I Always Wanted To Play The Piano

Many people know of someone who can play the piano by ear. They just seem to have a 'knack' for playing a tune without music, often after hearing the tune just once. For the people who can't do this it seems like magic, and in some ways it is.

One thing to keep in mind is the piano, like other instruments where chords can be played (guitar, harp, banjo) can be played to pick out the melody (main tune) and/ or accompany a singer or instruments by playing chord shapes. For the piano player, at its most basic level the right hand (top stave / treble) is used to play the melody and the left (bottom stave/ bass) is used as the accompaniment. As you might expect this is a very broad general rule of thumb and most music develops this basic principle.

What this means is that to play by ear you have three choices. First just pick out the melody with one hand (usually the right hand) This is fine but can seem quite simplistic. You can make the melody richer by playing thirds (at its simplest any two notes with a gap of one note between them). Second you can use the piano like you would use a guitar to strum accompanying chords. This means you need to have an idea of basic chord shapes, for the 'key' you are playing in. Chords belong to families that sound right together, so C, E , and G work well together. You can play with just one hand or use your left hand to play the equivalent of your key note (C,E,G in this example) an octave (eight notes) below to add a bit of bass. Third you can try both, right hand play a one note tune and the left hand following along with the relevant chords.

Something I've done for a friend who wanted to play by ear was to use Ultimate Guitar. This website lists so called 'guitar tabs' for loads of tunes. Here you can find the 'chords' you need for a song. All you have to do is play the chord on the piano and you are away! Unfortunately it doesn't show you the notes of the chord on a piano keyboard, but don't worry you can find them on this site and this page of the same site.

Playing by ear can be learned and for some people it comes more naturally than others. I believe anyone can do it. I have friend who is a Trucker who never played the piano before and I taught him to play (chords) to his favourite song in an hour. You should have seen the smile on his face!

Herein another Play by Ear resource:

play by ear. There are also people on the web selling ebooks and video courses. I would advise checking recommendations and endorsements by users.