Everyone can play music by ear.
Some can go farther than others with that ability, but everyone can do it to some degree.

Unfortunately, no one has ever attempted to teach serious music students to depend upon their ears as much as possible.
Eventually the ear player reaches his limit and must use notation to study music further; but this limit is much broader than is generally supposed.

Moreover, our musical horizon, our limit of comprehension, is not far beyond this point where the ear must yield to rational machinery for guidance.
Everyone can also learn to play by note. Some can go farther than others.

In any event, musical comprehension is expected to accompany this note playing.
But eventually the note player reaches his limit. [read more...]