All I'll say is that some musicians can bridge the difference between the two approaches and some can't, and there's a lot of ignorant prejudice on both sides (and snobbery/inverted snobbery).

Oh, and next time some classical snob starts telling you you're not playing "real" music . . just get them to try to notate your favorite folk track . . they'll soon discover there's more to it than they thought!

[I don't play; my wife's a classical trained musician who's also been playing folk for 30 years, and runs "playing by ear" workshops for those who can only play from the dots. Both our kids have grown up following both approaches in parallel. And there are enormous numbers of outstanding Folk performers with a fairly high level of classical training. On the other hand I can think of one attempt by "folk" performers to "do" art music which is unlistenably bad . . probably the worst CD I've ever heard.]

Good luck in all you do . .

G.