How about getting the dots to the tunes and learning them phrase by phrase. Playing each one until it's your fingers that remember them, not your mind. I ususally learn, say, four bars then four bars more then play the first eight, then four bars more and play the first twelve. You'll soon pick them up. As for playing by ear, classical musicians often find this difficult. Have you tried imagining the sounds as notes and then playing them?
There are four stages to learning something. Unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence and finally unconscious competence. You are at stage 2. If you use the dots as a prop you are moving to stage 3 and you can easily step up to stage 4. It's just like classical music, 90+% practice. Good luck and don't forget to enjoy it.
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