I have always played "by ear" , both as a "folk" guitar-player and Royal Navy marching- band percussionist ; I have always found it very easy, and find that any attempts at reading "the dots" brings on a kind of musical dyslexia ,almost to the point of nauseating disorientation , as if my brain refuses to acknowledge the correlation ! Very strange !!
                   However , my partner is ,or was , a piano teacher, so she sits down patiently at the Grand in our music-room and studiously works out what I SHOULD be playing , according to "the rules" , and then, having grasped the basics , I go my own ,free , uninhibited ,unfettered way ( which she cannot do !) ,and it works out OK in the end ! At 64 , I'm too old too learn, in any case.