Play By Ear
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Playing by ear
A lot of well known musicians play by ear. They cannot sight read and some of them never had a teacher in their life. In spite of that they are very good at their art. So is it really possible to play without having to sight read? Yes! It is indeed possible. Have you ever seen anybody playing in a band reading sheet music?
But if you think there is some technique which will help you to start playing immediately, you are mistaken. There is no short cut here. You will need to spend time on your instrument and you will need to know all the scales and chords. You will have to do a lot of listening exercises.
Once you know all your scales, it becomes slightly easier to play by ear. This is because most of the songs use the notes of a scale on which the song is based. By constantly trying out all the notes of the scale, it is possible to get the complete song all by yourself.
Don't skip sight reading
Even if you decide to play be ear, it is always a good idea to know the basics of sight reading. It is not at all difficult! You just have to learn to read some symbols, which basically tells you two things, which keys to play and for how long.
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