What is the relationship of “playing by ear” to “rote learning?
When I was actively teaching piano, teachers often disagreed about the value of playing music “by ear.” Sight-reading was felt to be a most important skill. Anything that interfered with reading musical notation was felt to be “rote” instruction–a dead end to reading and learning music. The truth is that playing by rote is not synonymous with playing by ear. While rote learning may involve imitation of movements or sequences, before one actually understands the why of them, “playing by ear” only means that one plays music as one hears the music in the mind. Most American children can hear “The Star Spangled Banner” in their minds. One could view that knowledge as a starting point for reading a complicated version of that anthem from a musical score, if need be. Knowing the song does not automatically mean the singer will always sing the song in the same way, by rote, or never transfer the musical concepts in that song to another song. While playing by ear may be a part of rote learnin
