You Can Play By Ear!

“Your ears are "fearfully and wonderfully made", and so as long as you can listen to a melody, there's a good chance you can learn it from memory!”

The art of playing the piano 'by ear' is often seen as something only the very giifted can do, but is that really true? Granted, there are certain individuals who certainly have a unique and rare talent when it comes to music, but does that mean playing by ear is out of the question for you? I don't believe so, and here's why...

YOU HAVE EARS

Well it's a start isn't it! Seriously, the ability to hear a tune gets you most of the way there. Your ears are "fearfully and wonderfully made", and so as long as you can listen to a melody, there's a good chance you can learn it from memory!

REPETITION IS THE KEY

Start by listening over and over to a song, focusing on the melody line. Listen, listen, and listen again. Try to hum it without listening and see if you can remember more of the tune than when you started.

Then sit at the piano, and listen to one section, and play that by ear if you can - get the first note, and go from there - rinse and repeat!

It is trickier to work out chords by ear, but I will cover that in a later post. For now, I just wanted you to work on learning a melody by ear, so you can gain confidence in progressing further.

INSPIRATION FOR YOU

I recently put together a tutorial video, that will help a pianist with basic ability, to play 'Nearer, My God, To Thee', by ear, with chords. This is something I call a 'Flexible Arrangement' because in the video, I make the point that you don't have to play the song the same every time.

Also, I go over ways of playing chords, that use even less notes than a basic chord, meaning that less is more, and it still sounds good!

Click here to watch the tutorial on YouTube (and please subscribe if you like it) - or click on the image below. Enjoy learning to play this timeless hymn by ear - with some improvisation too!

[Return to The Church Piano Player Website]

This blog post was written by pastor and pianist Kris Baines, from The Church Piano Player. Kris lives in the UK with his family, having recently moved back New Zealand where he worked as a pastor for the past 26 years (also leading worship/worship teams). Kris has also spent over 35 years writing, recording, and performing music and is now bringing all that combined experience together to help equip church piano/keyboard players.

Check out the church piano player website for more information on online courses by Kris Baines.

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