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.