I blame my early music education. It was reading only and Classically oriented. My ear training was terrible well into College. I now use my IPAD for Lead sheets. I've learned to improvise on my own but just don't have that photograpic memory some musicians have.
I did some research a while back for the manager of a music store who didn't believe some of the top entertainers use monitors. Imagine doing the same songs your famous fo at endless shows and still needing a helper "just in case" Makes me feel OK as I don't do the same songs over and over .

+1
Thanks, Bill ...

+2 Bill and Tony, I’m from that school too.

Well,
I guess I'm not alone...back when I had my Yamaha HS-8T organ...friends would come over and I could play many songs by heart....not looking at the music...but then I had a lot better memory! Now seems like I have to use the music to learn a song, then IF I play it often, well OK, but after a chunk of time....got to go back to the music...

And Rikki, sure glad to see your posting on my topic...

I don't take a sheet with me. If I don't know it well enough by memory, I skip until I memorize it in practice. This simplifies my load, big time. My biggest compliment is how I remember 'all that'.

I have the Android and all that, but keep it for practice. I can usually figure stuff out and read fairly well to speed up the process. LOVE jazz fake books and learned chords as an organist (as was my Dad) a long time ago. Never knew how valuable it would be as an arranger player.

Life is good.....

Hi Lee, been a while , what are you playing nowadays.

Stumbled across some old posts from 10 years ago, amazing how many of us are still here.

All of my vocals I had typed out with the chords on top of the lyrics. Can't remember all the lyrics as I started doing vocals late in life.

I always studied the chords to everything I played for the most part and the ones I didn't know I'd have the pianist or guitar play whisper them in my ear as we played the gig and I could get by with most tunes playing melodies and improvising with the Sax.

If you aren't able to listen to a tune and hum it, forget about playing by ear. If you can't do this then you are tone deaf.
You must have an ear.

I’ve got lyrics for all songs on my keyboard monitor. For some reason, I can remember the melody once I see the words.

I usually forget intros and first lines but once going it comes back. I've played by ear for as long as I can remember. I'm also classically trained so I can read as well although I'm not that good.

I think I learn tunes in terms of intervals and chord "shapes" because it I know a tune sufficiently to have a go at playing it at all then I can play it in any required key. Strangely can't do this with classical stuff that I've memorized.

You can train your ears. Until my early 20's I had real trouble decoding jazzier chords especially where the bass bears little relation to the rest of the notes like 9ths, 11th and such. This changed after I got an Elton John songbook. As he uses a selection of such chords I found that playing songs from the music enabled me to "hear" the chords. Admittedly we are not talking Oscar Petersen.....

What this also taught me was that a lot of pop sheet music, and indeed chords you find on the web, are wrong. Not necessarily by a lot,but wrong nevertgheless. This includes that Elton John book, by the way. That must have been someone's transcription of the songs as Sir EJ doesn't read music.

I was a slave to the fakebook for many years until I read that one must trust their ears and, also, trust your brain to develop finger memory. I am fortunate to have a good ear, and can easily remember each note in most songs I have heard. My problem, of coarse, was to translate it from my brain to the keyboard. Hearing intervals accurately was my first step, followed by learning some theory and the circle of fifths. In simple terms, if you know the intervals and the scales, you are on your way to playing the melody. The rest will help with chord progressions.

I know this is a very simple approach from a simple, self taught man, but it's a start. The biggest hurdle for me is psychological; I want to hang on to my security blanket(sheet music).