Learn To Play Songs On The Piano By Ear

Sometime people ask me if it is okay to learn songs on the piano by ear instead of by reading music.
Learning music is like learning a language. Some people tends to do better learning by ear. I used to learn music by listening to what my piano teacher played. Doing this tends to help me learn a piece faster than reading initially.

No matter what approach you take, sooner or later, your will discover your own strength.

Even if you like to learn piano by ear, I do encourage you to also master the sight reading skills. I believe both skills (play by ear and sight reading) are equally important to advance the piano playing techniques.

A lopsided piano player tends to do well in one area but deficient in another area.

A good example is you can teach you child how to speak English by talking to him - eventually he will need to learn how to read book and absorb information on his own. Similarly, a good reader will need to develop his conversational skill in order to better communicate with other people.