Ear training is a funny thing - most people seem to think it is about training our actual ears to do all the work. But it’s not really about the ears at all. In order to ‘play by ear’, we’re actually learning to play by brain! We are taking the information that our ears send us and deciphering that information in different ways.
When I started Piano Picnic, I knew that I wanted to teach the creative piano skills that seldom are taught… I always wondered why I couldn’t find a teacher to teach me these skills – the old school of thought being that you should train for a decade with the traditional method before branching out. But creative training is not exclusive to advanced pianists…
There is no silver bullet to learning to play piano by ear. There is no quick fix. No magic pill, shortcut or ‘get rich quick’ pyramid scheme for learning to play by ear. It takes time to get good! The problem for most people is in sustaining a level of practise with their ear-training that isn't boring, too time-consuming or ineffective. So here are 3 simple ear-training activities that you can do ‘on-the-go’.
Many people like the idea of learning piano by ear, but don't necessarily know that much about how it works. There's a host of unanswered questions jumbling around your head anytime you start to think about it!
In this post I've answered the most frequently asked questions that I receive as a piano tutor and a top piano writer on Quora. The aim of these answers is to help overcome any of the hesitancies a new piano student may have about learning by ear, so that the piano journey can begin with full confidence!
For as long as there has been the desire to play piano by ear there has also been some reluctance toward it. The truth is that learning by ear is as equally vital a skill as reading sheet music and today both methods of learning are combined to develop the future super-race of well-rounded musicians!
Discover why these piano education experts love learning by ear and steal their favourite ear-strengthening exercises!
Learning piano by ear is now recommended by creative piano teachers the world over. It’s been around forever (remember the Suzuki method?), but its recent surge in popularity is due to people simply not having the time, money, or inclination to spend years of private lessons learning to read sheet music.
