Andrew M Music

Sheet music vs Playing by ear

2013-02-19T05:49:00.002-08:00

You visit a friend's house. She happens to have a nice, shiny piano. She knows that you've been studying the piano for a few years. So she asks you to play something. But you're a sheet player and you're not comfortable playing without any sheet music in front of you! Uneasy, you decline and come up with an excuse to not play.

Now imagine the same situation. She asks you to play something, and you comfortably approach and sit at the piano. You charmingly ask her what song she wants to hear. She mentions a popular song and you start playing that song smoothly, beautifully with no mistakes. She loves what she hears. You have made a deep impression on her!

I've been in both situations. I would definitely prefer to be in the latter. It's quite obvious that most people would. This is why you should learn how to play by ear and let go of music score once you gain enough basic skills on the piano.

Most people start off learning to play by following music score. After learning music for a couple of years, I found a lot of pianists are still stuck with playing by score, especially if they are classically educated.

My Story

I started off my piano education in the classical style--with a lot of musical scores. Growing up I spent a lot of time pondering how pianists on the TV and Radio are able to come up with beautiful arrangements of songs. I wondered if they would have to study a music score before they perform. All of them play flawlessly with no perceivable mistakes.

When I was about 14 years old, nine years into studying the piano, family and friends would tout me as really good pianist. They often asked me to play something. I would show off classical pieces that I had learned. But when they made a 'request' of a particular contemporary song--I would know the song, but I just had no idea how to go about playing it on the piano. I'd feel embarrassed, especially considering having been learning the instrument for nine years.

Shortly I figured it is really to do with my ability to play by ear--it's virtually non-existent at that time.

I finally figured out how to do it around the age of 15-16.

What I figured out

It is mostly to do with the following two reasons.

Number one: in classical, I was acquainted largely with Major and minor chords only, sometimes diminished and augmented. When those chords are applied to contemporary music, it would be like eating a potato with no salt and spices. It would 'taste' so bland. Please read my entry titled "how to play the piano by ear" to find out how you can add some 'spice' to your music.

Number two: in the classical school that I went to, creativity was rather suppressed. Playing other than what's written on the score was considered blasphemous.

So I figured that playing by ear involves two abilities:

The ability to hear many different types of chords which is outside the scope of classical chords.
The ability to creatively conjure up a coherent arrangement of notes based on the chords and the beat.

Learning to play by ear

Experiment with 'weird' note combinations outside the standard Major and minor. Add some random notes to your ordinary Major and minor chords. This may make the chords sound rather strange at first , especially if you're used to your boring classical chords, but you will find that they can be more pleasant and richer in harmony. For example C, E, G--your ordinary C-Major chord. Add B to it which would now make it a CM7.

Once you expand your chord knowledge, creating accompaniment would simply be playing notes that make up the relevant chords. For example, when the part of the song you're playing has the chord CM7, just play C, E, G, and B to your liking (randomly but stick to the four notes).

Finally, be deliberately 'blasphemous'.

Final thoughts

Looking back, I now figured that those pianists on TV and radio might have been ear-players. No wonder there are no 'perceivable' mistakes. Being an ear player, they are ten times less likely to 'make mistakes'. Unlike classical, they are not tied to fixed sets of notes. They would just follow chord patterns which gives them flexibility over just following written, fixed notes.

Finally a good analogy would be this: if you rely on your sheet music to play the piano, it would be like cooking with a recipe. You can choose to stick to your recipe, that's fine. However, I feel that coming up with your own original great dish without the guidance of a recipe is more liberating and personally satisfying.

The Importance of Relative Pitch to play by ear

2012-04-07T22:18:00.001-07:00

To play piano by ear, relative pitch is very important. Relative pitch is about recognising the relation of two or more different pitches.

When recognising chords, 3 pitches or more are sounded and one has to appreciate what kind of chord is being sounded. At the very basic, It is whether a chord has a major or a minor sound.

To play by ear like a pro, this distinction has to be expanded to other kinds of chords, i.e. what kind of 'spice' (alteration from a basic chord, see my previous entry) a chord has. If it's a C, is it a basic C Major or a C9, CM7, CM79, Fm6, etc.

Once you fully understand the many sounds of chords, it will likely to open up new possibilities for you regarding to your ability to play music by ear.

Till next time, take care.

How to Play the Piano by Ear

2012-04-07T18:30:00.000-07:00

Playing by Ear (Improvising)

I gained the ability to play by ear "properly" at the age of 16. Prior to that I was reading off music sheets to play the piano confidently. I could somewhat make up an improvisation of a song I know - I could get the root of the chords in songs, just the root though, pretty easily. But then the improvisation didn't sound good, it just sounded too amateurish. Lol

"I know these are the right chords but why can't it sound nicely like those people?? I'm frustrated.... I've been learning piano for years and this is what I can come up with..."

But there was this moment... like *snap* where it struck me and at that moment I was enlightened.

"I knew how to play by ear! I could throw away all my sheet music!! Yayy!!"

Open mindedness and thinking outside the square

I was trained classically for years. In classical piano, we follow a doctrine; a gospel of truth - well, at least that's the impression I got from my teacher anyway. I wasn't allowed to make even one single minor mistake. Playing a note other than what's written was an unforgivable sin.

Years of such close mindedness makes the my mind becomes so rigid when it comes to making up an improvisation style. I was doomed to the confine of boring accompaniment techniques and chords variety.

Fortunately, I learned to break from the curse and I let go of myself and experimented with chords.

Chords 'Spice' - What got me enlightened

When I said boring chords, I refer to the very basic chords without added the 'spice'. The Spice is the weird alterations of a chord. Say for example you play the chord C Major. It consists of the notes C, E, and G. Now try to add a B in it. It becomes what you call a CM7. It sounds jazzy if you try it. Now add D to the CM7 - sound these from bottom to top: C, G, B, D, E, G together. Mmm.. it sounds jazzy romantic-ish doesn't it? That is the spice of a chord. Experiment with more yourself!

Exposure to various techniques

Expose yourself to different techniques from the pros. Figure out how they do it. Adopt what you find useful and discard what you don't. And from there, you develop your own style. That is the most important part!

Till next time, take care.