Originally Posted by
dhergert
Worth mentioning though, there's definately a place for "eye trained" people in music. I have a brother who plays violin with symphonies, and while there may be people present there who can coincidentally also play by ear, you won't find anyone in a symphony doing so. Charts and written music are all that is played in that environment, with no improv, perhaps with the very subtle exception of the conductor and/or the concert master. This is an environment that requires exact reproduction of the written page.
My brother and I sit down together sometimes to try to play music together. I can follow along and provide harmonic backup for the music he plays, but because he doesn't play by ear or do improv at all, he can't play along with songs I play. And similarly, because I can't site-read written music and because I'm all by ear and improv, I can't play my brother's pieces exactly, and for that matter, I can't play a song of my own exactly the same way that I played it a few minutes ago.
These are completely different musical cultures. And, there's a place for each of them. Some people can only do music "by eye" and some people can only do music "by ear"...
And some people can do both well... For example, our band's fiddler is one of these people, she's an accomplished classically trained violinist, but her instructors always also stressed ear training. She loves bluegrass and plays it wonderfully and tastefully by ear, but she also can site read and plays classical music beautifully; and she also plays piano as well as fiddle and she sings, and can get along on rhythm guitar very nicely. I'm humbled and honored to be able to play with her. Clearly, the only reason we can play together is that she is equally talented with playing by ear and improv.