Q: when learning songs by ear, do you (or "did you use to" if you don't do it anymore) transcribe stuff on paper before learning it or just go straight to the singing/playing/recording? or something else?
A: in most cases, hearing it is learning it. for me it's like hearing a sentence. If it is long and has a lot of unusual twists and turns, that would require writing it down. think of that like a long paragraph