"the ability to read music and to learn or play by ear are complementary"

Tatie, that is so true. I swing both ways. There are 225 tunes on my list of songs for dulcimer, and they are all by ear. When my friends come over, we use dots & sticks, which are projected on the wall of the living room. Without the music, we would never get anything played.

People act like reading music is such a big deal. I have a friend, a former school music teacher, who says she can teach an adult to read music in two hours. That's less than the time it takes to watch a football game.

One thing nobody's mentioned is that being able to read a line of music greatly saves time for everybody. I once made music with a guy who insisted that everybody learn new tunes by ear, from him. It wasted so much session time! Soon my fellow players urged me to sneak behind his back and print the music, so I did.