Why learn songs by ear?

by Sarah - 23:10 on 08 July 2010

 A number of choir members ask if they can have the music, or want to know why i don't normally give out sheet music at choir sessions.  There are a number of reasons, for example: a lot of people don't read music and are put off by the thought of sight-reading, using music means a lot more photocopying, and also if the original music is copyright, then there are legal issues involved in copying.  But the main reason is that once you have learned a song "by ear" it is in your memory and you can sing it anywhere, any time, without having to have your music in front of you.

A lot of the songs we learn come from an oral tradition and would have originally been passed from one person to another by the time honoured method of listening and repeating until the song was fixed in the memory. We are rapidly losing those skills, and it is a good idea to try to recapture them where we can.  Good for the memory, good for the brain, and good for singing too - people tend to sound much better when they don't have their noses buried in a piece of music.   

So, you will very occasionally get "the dots" but not often.  Learning by ear feels slower, but like anything, it gets easier as you get used to it!

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