Watching Popular Musicians Learn by Ear: A Hypothesis-Generating Study of Human-Recording Interactions in YouTube Videos

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.