Play Piano By Ear

In this piano lesson you'll find information about playing piano by ear. Learning to play the piano is much easier when using the system I show in here. We will first practice finding popular melodies on the piano. Later on we will learn to use play chords by ear.

Check out the 3 chords and the truth piano lesson where I explain how to play chords by ear if this is what you're looking for. (If you're following the beginning piano lessons course I suggest you simply keep reading).

complete piano course is perfect for beginners who don't read music but who want to learn to play songs for pleasure. He teaches several popular tunes, in measure-by-measure detail, and explains how to apply his teachings to any other song.

layout piano keys page:In order to play by ear you should first be able to orient yourself on the piano. this is the first step you'll have to do when you start learning to play the piano. It's a piece of cake. Just visit the layout piano keys piano lesson for a moment and come back when you're done with it if you haven't done so yet.

RECOGNIZING A TONE

When we play piano by ear we find the first tone of a song and then we compare it with the next tone.
We go on and on until we have the whole song.
In order to do that we have to distinguish between one note and the other. Let's take the song "Merrily We Roll Along" for example.

This song contains only three notes. C-D-E. In order to play it we use the middle C Position which is explained in the Piano fingering page.
for now we're going to only use the first, second and third fingers.

Don't mix fingers! Always press on E with your third finger and on C with your thumb. You wanna improve the independence of your fingers and to be able to follow the answers below which are based on these fingerings.

Listen to the song and try to play piano by ear by figuring out which key sounds like the first tone of the song. If you can sing the first tone it's much easier. Try to hum it at least.
Did you get it? It's the E key.
Now we continue to play piano by ear by moving on to the next tone and try to figure if it's lower or higher then E. In our case we have only two options. The D and the C. Both or lower... But try to figure which one it is.

Do you hear it? It's the D key. Easy huh?
Start by singing the "mer" part slowly and then go to "ri". Hear the difference?
Great, now continue to the "ly" part. Is it lower then D or higher?
It's lower and yep... It's the C key. Continue like this until you have the whole song. Some get it right away and some need some more time before they get the hang how to play piano by ear but that's all there is to it.

TIP: Sometimes when the two other options you've tried sound wrong it just means you have to repeat the same tone you played before. Pay attention to it.

Wanna check if you got it right? Do you need some help? Here's a PDF file with the answers. It contains the suitable fingerings and some Letters to indicate the beginning note and some exceptionals that demand your extra attention.
Lesson 1 = Merrily We Roll Along(pdf)

Now, if you find it difficult to discover how you can train your ear to identify all the various piano notes you can improve it simply by playing the revolutionary new computer game called "Perfect Your Pitch Pro". You can get with the Rocket Piano Ultimate Piano Learning Kit. Training your ear by playing "Perfect Your Pitch Pro", is not only fun, it will fast track you to playing your favorite songs by ear!

Playing the Melodie on Different Places on the Piano

There's a line of Letters which state different keys in the last part of the file. The idea is to try to play the melody starting from different keys on the piano.
For example... If you play "Merrily" starting the melody (third finger) with B it sound well (using B-A-G). Same goes when we start with A (using the A-G-F).

Done? Great!

Now if you're wondering if there's a good course or a book over playing piano by ear I suggest you read what I have to see over this great course.

If you'd like to expand your ability at playing music by ear you might want to check the Piano By Ear Homestudy Course made by Hear and Play. It gets pretty far and it feels exciting to learn piano songs right from the start.

Here is a list of many great songs you can practice in order to learn how to play piano by ear. They are arranged in a gradual order.

Now that you understand how to play piano by ear I think we should move on and learn how sit right at the piano. If you feel like playing more melodies by ear visit here again anytime you feel like it.