Tomorrows Entertainment|

In most cases, learning to play a music piece on piano is done by reading written material called music sheets and playing according to the notes and tempo indicated on them. Though it may work effectively for many students (and statistically it does), some people find it difficult to play by notes due to various reasons - inability to follow notation and play at the same time, reading too slow, trouble interpreting multiple written symbols at the same time, etc. - even after years of training. Others find it plain boring.

If you’re one of those people, you may want to try playing piano by ear. The advantages are obvious - no need to struggle decrypting complicated note combinations, having much freedom to interpret the song the way you perceive it (although taking it too far may backfire), and since you don’t have to search for music sheets, you could virtually learn any song you hear, as long as you’re skillful enough to perform it.

On the other hand, you do have to understand music theory on a decent level, especially the relations between notes, and the ability to remember and reproduce sounds using the piano - abilities that players who play with notes don’t really need to have. Also, being familiar with common chord patterns will come in handy, because you’ll notice that many songs share similar and often identical chord successions.

The way I learn to play a song by ear is by listening to it first, just to hear it all out. Then I let it play again to try to get the key in which it’s performed - very important. As the music goes, I play the basic chords triads I think I hear and their bass notes, until they seem “aligned” with the original tune. I may start with the first two or three chords. If the result I’m getting doesn’t make the song sound weird and overloaded I add more notes to the chord, to make it sound more saturated and similar to the original - in other words, harmonize the melody.

For example, minor seventh chords (Bm7, F#m7, Gm7, …) are used a lot in Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, and suspended chords (Dsus, Esus, …) are very common in Maroon 5’s Won’t Go Home Without You. I continue with this procedure till the end of the song. As the final step, I add the lead part by listening all over again, and arrange it in a way that allows me to play all the layers together.

The more you want your composition to sound closer to the original, the more you’ll have to work in smaller pieces. You might find yourself listening 7 times to a 3-second transition or a “guitar shredding” solo to understand what just happened there. Over time, you will be able to reproduce bigger chunks of melody each time, and your musical hearing will become more precise and refined.

Experienced players who play by ear can sometimes play a whole music piece on the spot, just by using their memory - and when others hear it, it seems the closest thing to magic!