fly by the seat of one's pants vs play by ear

fly by the seat of one's pants

verb
  • To use one's judgment, initiative, and perceptions as events unfold in order to improvise a course of action without a predetermined plan or without the desirable data inputs to decision making. 

  • To pilot an aircraft without the aid of instruments and without a flight plan, using only instinct, visual observation, and practical judgment. 

play by ear

verb
  • To do by guessing, intuition, or trial and error; to react to events as they occur; improvise 

  • To play guided by one's musical ear, rather than from a written score. 

How often have the words fly by the seat of one's pants and play by ear occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )