Playing the piano is just like playing any instrument that one starts learning at a young age. It takes a lot of practice and willingness to want to succeed. You first need to understand basic features about the piano. You should learn how the piano and its equipment work together to make the sounds that you hear. You need to understand that the higher keys that you play on the piano will produce a higher note. Accordingly, the lower keys you play will make a lower and more vibrant sound. Playing by ear requires extensive time listening to the sounds that the instrument makes to be able to mimic them. You should practice several hours a day until you find that you are correctly matching the sounds to the keys.
Sometimes it’s a lot easier to figure out smaller and less complex songs than it is to figure out full sonatas. As an example, the first song I ever learned by ear on the piano was the famous “Marry Had A Little Lamb.” It has quite an easy and recognizable rhythm that makes it great for beginners learning to platy by ear. You’re first goal when trying to figure out a simplistic song is to find the starting note. Usually in simple rhythms like in nursery rhymes and other modern rhythmic pieces, you will find that most keys that are used are relatively close to one another or are just chords. This song maintains only an eight key range. I figured out how to play this song on four black keys first and then worked my way to the white keys in an attempt to understand the differences in sounds that the half step keys made. This could help you not just get close to the same rhythm that you hear but could also help you understand the difference in half step keys. This will prepare you to get the exact rhythm.
Once you understand how the keys sound and maybe after reading a book or two, you can understand the mathematics behind chord structures. You will easily recognize when a key is pressed and know whether that’s a B or a B flat/sharp. You can test yourself like I did by getting someone to help you learn. Allow them to press down a key, listen to it as many times as you need, and then try to figure out how keen your ears are to the sound. This is a very long and drawn-out process, but if you are going to be the best musician you can be, it definitely helps. After you master this, you can start on harder and more complex classical songs. Mastering songs like the Moonlight Sonata and other famous slow works are great starting points. The Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven being the first classical piece I did by ear, but it took a lot of preparation ahead of time. You just have to work hard and know that with time your ears will grow acquainted with the sounds. You’ll soon be learning songs that you never thought that you could.
One Theme
