Why Play By Ear?

Playing by Ear is a skill that takes you to a NEW level of playing piano.

If you are searching for a path to break-through in your piano playing, you must venture into the path of 'playing by ear'.

When you play by ear, you have the enjoyment of playing music that inspires you and your listeners. Your playing becomes musical.  Why?  You play from your HEART.

Notice the word 'hEARt' has the word EAR inside.

When you play by EAR, your heart is totally involved in your playing.
And when your  heart is involved in your playing, the following will take place:

• Your music has a depth of quality that comes across strikingly powerful to the listeners.

• You create quality music that is interesting and compelling because you are totally involved in the music. 

• You have a special ability to play music in the style that is uniquely yours. It has your signature in it. When you play by ear, you can never play a song in the same way.

Playing by Sheet Music vs Playing By Ear

If you play a song by reading it, you can play the song only one way, in the style of the person who arranged it. This is what happens when you play according to score. You just follow the music right in front of you.  Playing by Sheet Music is very similar to reading a book.  When  you read a book, you read word for word from the pages.  You might add a bit of expressions but you don't change the words at all.  The communication is fixed. You follow the style of the author in the way he expresses himself.

To play by ear is not a fixed communication at all. You can turn a song into many different styles because you are not following any fixed note to note playing.  You can play the same song in different ways.  

First, like all musicians, you acquire a style that is uniquely yours.  From that basic foundation where you feel most comfortable, you begin to try different patterns and different way to play a song.  The more you do this, the more you acquire spontaneity and versatility to make beautiful variations in one single song.

This is the art of making music.
You play songs with creative freedom from your heart, not by sight or by memory.



How do you become your favorite musician?

Learn to play by ear. Learn to use your ears to play songs, to play the music you hear.  Let your heart and emotions come into play. This is how you become the best musician.

Playing piano after all is an art. When you whole being is involved, the artistic side will come out to the forefront to bring the best out of your playing.  You cannot help but become drawn to your own musicianship.  When you enjoy playing what you play with your utmost, your audience is also drawn into your music world!

Today, You can Play By Ear! Not Tomorrow

Do you believe you can easily play a song by ear after reading this article?

Is this only for the talented?  No.
This is for everyone who is willing to give it a try.

After this article, I want you to go to the piano and find success in playing 5 songs by EAR.  That's how EASY it is.  Nothing difficult at all. You don't need to wait for years before you can play by EAR. You can start TODAY with some success on this path to play by ear.


Most people have a misconception of what 'playing by ear' means so they never give themselves a chance to try thinking that it is only for the gifted person.  They've lost their first opportunity to try because of not understanding what 'playing by ear' means. Find out more here about Playing By Ear.

Correct Understanding of what PLAY BY EAR is:

 
1.  A person who plays by ear is someone who plays songs they already know, and he relies heavily on listening to chords and chord progressions to play his music. 

2.  A person who plays by ear can also be someone who is able to instantly play back any songs they hear from listening to a CD or radio without the need of music notations. We say this person has good ears as he can reproduce the melody that he hears without written music.


To learn to PLAY BY EAR,  you  need to start with Definition #1.

You need to acquire the basic skills to start playing songs that we already know.

As your ability to play by ear develops, you will grow to the point where you are able to instantly play what you hear from a music recording.


Today, you are going to pick out melody of a song by ear at the piano.

This is a fascinating process when you are able to play songs that you know at the piano without the need to look at sheet music.

There is a very easy path to follow if you want to play songs by ear.

It is not difficult at all.
It is not a path that is reserved for the gifted or for the musicians.


Understand the following 5 BIG TIPS to gain your first success to play a song by EAR today:

1.  Pick the melody of a song using only the white keys at the piano. This is a good start.

2.  Don't start your song with the black keys.

3.  Find Middle C on the piano and start from there.

4.  You need to know that not all songs begin with middle C.  I will give you a song list with songs that begin with middle C to gain success.

5.  Sing as you pick out the melody.

6.  Keep going until you get to the end of the song.


Step By Step to Play by Ear: Try Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

1.  Start the song with Middle C. Yes.

2.  Sing the song and try to match the white keys to the tones that you hear.

3.  As you hear the pitch going higher, you move your finger to the right.

4.  As you hear the pitch going lower, you move your finger to the left.

5.  Congratulations, you just finished picking out the melody of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

6.  Take a look at this video I created for you to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.







FOLLOW the above steps to the following 3 songs:

1.  Michael Row the Boat Ashore
2.  Baa Baa Black Sheep
3.  When the Saints Go Marching In


For the next song, click here & scroll to the bottom to a list of 40 songs.
Try one of these songs and let me know how you do.


 Let your dream to play by ear come true!


Rosa

Play By Ear Piano Courses

Using Your EARS to Play Piano

Do you use your EARS to play piano?

What an odd question, eh?

You are probably saying to yourself: "I use my  hands to play piano.  How on earth do I use my ears to play piano?"


Music is a hEARing art.

Unfortunately, our education tells us that we need to read well, so the stress is on learning to read first even when learning to play the piano. As a result, typical piano lessons rely heavily on reading music. When the pianist plays note-by-note from a score, he is actually sight reading the music that is written on the sheet. The attention is put on the visual aspect rather than on training the ears to listen to sounds.

For a long time, I thought playing piano requires one to read music. In fact, the opposite is true. Many people believe that they can't play by ear unless they play by note first. This is simply not true.

Think for a moment. Did you learn to read before you spoke your first word?

The truth is that we spoke for a few years before we learned to read. That is plain logic. Yet when it comes to music, we don't follow this logic. We are taught to read music before we play our first song. We are not encouraged to use our ears to play the songs we hear.

So when we come across a rare individual who can play by ear, we say this person is gifted or musically talented. We say they are born with this gift, therefore it can't be learned. As a result, many people do not venture into the art of PLAYING BY EAR.

We need to reverse this traditional trend and encourage all music lovers to learn to play music by EAR and use their EARS to listen to the music they play and make. In that way, their ears are not shut off. It is surprising how our ears become deaf when the concentration is so much on the visual aspect of reading music and then interpreting that sheet music onto the piano. The visual aspect takes priority while the ears are put in the background.

So learn to use your EARS to play music.

This is the right order.

 

Go here to learn more about How to Play By Ear.

This is really crucial for all pianists and musicians.

The moment you learn to play by ear, the moment your inner self is set free when you are at the piano.  You don't believe me?  Try playing a song by ear and see what happens!  Write and let me know about it.