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Learning music by ear is done by repeatedly listening to other musicians and then attempting to recreate what one hears. This is how people learn music in any musical tradition in which there is no complete musical notation. Many people in cultures which do have notation still learn by ear, and ear training, often through a musicianship course at a music conservatory or college, is common practice among those who use notation extensively.
In the West learning by ear is associated with traditional and folk music, but many classical music forms throughout the world lack notation, and have therefore been passed from generation to generation by ear.
The Suzuki method of teaching music focuses on playing by ear from a very young age. In his book "Teaching from the Balance Point," Edward Kreitman, a US based Suzuki Teacher, clearly distinguishes "learning by ear" as a separate, completely different process from "learning by rote".
It is important to note that learning music by ear is quite different from playing music by ear: playing music by ear is a rare talent which few people possess, to listen to a musical work once and play it in its entirety, correctly.
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Rick Says:
22 November, 2006 at 9:30 am
I must politely disagree with the last statement about playing music by ear, at least as it is presented here.
Playing music by ear uses the same skillset used with learning music by ear. They both require the ability to identify pitches by ear (without music) and they both require the ability to play those pitches back on an instrument. So, just as one can develop the ability to "learn by ear", one can also develop the ability to "play by ear". Also, the example of being able to hear a "musical work" once and then be able to play it back perfectly is something that many people can learn to do with ear training. It just depends upon your definition of a musical work. If you're talking about hearing a 3-minute classical piece and playing that back by ear... well very few people can do that (just like there are few people that can listen to a 3-minute speech and repeat it back perfectly). But, many people can develop the ability to play short phrases back instantly by ear.
There's an ear training tool on the following page, for example, that generates random melodies that you can listen to and then repeat on your instrument:
www.iwasdoingallright.com/tools/ear_training/