Playing By Ear
- by Ash ley Southam, The Piano Guy
I often have people ask me about playing a piano “by ear”. What they are referring to of course is learning
and being able to play songs just by listening to them.
When I was quite young and still learning to play the piano I remember watching someone listen to a song on
the radio and then quickly walk over to the piano and play what was on the radio. It was very impressive. I
remember thinking how amazing that was. The thing that I’ve learned since then is that if you spend time with
music, listening to it, playing it, paying attention to it, that things start to stick out. By this I mean
certain chords start to become familiar, certain melodies that then go along with those chords. Probably the
most important aspect of this is that chord progressions that start to stick out. These are the fundamental
parts to playing by ear.
One thing that happens quite often with piano is that when someone starts their piano education they are
usually taught how to read music first, then to play off sheet music. So when it comes time to play something
that isn’t written down they have great trouble. I know, this was how it was for me in the beginning.
To really learn to play music by ear you need to have at least some knowledge about chords and chord
progressions. Once you know a little more about chords (major and minor and what they sound like) you can start
learning to play by ear. The first thing to do is find a song you really like and would like to play. The
second thing is to do is make sure it’s an easy song. (You will probably find out pretty quickly how difficult
it is to play!) If there are a lot of chord changes then it might be a good idea to pick another song. The
thing about learning by ear, when you first start out, is that it will take a while and you will need to be
patient. When I first started it took me quite some time and I had to work through quite a lot of frustrating
moments but it’s much more rewarding.
Some people will be able to pick up music by ear much easier than others. This is just a fact of life. Some
people’s ears are just more tuned to music than others. Quite often though, these people are the ones who
listen to the most music.
The key is to experiment with playing along with music and give yourself time to learn to play by ear. You
will find that the more you that, the better at it you will become, and after a while it will come naturally
and you will be able to play with whatever is on the radio.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ashley Southam (The Piano Guy) is a pianist with years of experience behind him. iano is his passion, and he
is also the drive and inspiration behind Rocket Piano - the Ultimate Piano Learning Kit, and Rocket Piano
Gospel Edition. If you want to take your piano playing skills to a new level, you need the Rocket Piano Kit.
You get step by step instructions complete with audio and video lessons, and you can instant access by clicking
the link now http://www.rocketpiano.com.
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