I Learned to Play by Ear Using Piano Basic Necessities

I Learned to Play by Ear Using Piano Basic Necessities
By Bryan Smitty

I have always loved the sound of the piano. The piano or even keyboards for that matter have always intrigued me. I used to sit and punch two notes over and over in the hopes of making sweet music. I took lessons for about 3 months. Bought a couple sight reading books. Let me be honest and say it just wasn’t happening. Like most piano players. I wasn’t really seeing any progress so I got bored and eventually quit. If something isn’t working you mine as well not waste any more time on it. But there was still that passion I had to play that keyboard. I couldn’t get the thought of one day playing an entire song on piano as opposed to playing 2 note bathroom tunes.

Now don’t get me wrong there are those who don’t have a clue and still can play fabulous music. But what really help anyone to really get a grasp of what they are doing is to find a system. To me, it’s the best way to ensure that whatever you learn can be built upon. You need a concrete method that gives you the foundation to understand things even when there a little complicated. A solid foundation is not necessary to play the piano but to play by ear well and reach your full potential you have to have that system in place. Even the gifted piano who’s never had a lesson in his/entire life has formed over time there own system to approaching the piano. Ultimately, the best way to learn is to use the knowledge that other people have built up over the years and then start using your own knowledge to build on what they taught you.

One such technique is establishing the melody line of a song. This is the way you recognize most of the popular song you hear today (probably without knowing it). All songs have a melody, some are just easier to hear than others. Another technique that I use is listening to a song and trying to establish the bass line. Then I either hum it out loud or play it on my piano during the song. Just picking out the bass notes of a song automatically tells me what the chords will be. Why? Because usually the base player plays the root note of the song. I call these the basic necessities for playing by ear. If you are wondering what the heck I’m talking about, its ok. These simple yet effective skills, can take your piano playing to the next level literally.

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