The “Play By Ear” Hoax
Hoax is a big word in playing by ear. “Yeah, I play a little piano . . . “ doesn’t really mean much in most cases. We wore out an already worn-out piano in my grandma’s basement playing chopsticks. My sister Marjorie played Heart and Soul. To me she was Queen of The Keys. We…
Simplicity Versus Anti-Music
One student that took piano lessons from me was self-taught. He could play by ear with some coordination and rhythm but couldn’t identify the chords. He had no idea what he was doing. He’d been playing for years but had stagnated in his own limited box of knowledge. “Play something.” I asked “Let me play…
The Greatest Hit of All Time
To play by ear on the piano you must learn to play the greatest hit of all time. Every style of music throughout the ages has bowed to it’s overpowering influence in music. From all the classical masters to the bards out strumming their lutes in the early days. They all played the greatest hit. …
Get Started Right Away Playing By Ear
[content_box_grey width=”20%”]by Joseph Pingel[/content_box_grey] Hey folks, this short article really lays some fairly heavy issues on the line. The content of these few paragraphs is really excellent. In my observations I’ve always discovered “playing by ear” to be something more associated with self-teaching. Unfortunately, oftentimes the play-by-ear skill isn’t introduced until one has many years…
“Axis of Awesome” Really Nail Playing By Ear
Though meant to be comedy, this video by “Axis of Awesome” is really one of the most important lessons to understanding the nature of Playing By Ear. The idea that one chord progression can be used with many songs is only part of the equation. In reality, any progression has the capability to apply to…
Music As a Language
by Joseph Pingel This video by Victor Wooten is about as down-to-earth as can be. He talks about learning music just like learning language when we were babies. It’s very specific to a mind-set that all pianists would benefit from and is a good perspective to keep in mind playing music on any instrument. We…
The Blues Scale Video
Hello again. I really like the flexibility that the blues scale gives to improvising on the piano. The key of C is easy to remember but you will discover great improvement in your playing if you practice the blues scale in other influential keys. Practice it in C, Ab, Bb, Eb. If you accompany guitarists,…
A Well-Thought-Out “Improvised” Solo
The thing I really like about this video (besides the dancing), is that the Boogie Woogie Piano solo is totally all pre-thought-out licks (I count 22 different riffs he plays). Not to take anything away from his skills .. . he’s great, but he’s not all over the place improvising. He’s got a lot of…
The Key To Figuring Things Out
In the end, to become the type of musician you hope to be you must learn to understand the conceptual side of music theory. This is not a subject that is easy to learn. Most theory is laid out in a way that is very dry and out of context to the way the different…
Listen to Gilligan’s Island (Stairway To Heaven)
To play piano by ear is to play with creativity. Click on this rare song to listen while you’re reading this. It’s better than Zepplin, lasts half as long as the original and uses the art of imitation and creative license. The overall affect is for the listener to say “Hey, they ripped the theme…