The saying... play it by_______?

Question

I always thought it was YEAR but apparently, It's not. So for once and for all what is it?

Answer 1

its EAR..... the expression comes from playing a song on a musical instrument by just listening to it.. not with sheet music...

Answer 2

Play it by the book.. was the first thing that came to my mind.

Answer 3

Ear

Answer 4

It's "ear".  Comes from some people can play a tune after just listening to it and don't need sheet music - that's called playing by ear.

It generalizes too - someone might say, well, where are we going to stay when we get there? and someone else might reply, I don't know, we'll play it by ear - meaning we'll figure it out as we go.

Don't feel you're the only one to miss an expression like that - I think I was twelve when I discovered that we weren't called Humand Beans.