I have been avoiding this thread like the plague....My credentials are simple: I am a (so far) lifetime working musician - as in, its my job
First and foremost is understanding what the OP is asking -- The thread title is decieving because Post 1 is really asking about the differences between reading music (the "schooled" musician) and playing by ear (the "street" musician)...It is NOT about self-taught vs taught.....I can both play by ear AND read music
AND I know music theory out the wazoo
BUT I am all self-taught. Get it?
One of the biggest differences is the approach of each discipline....Players who learned by reading usually approach music
LINEAR, as in they are taught to follow the sheet in front of them from start to finish. They tend to be more accurate as sheet players follow a defined score and have the added advantage of all playing with each other accurately with minimal (or no) rehearsal if all competent readers following the same score....but, as musicians, they learned music and how to play their instruments with a LINEAR mindset
Conversely, Ear players tend to learn music
MODULAR, as in they learn the sections as individual parts (intro, verse, bridge,chorus,etc) and assemble the music to their liking, sometimes exactly like the original but often not as to suit their own needs. Because ears can vary from person to person, they have a higher susceptibility to play inaccurate but they have advantages that pro veteran players learn over time, such as telegraphing chord changes (feeling where the next chord is by how the music sounds) and being able to improv or change impromptu...They learn to play with other players by body language, eye contact, and basic "heads-up ball". To take that one-step further, players that can NOT read BUT know music theory have the Nashville Numbering System at their disposal, which allow ear players to follow quick charts like readers using the Major Scale as a "road map" (Ionian, although I have had charts where "7" is the flatted 7 a la Mixolydian is used) to improv parts together quickly and efficiently like readers... It is also possible to follow many Real Book-style charts knowing theory alone
Here is where it gets screwy: Ear players cant play in a pit orchestra for the reasons stated above: a specific score is written for whatever is going on stage and must be performed with accuracy. This is why sheet music players get some of the better paying gigs - gigs like Disney have a pre-requisite to be able to sight read
But where many readers fall apart on is the ability to jam - to be able to deliver the correct feel into a situation with no music in front of them -- I have seen some incredible sheet players fall apart like a Dollar Store toy at a Blues Jam -- and cant even get through a simple I - IV - V blues shuffle
...but the biggest issue is mainly the LINEAR vs MODULAR way of thinking. A case in point happened during Christmas 2013 when the showband I was playing in was doing a very well paying Corporate Christmas party, and hired on a horn section that we normally do not use....We were playing "Shining Star" by Earth, Wind, and Fire and the guitarist, who was singing the song, saw that we had a full dancefloor so he gave the international sign to keep it going (finger whirling in the air). The guitarist, keyboard player, myself (bass), and drummer all took the cue (eye-contact mentioned above) and went back to the verse. However, the horn players, following their sheet music and completely oblivious to the fact that we went back to the verse, just kept reading their sheet music, and drove straight (LINEAR, remember?) off the cliff, doing all the outro parts without paying attention to the guitarist - or hearing the rest of the band for that matter - go back to the first verse
The moral of this story is the answer: do BOTH or at least have a good working knowlege of both-- thats how I have worked for so long. Many of the names thrown around in this thread in previous posts to support someone's argument are guys that can do BOTH. If you are a reader, take the sheet music away and go to a blues jam. Talk to working musicians that play by ear and understand their philosophies and trade secrets. If you are an ear player, teach yourself how to read a little but at the very least- and I cant stress this enough: LEARN MUSIC THEORY and Chord Construction - Not only will you discover an amazing bag of new chops and your old ones will make better sense, but you will also be able to follow Nashville Numbers and many Real Book-style charts
Elvis Presley sometimes never did a song live the same way twice -- same for James Brown, Tom Jones, SRV, and many many others....You, as a musician had to be able to know the parts of a song, be able to execute them with precision (LINEAR), but also be able to be flexible enough to anticipate any impromptu changes by Elvis or James Brown or whoever if they feel the moment to take it somewhere else (MODULAR)
hope this helps