Great guitar players practice playing by ear all of the time. In fact it is what they spend hundreds of hours doing. Most of the great guitar players have never learned how to read music theory let alone how to read music. Learning music theory can be very helpful because it's easier to find the notes and chords on your guitar. But it will not make you a better sounding guitar player.

If you want to truly become a musician rather than just another tab reader you will have to start practicing the skill of listening. Most of the practice great guitar players put into their playing was about listening to music they liked and learning to play it on guitar. Most famous guitar players never even bothered with tabs or music theory.

Guitar players in the old days did not even have guitar tab booklets or even teachers to learn from. All they had was their guitars and music to listen to. So they had to start out from scratch. They had to learn the chords on their own just by spending all day learning by ear. So if you would like to become an adept guitar player I highly recommend learning by ear. Start training your ears by listening to music and playing along as best as you can.

But actually listening to music and playing along will make you a much better sounding guitar player. The great guitar players are the ones who are a pleasure to listen to. Their music is very smoothly. They don't play like robots. They learn to play with feeling. This takes a lot of practice and dedication. But you need to understand how to practice if you want to sound smooth on guitar.

You will need to break the habit of reading guitar tabs to figure songs out. Reading tabs is more of a mechanical skill. Learning songs by ear is the more natural way to learn. Think back to when guitar players like Jimi Hendrix were around. They did not learn through tabs. They focused on listening to music and tried to feel music as best as they could. This is what it is all about.