so I’m glad I got the CD.

The folks here are right about Irtrad–if you want to play it, you’re gonna have to listen and develop your ear to get “that sound.” So I worked on Road to Lisdoovarna and The Boys of Bluehill with the written page, the CD, and my tape recorder. After some practice, I was getting a bit of “that sound,” i.e., the rhythm that’s inherent in playing jigs and reels etc.

So use the written music to learn the bare bones of the tune, but listen to get the rhythm and feel of the tune. I’m not a die-hard Irtrad-or-die musician, but I want to learn how to play it so I can play it if I choose. But listening to it, of course, is making me start to love it . . .

Anyhow, hope this helps.


[ This Message was edited by: cj on 2002-04-19 08:46 ]

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I agree.

I am/was a classically trained musician, so all I was able to do in the beginning was to be able to read music. That was an enormous help to me when I began to play the whistle, because I could just get the music for a tune I liked, and be able to play it. If I happened to have trouble, I’d just listen to the recording, and when I got my speed up, play along with it.

That process of learning from sheet music, to listening to how it’s played, then learning to play with the recording at top speed, has enabled me to be able to play by ear pretty well. I wasn’t just learning to play it from the sheet music, I was also hearing how, and learning to use that particular style, and to be able to recognize the sound of notes being played and associate them with the written ones on the page. Of course, this doesn’t always work, especially if the tune being played on the recording is in a different key from the one you’re learning. But you will also learn to recognize that as well.

I think they go hand in hand, and that by learning one, when you already know the other is helping you to grow musically.

6

  • is this whistle ear training?

More seriously if you use the boards search function for ‘reading music’ you’ll get a number of posts about the value of reading music and learning by ear. Generally, both have their advantages and disadvantages, so many folks use both methods.

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Nobody has mentioned what is probably the greatest reason for learning to read music. If you are a PROFICIENT music reader, that is if you read music by sight the same as you read words - not by thinking r-e-a-d space m-u-s-i-c or note-note-rest-dottednote-note - you have a great advantage in that you can play the music “up to speed” the very first time you ever see it.

Unfortunately, not every piece of Irish music has been recorded and it would cost a fortune to buy every piece of Irish music that has ever BEEN recorded, and you can buy whole books of music for less than $20.

IMHO, reading by music and learning by ear are complementary skills and you shouldn’t limit yourself to only what you can either read or hear. Granted, learning to read music with ease and speed takes practice, but if you learn a new tune by written music and apply the playing skills you have learned from listening, you are one giant leap ahead of everybody else.

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On 2002-04-19 12:15, Kendra wrote:
Nobody has mentioned what is probably the greatest reason for learning to read music. If you are a PROFICIENT music reader, that is if you read music by sight the same as you read words - not by thinking r-e-a-d space m-u-s-i-c or note-note-rest-dottednote-note - you have a great advantage in that you can play the music “up to speed” the very first time you ever see it.

With Irish Music, for me, the plan is to use the sheet music only until I have the tune in my head. Once it’s in my head, I play it (slowly) again and again and again until it’s in my fingers. That is, I can play the tune faultlessly without thinking about it. Then I can work on increasing the speed.

I have seen players who can carry on a conversation while playing, though not while playing whistle. If I can nod yes to another pint and not drop the tune, then maybe I know it well enough.

As per a previous thread, my ultimate aim is to get good enough to play in sessions, and there’s no way you can go to a session with books of music. If you just want to play for yourself at home, maybe to test out tunes to see if you like them, then the sheetmusic is a great resource.

Likewise with songs, in our class we use a book or sheet, but if I like a song, and want to take it away and sing it elsewhere, I’d have to learn the words properly.

Irish music, both songs and tunes, reach out to me in a way that the music I was reared on, mostly classical, failed to do.

I can’t sing or play from the heart if I’m reading something. I usually close my eyes when singing or playing, which makes it difficult. This also stops people pulling faces and trying to make me laugh in the middle of a moving rendition of The Parting Glass or Grace. Of course, it also blocks out the bloke offering me that pint.

9

Martin Milner: Well said! Reading sheet music is a TOOL, not a crutch. I can’t begin to make a song “mine” until I have memorized it and can play it without “thinking.” THEN I can start applying what I hear in my head to what my fingers already know. I only START with sheet music, then listening whenever possible, THEN playing by Heart.