Reading Vs Listening to Learn Piano

I'm pretty sure Stevie Wonder can read music (braille) and even B.B. King has a music degree, something he does not like to advertise. Sight reading/playing and being able to read are two very different things (and sight reading itself is a subjective term) and depending where you want to end up is how important reading will be. Developing a good ear (and techincal skills) is most important as being able to hear whats going on with the musicians your playing with (or playing along to) is what what it's about especially if you are looking at going down the jazz path but either way you need to have an idea of what you are doing. This leads to theory, if you really want to progress you must have an idea of what it is you are doing and learning to read is not really neccessary in learning your theory but it helps...ie: being able to read the notes of a scale you wish to play.

The adavantages of beig able to read are that the more songs you learn the harder (impossible for me) it is to remember the chord progressions or structures so at least learning to recognize the chords you are playing is essential for following charts. Another useful tool of being able to read is that you can look at sheet music (and hear it if your good enough) and study what the person is doing...what I mean is if you are interested in what Charlie Parker does you can see on paper what it is he is doing rather than trying to work it out while it flys by you when you are listening. Getting to a basic level of reading is not as difficult as most people think it is. I have had excellent success with teaching students to read by seperating the elements, starting with rythm first (clapping out patterns to a metranome) and waiting till they grasp that then introducing notes.
Hope this helps.

Thanks Rockethouse to point out my view in better words. Otherwise this topic would be getting too much on the light side - to say it in a nice way.

Learning to read vs learning to read/playing piano: while there probably is some part of the brain hardwired for music in some sense, for sure the brain is hardwired for language. You learn to read because you already know the language and its rules of grammar, the basis of which are innate. Think of how many people know a language vs how many people can read vs how many people can play an instrument (percentages). Big difference. But, go for the music! Just don't underestimate the effort that will be involved. Good luck

I guess you can learn both ways. But if tou want to save some time, learn to read. Having studied violin (and piano) at the conservatory for 10 years, I can assure you that knowing how to read is a must. With time, you'll pick up new pieces very fast, and once you're familiar with the text, you'll be able to concentrate on making music and forget the partition. You must not forget that playing a musical instrument involves technical skills that take up a great part of your concentration. You can't do everything at the same time: try to place your fingers at the right place, keep the dynamics right and ask yourself if you're playing the right notes. Knowing how to read will give you the advantage of beeing able to learn a piece a lot faster. It also gives you a visual reference witch to my opinion is a lot easier to memorize than sounds in relation to one another. Try to find a teacher who is willing to give you some ear training. You won't regret it.

Good luck