Watching Popular Musicians Learn by Ear: A Hypothesis-Generating Study of Human-Recording Interactions in YouTube Videos
Christopher Liscio, Daniel G. Brown
TL;DR
The paper tackles how popular musicians learn by ear and assesses the role of technology by analyzing 18 YouTube videos of real-world ear-learning attempts. It adopts a hypothesis-generating, qualitative approach, leveraging publicly available video data to infer learning strategies and potential design opportunities for human-recording interactions. The study identifies six forward-looking hypotheses, including the importance of learning scope, the limited value of transcription, the infrequent use of purpose-built tools by experienced ear-learners, and the influence of memory, familiarity, and theory on learning efficiency. This work lays groundwork for future controlled studies and tool development aimed at supporting by-ear learning in practical settings, with implications for instrument interfaces, playback controls, and educational technology.
Abstract
Popular musicians often learn music by ear. It is unclear what role technology plays for those with experience at this task. In search of opportunities for the development of novel human-recording interactions, we analyze 18 YouTube videos depicting real-world examples of by-ear learning, and discuss why, during this preliminary phase of research, online videos are appropriate data. From our observations we generate hypotheses that can inform future work. For example, a musician's scope of learning may influence what technological interactions would help them, they could benefit from tools that accommodate their working memory, and transcription does not appear to play a key role in ear learning. Based on these findings, we pose a number of research questions, and discuss their methodological considerations to guide future study.