Playing-by-Ear, Anyone Can Do It!

Have you ever been ‘wowed’ by someone who can just sit down and play any tune on the piano they have heard just once! Not only can they play the tune, but the accompaniment flows easily and sounds like the original artist’s rendition. I remember listening as a child in amazement to a neighbor who could just sit down and play any song he’d heard. He literally started playing the piece without written music or promptings. I was so envious, but believed as most that you had to be ‘born with it’ and average people like me could never acquire that skill. But eventually I discovered, from studying piano and pedagogy, that I could access that ability myself with just a few simple learned skills. This opened a whole new world for me. Even though I would never be quite at ease with this genre as my neighbor to which the skill came naturally, I could learn the techniques necessary to play-by-ear and enjoy this method myself.

A dictionary definition defines the term playing-by-ear: the ability to play a passage of music solely from hearing it. It is also the musical reference relating to the person’s ability to imitate the sound of a song without using a written score (musical notes) and the musician doesn’t necessarily have the main chords and scale structures committed to memory either. This task seems daunting at best to most traditionally trained pianists but there are great products now available to help interested students master this technique.

As a classically trained musician for most of my life, I really had never attempted this method of piano playing but had always envied those who could do it. On the flip side, my neighbor who could play-by-ear but couldn’t read a note of music was frustrated in his attempts to play intricate Bach or Classical pieces that were well within his playing abilities but stumped him due to his lack of reading musical notation. While he needed to get back to basics and learn simple musical necessities to move forward, I had the same challenge in the reverse to help me acquire a broader range of musical abilities. After applying these principles, I now had the ability to play in several different styles and genres of music.

Several online and software products are now available to help budding pianists and musicians acquire this ability. We have reviewed some of the best products in our Piano Software and Learn Piano Online reviews. In the comfort of your own home you can learn to take a melody you’ve heard and turn it into a piece of music you are proud to perform. Most methods teach you to ‘hear’ the tune and recognize intervals as you skip around the piano keys to form a line of music and then add chords with their many variations to perfect the sounds achieved by the original artists. Not only will you discover you have the ability to play-by-ear but maybe you’ll discover that ‘budding Mozart’ within yourself and create your own music!

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