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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