The difference between A Player & A Musician

A player is someone who needs instructions to play. A perfect example will be a typical traditional pianist who needs pre-arranged score sheets in order to play. Typical Classical Piano players may realize that they are unable to play by ear.

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A musician is different, he is someone who has a creative mind, is able to create his own tunes and play it in any style he prefers. A person capable of such improvisation is also regarded as a musician.

Play by ear is a term to describe any person who is able to listen to any song and play it out on the piano (or any instrument) with improvisation, without the need for musical notation for both hands. Playing by ear can also mean improvising a piece of music from lead sheets, chord charts or fake sheets. This is because improvisation was never or rarely taught in Classical training, which is why most classical pianists find it difficult to play anything off their heads. JPS teach their students to play by ear.