Why is it that so many people are impressed when someone can play music by ear? If you know nothing about music, then of course, playing a song by ear seems like magic. However, it isn't an efficient way for most people to play a song.
You would never recommend that someone hear a book and then play it back instead of reading it. If you try to compare literacy of words and books to literacy of music, it can become a frustrating endeavor. Someone looks at a word in a book and as soon as they can sound it out, it will make sense to them. When you try to look at the symbols on the grand staff, and you don't know anything, they look like gibberish, or it's all Greek to most people. I think back to when I learned how to read music, and I can't remember for the life of me when it began to make sense. I just know that one day I was all of a sudden reading notes in both hands, and playing the piano with no problem. It didn't keep me from also playing songs by ear, but it was much faster to read the notes in the end, and much more efficient as well. Also, the songs sounded better when I read all the notes for them, instead of just being able to figure out the melody to something.
So now here I am trying to teach large groups of students to play the piano and learn to read music. I want them all to become musically literate, as they are verbally literate. I tell them every day be persistent, keep at it, don't get frustrated, use perseverance, and GRIT. It takes coordination to get the piano down, as well as remembering what the symbols all mean. But if you take it slow at first, in the end you will be so happy to worked at it. You will be so happy to be able to sit down and read a song off of some sheet music, instead of finding the hand positions and notes on youtube. You will be at a different level from someone who can "play music by ear" as magic as that sounds, you will be not only performing magic, you will also be a genius. Just imagine what that could be? Don't give up!
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