I taught theory and ear training at a few colleges over the span of about a decade. I can’t tell you the number of times I had students completely at square one when it came to their aural skills. These were fantastic musicians already, performing their own interpretations of classic works at an admirable level, but when it came time to remove the instrument from their hands and the notation from in front of them, they froze.

Developing the ears’ connection to other focal points of music making is a lifelong process. One of the best ways to enrich those connections and speed up development is to remove the page from in front of students. Improvising in music is corollary to conversational skills in a language, where we can’t always read from a script in our day to day conversations so we have to rely on our abilities to process the content and context presented to us as quickly and fluently as possible. By learning how to play it by ear, students are fully immersed in the communication that underlies the process of music making. Spur of the moment creativity enhances every aspect of the holistic musician.

- Chris Jones