The human ear can identify literally thousands of different sounds – your ear is a marvellous organ. The majority of the workings of the human ear are muscle, and, just like any other muscle in the human body, it can be trained to work even more efficiently.
For some people, playing the piano by ear comes quite naturally – they know as soon as they hear a particular series of notes or chords how that combination was played and where the persons hands were on the keyboard. By hearing the same piece of music over and over again you will find it much easier to recognise. Think of it like training a dog – the more you shout a command at the dog, the more it gets used to hearing it and what the necessary response is.
A good example of this ear training is the major third. If you were able to find a very patient friend who didn’t mind sitting at your piano for two days straight and playing nothing but major thirds (for example C and E or F and A), the next time you hear a car horn you would immediately recognise the sound! This is because the vast majority of car horns are “factory-tuned” to a major third.
If you can identify a train whistle as producing a tritone portamento descending, then do you see how easy it would be to learn to play the piano by ear? It can be done, and it can be done relatively easily. Train whistles, car horns, even tannoy announcements! Once your ear is actually trained to identify these certain sounds, you’ll be amazed at how much you recognise them as they occur everyday life all around you.
The initial step is really to find someone who doesn’t mind playing the sounds for you on your piano. Sometimes this can be hard to find, as even the most patient and loyal friend is likely to get a bit fed up with playing the same sound over and over while you sit and listen! The best solution to this that we have found is get hold of a tape recorder, and record the music. If you can find a recorder with a numerical counter on it, all the better, as you are then able to rewind to any specific spot you like.
You might also want to think about chord progressions as well – they can be a bit more fun than the melodic intervals, and tend to keep you a little more engaged. Most piano teachers, when teaching, prefer to begin with melodic intervals such as skips of a major third or a perfect sixth, so this is a reasonable place for you to start also.
In no uncertain terms, learning to play the piano could not be simpler! The art of training your ear to recognize specific sounds and thus transferring them onto the piano is very much a time-honored tradition, and there is absolutely no reason why you can’t do it yourself.
Copyright 2008 Lauren Paltrow
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