This thread brought back lots of memories. I started out playing trombone in a grade school band and on into high school and college and learned to associate the musical notes on sheet music with the
slide positions and how much "lip" to give them. I even learned the names of some of the notes (like Bb and F and so on). A brief stint in an orchestra introduced sight reading the 'bone in Tenor clef. Later keyboard lessons required reading in both bass and treble clefs, which really twisted my mind. Nowadays, thankfully, there are tabs! Even so, I can still sight read some guitar music, but mostly I play by ear (given some chord names to start with) or by studying the tablature. Whatever way it's done, the most important thing to me is to be able to make the music. If being able to read notation, then go for it. That adds another dimension to your abilities.