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i tend to play by ear but it's more of a bad habit with limited usefulness than anything else, there's no real reason to romanticize it. simply spend enough tim
by odessacubbage 8y ago
i tend to play by ear but it's more of a bad habit with limited usefulness than anything else, there's no real reason to romanticize it. simply spend enough time with any instrument and producing the right sounds will become intuitive.
>I want to know what it feels like to be able to play an instrument without needing so much trial and error.
then i highly suggest you focus on learning music theory rather than trying to look cool. gaining an understanding of musical structure will help you gain that intuition faster than anything else. you'll still be playing by ear, you just wont be playing in the dark
- osrec 8y agoThanks. Where do you suggest I start? Are there any beginner books or YouTube videos you can suggest?
- jlarocco 8y agoThere are lectures from one of Yale's Music Theory classes on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9LXrs9vCXK56qtyK4qcqwHrbf0em_81r https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9LXrs9vCXK56qtyK4qcq... There's a Kindle version of the textbook on Amazon.
- anentropic 8y agoplaying by ear is not just a trick to impress those who have to read the part to learn it, it's closely related to improvisation in any genre which involves improvising with other musicians, it is hard to do that if you can't follow by ear what they are doing all the music theory knowledge in the world won't help you in that situation if you can't hear what the other players are playing