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Sight reading CAN be taught and learned. It's a skill like anything else
.I agree whole heartedly. I just think those who dont have the musical memory and strong sense of tonality progress faster with sight reading because they dont rely on their ears and memory as much.
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those who have bad ears, in my experience, are also bad sight readers.
That's where my observations have been different. I knew a girl in college that could sight read anything you put in front of her on the piano. I don't care how complex it was rhythmically, some of the stuff was orchestra transcriptions that were ridiculously difficult to play on piano, and she could read it to perfection, dynamics, you name it. But she couldn't play the melody to "Three Blind Mice" without the music in front of her. I can also recall several good pianists who were in my college music theory class. They could sight read well on the piano, but couldn't sight sing basic melodies to save their lives. It's not just a key-pressing instrument versus brass thing because there were also some piano players who had good ears.

I know a few trumpet players who can read fly sh!t at 20 ft. but if you ask them to play "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" in the key of whatever without the music, they're lost, and thats a simple tune. Ask them to play by ear something with tougher intervals in the melody, like The Shadow of Your Smile, or The Windmills of Your Mind and your in for a REAL train wreck.