Okay, seriously: My great-grandfather couldn't read or write music so he would pick out tunes on the piano and then play them for a friend, who would write them down.

Here one here (AK Salmon's march).

Not bad for a dude who could only play by ear.

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I can read music, sort of. I was never that great and am badly out of practice, but there are good points to both. Whoever pointed out that you can't have an orchestra playing something "broadly similiar" was right. Likewise, there are times when being dot-bound really spoils the music. Neither is "better" because they serve different purposes.