The Artt of Playing by Ear

T
E

D id Sides
Dav
Editedd by Drr. Barbara Bennnet
Illuustrationns by Kem Lyee

Lye & Sides

L
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Enterp
prise

Table of Contents
Foreword ..1
Chapter I The Approach .3
Chapter II What to Listen For ...4
Chapter III Basic Triads ..7
Chapter IV Advanced Harmonies ..14
Chapter V Ready to Play 19
Chapter VI Making It Your Own .24

Foreword
Picture this, you walk into a local music store and find a complete stranger
playing on a piano for sale. A crowd is gathered around the musician, which sparks your
curiosity. As you get closer to the crowd, you start to recognize the tunes the musician is
playing. At first you expect to hear classical masterpieces being played, but youre
surprised when you realize that the musician is playing anything but that. The songs you
hear, in fact, resemble the songs you heard on the radio in your car while driving to the
music store. Looking for reassurance, you look to the person standing next to you and
ask, Hey isnt that as your neighbor cuts you off and replies, Yes, its funny
because I just heard the original of that song on the radio about a week ago. I like what
he did with this one on the piano. At this point, you decide to move around to try to get
a better view of exactly what is going on and you notice that the musician is playing
without sheet music. You then assume to another member in the crowd, I didnt know
they had sheet music for this song already. It must have taken him a while to learn and
memorize it so well. Your neighbor then smiles and corrects you saying, Theres not.
He learned the song on his own.
What do you mean? Learned it on his own? you ask.
I mean, he just listens to songs and then teaches himself how to play them on the
piano. Lots of people do this; its called playing by ear.
Unfamiliar with this method of playing, you decide to ask more questions about
it. At the end of your conversation, youre inspired. Youre interested in learning how to
play by ear, but at the same time, dont know where to start. Nevertheless, you leave the
music store with a new way of looking at music and the way its learned. In the light of
inspiration, you decide to pick up piano lessons, hoping to one day be able to play some
of your favorite songs by ear.
The art of playing by ear is something thats been done for many years by many
musicians. In some cases, playing by ear is how some people began learning music,
maybe as the result of a lack of patience, time, or the funds to afford formal training. An
instrument and a radio is all they may have had at the time, but they didnt let this keep
them from doing what they loved to do, which was make music. I believe that the gift to
play by ear does not surpass the ability to create, however compliments it by shining a
different and unpredictable light on that which is created.
Hi. My name is David Sides. Some of you may know me as a colleague from my
Alma Mater University; while others may have seen me produce my interpretations of
popular tunes on the internet. Nevertheless, those who know me know that I have a
passion for playing the piano. I have been blessed with a unique talent to play by ear.
Yes, the concept of what I do is easy; however, Ive learned that achieving this ability
might not come as easy to some as it does to others. Yet I strongly believe that the power
to astonish others with ones trained ear is possible for anyone, with the proper training,
practice, and guidance. My goal is to use my knowledge and experience of playing
music, to help any aspiring musicians progress by sharing with them the secrets behind
playing by ear that Ive learned and developed over the years. Before second guessing
yourself, keep in mind that unlike many pianists, I didnt start playing until the age of 10,
and even worse, I had to teach myself how to play without the help of any lessons.
Aware that many pianists start as early as 4, I was very discouraged when I began, and I

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believe that I am no different from anyone else. If I can learn to play by ear, so can you.
Sure, Im not the best pianist in the world, and I neither claim, nor aim to be. I just hope
that what I do, along with my passion for it, help to change the worlds perception of the
piano, and the pianist, all while providing a different approach to learning how to make
music.
One bit of advice I would like to offer you before we begin is be confident in
approaching this new challenge. A lack of confidence could be more of a hindrance than
many may think. Also, dont be quick to give up. Working with piano students, I see
many cases where students with the ability to do, dont, simply because they give up too
easy. Upon completion of my book, with the proper practice and dedication, you too will
find yourself playing your favorite tunes in no time, with the greatest of ease. Finally,
with that said, lets get started.

