The Musical Demand I Always Should Have Ignored

[MikeRobinson]

I think I was, as it were, "a fairly dutiful son."  When people told me to do something and it seemed that they actually knew what they were talking about, , I tended to [try to] do it.  And so it was when my organ teacher said:

 

"Don't Play By Ear!"

 

You see, I was always doing that, and I still do.  I could fairly-readily figure out the gist of a piece of written music was saying, but when it came time to actually play the thing, I tended to follow my ear.  Although I can read and write music fluently, and still compose most things by creating a musical score (in MuseScore, an excellent program that also happens to be "free and open-source"), I'm not a sight-reader.  I tend to discern the movement of a musical passage by the shape of the note-passage and by my familiarity with rhythms that comes from writing them myself.  And then, I let my ears be my guide, to the consternation of my long-gone music teacher.

 

Music scoring, music theory, and the technique-practice that helps to turn your ideas into "muscle memory" to drive your instrument(s) of choice – all of these things are vitally important.  But, first and foremost, music is sound, and you must listen to what you are doing.

 

By the way, i am now re-reading an excellent book by Ron Gorow:  "Hearing and Writing Music – Professional Training for Today's Musician."  (ISBN-13: 978-0-9629496-7-8)  I've been at it for about a month now ...