Taqsim instruction videos online

Hi Marc,
I don't know if it can be any use, but recently I stumbled upon a wonderful site which is very informative http://www.maqamlessons.com/
I personally think that learning by ear is the best way. After tons of practice, it makes you able to understand (and play) a phrase immediately, in any situation, with every musician, in any outfit, from the orchestra to the small ensemble. Sightreading tends to make its practitioners aurally lazy. It doesn't make you listen to the music, but rely on another medium which doesn't involve the mechanism listen-process-play. This statement can be confirmed by any Western classically-trained musician. They all wish they could improvise on the spot or, listening to a particularly complicated phrase, being able to play it immediately.
Up until very recently, the oral tradition was the norm in the Arabic world, the master-disciple rapport which included also much more than music itself, it included the human element. Of course, we Westerners had to go and spoil it for all, and now even in the Arabic world sightreading is a pre-requisite of the professional musician. Why they adopted it, it beggars belief, as their method is two billion times better than ours.
Sorry, I used your post to pick a particular bone of mine about a bee I had in my bonnet for a long time.....
But I just wanted to make a point that you're pursuing the right avenue, playing by ear. This is the way it should be done, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, I hope you'll find the link as useful as I'm finding it. It has pre-recorded phrases with the violin (the guy who makes the site is a violinist), kind of call-response so that you can repeat it....and for the sightreaders, notes too!!!
Hope it helps