I had the same question. My instructor is adament that you (we) learn the sound of each cord because you will use that sound hundreds of times in other songs. He said that (yes, most of the big bands did learn to play by ear), some people depend on tabs and have never trained their ear to what the chords are supposed to sound like so they can't play without tabs :eek: Tabs are good for us beginners because we have to know those too but focus on memorizing what each chord sounds like so that you don't have to depend on tabs. I'm still training my ear on the chords too.