I could never overstate the importance of a musician's need to develop his or her ear. Actually, I believe that developing a good 'inner ear' - the art of being able to decipher musical components solely through listening - is the most important element in becoming a good musician.
I learn my songs by ear.
Learning to play is mostly about learning to hear, and learning to really listen deeply to sound in a musical way is a lifetime's worth of work.
The ear has to be educated if one wishes to appreciate musical sounds, just as the eyes must learn to distinguish the value of words.
I was trained completely by ear. And it was actually diving into the Bach that led me to get - there was like a Mel Bay "Teach Yourself How To Sight Read..."
I did classical singing at school. I did exams in that. I'd sing soprano, and we'd sing in German; we'd do Schubert for my pieces, in Latin, French... I really enjoyed that. I kind of miss it.
You probably think of the orchestra as a heterogeneous mass of instruments producing a confused agreeable mass of sound. You do not listen for details because you have never trained your ears to listen to details.
I can't read a note of music. I just do it all from ear.
I listen to archival and historic recordings. I love watching singers. I learned a lot from watching videos.
I think one of the things which always is forgotten in music class, is the first thing you have to do as a musician is you have to learn how to listen.
You have to train your mind and your ears, but they're more like athletic skills. So, part of music you just have to learn those things or you can't practice the art.
