Sheet music or playing by ear?

The Challenge of Playing by Ear

Right now, not playing by ear was harder than I had given it credit for.

• Like, not actually having the bass line there was kind of messing with me a little bit.
• I'm thinking of the melody, but I'm thinking of the melody too much, where I just want to play the melody.

But yeah, I mean, mostly by ear.

Traditional Learning

In this sort of music, there has never been a piece of sheet music on any of the traditional pieces that I've ever seen.

• I think Joe and I both learned a lot of the traditional repertoire by ear, through oral tradition.
• I believe it would be really very difficult to learn this stuff by reading sheet music.

Reading sheet music means you're dissecting someone's arrangement rather than just listening.

The Importance of Listening

It's more effective to seek out my favorite version of a trombone playing this stuff and then instantly have that sound in my ear, rather than looking at a page of music.

• For example, playing in the style of Freddy Lonzo, circa 1986 recording.
• In that case, we would have to read a novel on a page and then find the recording, rather than just learning it from the recording.

I think this music is really meant to be listened to so that you can download those sounds and know how to make them on these instruments.