The Ear Academy has a mission to promote the playing of music by ear. However, it’s not for everyone.

Some people do respond better to a more traditional approach of learning an instrument. It’s helpful if you forget what you did in your lesson. Reading is undoubtedly a useful skill. If you’d like to be able to read, that’s fine.

Whilst many students find playing by ear incredibly liberating, roughly ¼ of students find they prefer to play by sheet music. This is the way musicians have been learning for around 300 years, so it has a place! Though it can fight the development of ear based playing, the two skills can be learned side by side.