Great Singing

Can you hear your piano? Play the Piano by Ear   by Yoke Wong

Did you listen to your iPod today? Listened to your favorite Music? Now you want to play it on your piano. Unfortunately, you can’t find any free sheet music on the Web. So, what are you going to do? That’s the common predicament of a confused pianist who for the first time realizes he or she can’t play anything without sheet music. Now the question is how to solve the problem. The answer is by playing the piano with your hearing, playing by ear.

At first that sounds really ridiculous. How can anyone play a song by just hearing it? Actually, most and almost all successful musicians can play music by just hearing it. It’s very important to learn to play the piano by just hearing the music. Without it you can’t compose your own music or improvise or even accompany. That’s how important it is.

Music theory is still very important and necessary. Music theory is actually the building block for playing the piano by ear. Why mention it? Because some musicians actually think that with sensitive ears and hearing they don’t need to learn music theory. They say it’s boring and uninteresting, and it takes a lot of time to learn it. In short, it’s hard unlike playing by ear, which they say it’s fast, easy, and you can do anything from composing your own songs to harmonizing and jazz improvisation. However, for good, solid playing by ear, you must have the basics such as music theory.

Now, let’s tackle the types of pitches. It’s very important to know and to differentiate between them. Knowing pitch is one of the most basic forms of playing the piano by ear, and you can usually recognize it after learning the notes of the keyboard.

Absolute Pitch

Also called perfect pitch, absolute pitch is the ability of a musician or a person who effortlessly recognizes any pitch and whether it’s a sharp or a flat note. Many scientists believe there’s a genetic component to perfect pitch, but even so, it requires learning and practice to keep this inborn trait well-trained.

Relative Pitch

Relative pitch is acquired. To develop it, you must practice hard. Unlike absolute pitch relative pitch requires a student to hear it first, find the corresponding key and remember the pitch. Most students and teachers start with recognizing the C scale on the piano then stopping to hum the fifth degree of the scale (The G note). Then they play it, if a student is right, that’s when he or she can move on with the next scale. A student should do this often to create pitch recognition and to learn how to play by ear.

Not all students receive pitch training, maybe that’s why free sheet music is a popular search on the Web. But don’t worry, it’s never too late. There’s actually software that you can find that can help with learning by ear training. There are also books or CDs that can help. Don’t expect that you’ll have a perfect pitch since it can’t be learned. Having excellent relative pitch is good enough to be world-class.

So practice and have fun.

About the Author

Yoke Wong is the founder of http://www.PianoMother.com, a leading piano educational publisher. Her piano lessons dvds and downloadable online courses, including Definitive Piano Improvisation course, The Essentials of Great Hymn Arrangement, Mastering the Art of Piano Sight Reading and many more, are sold in more than 90 countries. You can watch her piano lessons at youtube
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