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Anyone play an instrument by ear rather than reading music?

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nymph_in_yellow
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29 Nov 2011, 2:00 pm

auntblabby wrote:
i've always been crap at sight-reading. i can nominally read music but not in real time- i have to study it just like an actor studies a script, to be recited later by rote. i'm fair at imitating other musician's licks by ear.


what a nice way of describing it!
I'm just like that myself.


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Burnbridge
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29 Nov 2011, 2:07 pm

I used to be able to sight read in choir as a kid.

Then I unlearned that skill by accident once on LSD.

I've been playing instruments now since '93. All by ear, never took a lesson. I've been in a lot of bands and never had trouble recognizing the scales people were playing in and writing parts to them, even though I didn't have the words for it. I taught myself guitar, bass, drums and analog synthesizers this way, and written my own parts for more than 80 songs, no problems.

I just learned what the note names and some of the chord names were last year, because I wanted to learn some silly old country ballads so I could busk on the street and make a little money when travelling. So I can now play 3 cover songs, yay!


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