I: The Approach
When beginning something new, you should always start off slow. This
statement applies to any challenge you may face in life. Theres a saying that goes, You
must learn to crawl before you can walk, and learn to walk before you can run. This is
true. In applying this to learning music, the best advice I can give to someone aspiring to
learn how to play by ear is to start off with simple songs. Now, defining a song as simple
is a relative thing, meaning, one song may be simple to one individual, but hard to
another. The music you choose to start off with may range from simple cell phone ring
tones, to lullabies sung to put children to sleep. You want to use your own judgment in
this case, go with whatever is easiest to you. Despite what you choose, the approach to
learning the song will be somewhat the same.
Have you ever had a song stuck in your head and no matter how hard you tried, or
what you did, you couldnt seem to get it out? Has it ever seemed as if you could
practically hear the song playing, even though it was just in your mind? Well, thats how
you want the songs to capture you when learning to play them by ear. You want to get
the song in your head to the point where you can almost hear it playing. How does this
happen? Ive learned that it usually happens the quickest and most effective by listening
to a song over and over again. Once you can get to the point where you can hear the song
in your head, you then want to work on moving it from your head, to your ears. To do
this, I usually hum whatever it is I hear in my head as accurately as possible. By making
an outward acknowledgment of what is in your head, through humming, you are now
able to hear it clearer, and by doing this, Ive also learned that the tune usually tends to
stick in your memory longer. This approach may sound elementary, but it does work.
Humming the songs is actually going to play an important part in your learning process,
as you will read about later in this book.
Taking a step forward, lets dissect this humming concept a little deeper. When
humming these songs, what you want to be able to hum, more specifically, are the melody
and the harmony. The melody can most easily be recognized as either the main tune, or
if the song has lyrics, the tune of the lyrics. Harmony is recognized as combining sounds
of different pitches. Depending on how simple the song is that you choose to work with,
it may or may not have an underlying harmony to support the melody. For example,
some simple cell phone ring tones are designed that way. In that case, just focus on
learning the melody. The ability to distinguish and isolate between the two get easier
over time, just be patient. Continue to practice finding and separating the melody from
the harmony. We will take a closer look at these two parts in our next section.

II: What to Listen For

When analyzing music, we learned in the previous section that the basic make up
of a song is a melody, supported by harmonies. The melody is usually the part we sing or
whistle to, while the harmonies provide the depth, giving the song a fuller sound. Giving
another example of this relationship, taking a look at a singer and his band during a
performance, the singer provides the melody, while the band supports the melody with
their harmonies. In this section, we will focus a little closer on the harmony and pick out
different things to listen for that will eventually help in playing the harmony.
The bass line is a very important part of a song, especially when trying to learn
how to play that song by ear. When learning the harmonies of a song, I almost always
start with the bass line, and Ill explain why. When playing by ear, because you dont
have the skeletal structure of the song in front of you on paper, also known as sheet
music, you have to rely on things that stick out to your ear, and figure out the structure
that way. Your ear is going to naturally pick up on either the loudest details, or the most
intricate details. Everything else, all the other smaller details within the song, your ear
might not pick up on so easily at first. Having said this, just think for a moment, say
youre standing outside one day and a car drives by blasting music from its speakers.
You start to feel the ground vibrate as the car gets closer and closer. Now ask yourself,
what is catching the attention of your ear the most from the music being played?
Chances are its the bass of the song, which also explains the vibrations you feel. Taking
this example, the bass is a great place to start in learning how to play the harmonies of
songs. If you can hum the melody of a song, and hum the bass line of a song, youre in
great shape! It is also a good idea in learning the harmony, to start with the bass for
another reason, which Ill explain in the next chapter.
When playing songs by ear, one of your main goals is to try to get your version of
a song to sound as close as possible to the original version of the song. Being able to
recognize even the smallest details in a song is what will advance the ability of your ear
and separate it from an average ear. As you begin and continue to play songs by ear, you
will notice that most songs use the same chords, following very similar patterns, or in
other words, they use the same chord progressions. A chord is a group of notes, made up
of at least three, that are all played at the same time. On a piano, this means three or
more keys that are all pushed down at the same time. A chord progression is simply the
movement of one chord to the next. For example, lets say I play a chord in the middle of
the piano, then I follow it with a different chord towards the top of the piano. What Ive
done is I just played a chord progression: I moved from one chord to the next.
In some cases, if you take two songs, both performed in the same key, and take
out the lyrics to the songs, youll notice that they may sound the same. In this case, the
only things that separate one song from another are the small details found within each
song. For example, one day you may find yourself listening to two different songs, both
performed on the piano, both following the same chord progressions in the same key, but
one song may have a distinct guitar accompaniment to it, while the other may have a
distinct flute accompaniment. When you strip these two songs down to just the piano
part, they sound exactly the same, but when you add the guitar part back to one, the flute
part back to the other, and then along with that, their respective lyrics and beat, they may
not sound so similar anymore.

