Comments for Loosing the 'Musical Ear'. What Should I Do to Learn to Play Freely

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Comments for Loosing the 'Musical Ear'. What Should I Do to Learn to Play Freely

Work your ear muscles, perhaps.
by: Steve in Eugene

I started pounding the keys at the age of three. That was 65 years ago.
My keyboard abilities reflect the hundreds of thousands of hours I spent listening to the kind of music I love (jazz) and the equal time I have spent attempting to create that kind of music with my fingers and BRAIN.

I am not a sight reader. I do read lead sheets but perform with no music. I know several jazz piano pros who never learned to read music. One of them recently played the main stage at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

If you have an ear for piano music, If it occupies your brain day and night as it does with me, all you need to do is surrender to it and let it take you where you want to go. Spend the time listening and playing. You will get there.

Some Handy Tips
by: David from www.piano-play-it.com

Hi Iranga,

Tamar couldn't have put it more beautifully.

I add here a few handy tips that will help you as well. Use the Play Piano By Ear Page to start you engines working again.

This piano lesson encourages you to play 5 note melodies all over the piano. Doing this task will free you and the best thing is that you have the answer in the tabs below.

Next, you said you were interest in combing chord by ear while playing or singing the melody.
The Three Chord Songs Page will take you through the first steps in doing just that.

Through time I'm going to focus on playing piano by ear in my videos so stay tuned and I promise to get back to you with more info.

I hope you got inspired and encouraged by the beautiful dialog you created. I'm sure this will lead to new exciting adventrue

David
from www.piano-play-it.com

I know what you're feeling
by: Tamar

Hi Iranga, I can really understand your feelings. The same thing happened to me with drawing, I learned so much Technique - in a way that technically I can draw anything (very hyper-realistically)... to the point where it loses it's soul... it's just technically very good...

When I started realizing that I had enslaved myself in technique... I decided to change my whole approach - it's kind of like teaching yourself backwards - I started drawing with my eyes closed, without my glasses, I forced myself to draw from my imagination. This is easy to talk about - but at the time was very difficult to do.

Iranga - it's important first of all to know that you didn't 'lose' your musical ear, believe me - it is still with you, it's just a matter of connecting back to your creative side, your imagination, the melodies of your soul. You must first have faith that you can connect to it again and just start working on it.

Try forcing yourself to play the piano with no book, or even with no notes, try playing with your eyes closed (even if it might be difficult at first, just try it over and over again), try just playing from your imagination (even if it may sound "not professional" or "off" just let yourself go).

Try looking at the good side of the years you've spent learning, don't dwell on the fact that it might have turned you off or made you lose your creativity. It's important to learn technique, it gives a good base to work from. I believe that to break the rules - you first need to know them... so it's good that you have all that technical knowledge, it's just important now to use it wisely. Listen to music that gives you inspiration before you start playing, even turn off your phone and 'make a date' with yourself so that you can give yourself the opportunity to connect with something inside of you.

I feel that this modern world can be very distracting... the TV, the commercials, so many distractions that keep us always out out out.... it doesn't give us an opportunity to touch something that is within ourselves.
I've noticed that I connect to my creativity when I am in a quiet place and when I'm walking in nature, this helps me be in tune with my abilities and talents. So find out what keeps you inspired and try doing it before you sit down by the piano.

I read a nice quote by Churchill the other day... "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty"... so if you feel that you are jamming in to this difficulty, just believe that it is an opportunity for you... an opportunity to become stronger, to find your inner voice, to work on yourself to connect again to your musical creativity.

Remember "The way out is the way through" (R. Hubbard) - so just keep on going and work your way through it.. I'm sure the more stubborn you are to find it - the closer you'll be to reaching it...

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