Become a Better Musician
Sight Reading Isn't My Thing - Can I Still Take Lessons by Only Doing Ear Training and Improvisation?
Rose Park
2/21/24 • 4 min read
Mastering both sight reading and ear training is important for learning new musical pieces and collaborating with other instruments. But do you really need both sight reading and ear training for music lessons, or can you get by with just ear training? And when it comes to improvising music, which skill matters more?
Let’s find out which works best for you and learn how to improve each skill by instrument type!
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Sight reading vs Ear training - how are they different?
Sight reading is a music reading skill that allows you to briefly look at a piece of music and play it by reading without prior practice or preparation. You will look at the notes, harmonies, dynamics, rhythms and other markings and play along as you read. The advantage of sight reading is that you can learn new pieces faster and easily expand your repertoire.
Ear training develops your ability to listen to a melody or harmony and picture in your head how it would look written down, without seeing the actual sheet music. With this skill, you can then play what you heard right away on your instrument. Ear training is a significant skill to have in Jazz, Pop, and other contemporary music genres.
Which Skill Works Better for Me – Sight Reading or Ear Training?
Let’s say you are a complete beginner to piano and interested in classical music. In this scenario, we recommend you to develop sight reading first with solid music theory foundation for at least a year or two. Once you get to a skill where you can comfortably play the right and left hand without making big reading mistakes, start putting some time into learning how to do ear training or ask the instructor the good way to approach.
For musicians whose musical interests lie in contemporary genres such as Pop or Gospel, we suggest learning music theory and sight-reading first. For example, if you’re a singer aiming to learn an R&B song, focus primarily on singing with proper posture and techniques alongside basic music theory. Once you feel comfortable with singing and can read melodies on sheet music, it’s time to consider ear training. With the right voice instructor, you’ll be able to effectively learn both skills at the right stage of your musical journey.
Here’s an easy way to start ear training. First, listen to simple melodies (that you’ve already played) while focusing on their pitch, harmonies, and rhythms. Next, replicate these melodies by ear without looking at the sheet music. Then listen to the melodies again, focusing on dynamics, and play again. Finally, check the sheet music to review your performances based on what you heard.
In short, if you’re new to playing an instrument, it’s key to work on your sight-reading skills, no matter what kind of music you’re into – whether it’s classical music or country melodies. But how long should you stick with sight-reading? Well, for instruments like the guitar, you can probably move on to ear-training fairly quickly. But for more classical instruments like the piano, violin, and flute, we suggest focusing on building up your sight-reading abilities in the first couple of years with regular lessons.
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Can I still take music lessons without reading skills?
Absolutely! You can take music lessons even if reading sheet music isn’t your thing! Your music instructor should be able to get to know your skills and give you music theory basics, simple music to start out, and exercises that work for your age, goal, and level.
Lessons will focus on practical techniques versus reading right away. With the right instruction tailored to your needs and some patience as you progress step-by-step, you can build an awesome musical foundation to eventually set you up for success with sight reading and ear training. Just remember, developing only one skill is not ideal – building both your sight reading and ear training skills are essential for becoming a well-rounded musician and will allow you to learn music much faster.
What’s the best way to improve sight reading and ear training?
Read unfamiliar pieces
Read new and completely unfamiliar music to improve your sight reading. Don’t use songs you already know. The goal is to train yourself to instantly recognize notation and translate it into sound. Set a 5-10 minute timer and read through as much new music as possible without stopping. Maintain a steady tempo, even with mistakes. Start simple and increase difficulty as you get used to it. Look ahead to upcoming patterns, and read different clefs and keys sometimes.
Review your sight-reading session
Take a moment to review your sight-reading session. After you’re done practicing, ask yourself a couple of questions to reflect on how you did.
- Did I keep the tempo steady throughout the music?
- Did I misread any notes or rhythms?
- Was I feeling hesitant in the middle of a measure or a phrase? Where did I feel hesitant?
- Did I stop anywhere? Why did I stop?
- How well did I play in the challenging sections?
- What can I do better next time? How can I improve the problems and minimize the similar mistakes?
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Recognize Intervals
Recognizing intervals is very important for training your ears as a beginner. An interval is the difference between two pitches. For instance, the middle C on piano up to the G is a 5th interval. Start with easy intervals like octaves and fifths, Sing or hum them, then try matching the pitch on your instrument.
If you’re a complete beginner, stick to larger intervals first before trying smaller and trickier ones like thirds and seconds. The key is focusing on one interval at a time and understanding it before moving to the next.
Choose a short, easy song you enjoy
Which skill matters more for improvisation?
Having a good sense of both sight reading and ear training is important for growing musically. But when it comes to improvisation, focusing on ear training skill might be extra helpful. When you are improvising, your ear is your guide, not your eyes. Reading notation is important, but relying on your listening skills lets you play more freely without being worried about musical structure and conventional harmonies.
Through ear training, you learn to visualize melodies and phrases instead of thinking note-by-note. It will also help you choose notes, chords and rhythms by how they sound together, not how they look on sheet music. In short, ear training builds the musical intuition and reactive listening that makes improvising feel natural, spontaneous and expressive.
Frequently Asked Questions by Instrument Type
Q. I want to be able to play piano at church but I don't sight read. What should I do?
Start with training your ear since sight-reading can be hard without a solid foundation in music theory. Try to learn some worship songs you’ll actually use by listening and repeating small sections until you get the melody and chords. The more you do that, the better your ears will get at picking up intervals and changes. Also learn the common chord progressions in gospel music by ear so you recognize the sounds. As you practice separating the melody and chords, you’ll be able to blend together new chords.
Also, focus on developing your music reading skills through basic theory books to become more comfortable with notation. Investing in your ear training now will make learning music for church much easier and extend beyond church music. Just be patient and take it step-by-step as your ears and hands work together.
Q. Do I need to be able to read music to take singing lessons?
While you don’t need to read music perfectly to start voice lessons, working on skills like sight-reading will make your progress faster and more enjoyable. Think of reading music as unlocking your full potential as a singer.
Reading sheet music will let you learn proper rhythm, pitch accuracy, phrasing and expression. Start with very simple melodies and focus on matching pitch. Your teacher can suggest exercises for step-by-step reading improvement. Also spend some time on ear training by singing back melodic phrases. With patience and regular practice, you’ll be sight-reading and learning by ear in no time.
Q. I don't read music — is that okay for guitar?
Reading music isn’t necessary for guitar, but taking the time to develop ear training by listening to chords and trying to mimic them can speed up your learning process. To train your ears, try listening to guitar licks, riffs, and solos and mimicking them on your instrument. The more you transcribe by ear and pick up those musical patterns, chords, and melodies under your fingers, the better your ear training skill will become. Through this exercise, you’ll start internalizing the sounds and “licks” you learn by ear. Your fretboard knowledge and technique will improve as you translate what you hear into actual playing.
Sight reading is still helpful too – start with easy riffs and find the notes on your fingerboard. There are great beginner books and drills that make reading music very approachable on guitar. Be patient and keep practicing sight reading consistently with 1-on-1 guidance from guitar teachers. Training your ears opens up so many playing possibilities, and improving sight reading deepens your guitar understanding even more.
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Rose Park
Rose Park is a graduate of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University where she studied Piano Performance and Arts Administration, receiving both Bachelor's and Master's degrees before co-founding Lesson With You. As a pianist, Rose was a prizewinner in many international piano competitions and performed at various summer programs and festivals across the United States, Italy, and Japan.