Just having returned from a week as a staff member at a folk music camp in Maine, this is timely. Anne Dodson and I taught "Folk Chorus" for the week, and we used a mixture of teaching songs by ear and handing out written music. The participants were of varying abilities: some classically trained, many who could read, and some who didn't know a B flat from an A sharp.

Everyone learned each piece equally well, regardless of the method. However, it took a lot less time to teach a song with the notes written down. Even those who weren't readers of music could more quickly get a sense of where the musical lines were going with the score in front of them.

Our main goals were to help people learn to sing harmonies by ear AND have fun singing choral pieces. For the latter, a score made things go much quicker. For the former, we used only ears and voices.

For me as a performer, having both skills is invaluable. I can jam and learn tunes with my ears, and I can bring deserving songs that have never been recorded into the light of day via my eyes: it's a wonderful feeling to find an old forgotten piece of music and breathe life into it by learning to play it.

Learn to do both: it's more fun!

JB