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The point of this observation is if you were to play these songs, you would not
only want to try to imitate the piano part, but you would also want to try and play the
guitar part if playing the first song, or the flute part if playing the other. If you dont add
the accompaniment, the two songs you play may sound pretty much the same. By being
able to add the respective accompanying instruments, youre separating the similarity of
the two songs. This concept of imitating the little details is very important seeing as you
can only mimic so much on the piano. You cant really play a drum beat on the piano,
nor can you make the piano say the words to a song. However, you can imitate the drum
beat by playing the harmonies to certain rhythms close to that of the original song, and
you can imitate the lyrics by playing the lead melody, but unfortunately thats all you can
really do. So keep in mind, the more little details that you can imitate from the original
song, the more your piano version will sound like the original.
For some added advice, let me help by pointing out some things to look for in
songs that you would want to imitate. For one, you want to try and keep a close ear out
for any sound effects in the song that you could imitate. Not all sounds can be
duplicated, nor will all duplications sound good on the piano, so use your judgment when
picking which sound effects to play, and which to leave out. The next thing Im going to
point out is probably one of the most important things to try to imitate, and thats the
rhythm. No matter which genre of music youre listening to, rhythm is a very important
part of music. When playing songs on the piano, you want to focus on the rhythm of two
things: the melody, and the harmony. The rhythm of the melody will probably be the
easiest to imitate. To do this, all you would have to do is play the melody, or in other
words the lyrics, in the exact rhythm that the words are originally sung. The rhythm of
the harmonies is a little harder to imitate. The reason I say this is because the way you
play the rhythm of the harmonies in your song may not be exactly the way the rhythm of
the harmonies is played in the original version. The challenge is, you want to ultimately
play the harmonies, but play them to the rhythm of the beat, or the drum pattern. A trick
I usually do, which I found actually works very well, is I try to imitate the rhythm of the
kick of the drum pattern. If you notice, most of the time, the snare is hit on every 2nd and
4th beat of a song. A beat is the basic pulse underlying music. This is pretty universal for
most songs. However, the part of the drum pattern that often changes from song to song
is usually the kick pattern. As I mentioned before about the importance of imitating the
small details to set each song apart, the kick would be the detail you would want to
imitate to set one songs rhythm apart from another.
Along with the rhythm, some other details you would want to keep in mind but
not always necessarily match to the original song are: the tempo and the overall mood.
Tempo and mood go hand in hand in music. By tempo, I mostly mean the speed of the
song, fast or slow. The mood, happy or sad, can be gathered by the tempo of the song,
the mode of the song (major or minor, major being happy, minor being sad), or the words
of the song. Most songs with happy lyrics are played in major keys, while those with sad
lyrics are played in minor keys. Well go over the difference between major and minor
chords in a later chapter. I mentioned that tempo and mood are things you want to keep
in mind but not necessarily imitate because these are the components that allow you to be
expressive when you play a song. What I mean by this is, you can take an overall tempo,
or mood, and exaggerate it to express the overall feeling they produce in your own unique
style. Me personally, I like to take sad songs, and play them slower than the tempo of the

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original version to help exaggerate the overall sad mood. Likewise, with happy songs,
Ill maybe play them a little faster to give a lighter feel. With these examples, you can
see that although Im acknowledging the tempo and the mood of the overall song, Im not
expressing them the same way they were expressed in the original version. Music is all
about expression, so feel free to express the various moods of songs however you see fit.

III: Basic Triads

We will now take a closer look at how to build the harmonies that will support
your melodies. As mentioned before, in music there is a term called chord which
basically refers to a group of notes played at the same time. For a guitar this is multiple
strings, at least three, that are strummed at the same time, and for a piano it means
multiple keys, at least three, that are pressed down at the same time. The harmonies that
you play will be derived by the chords. Lets learn the basic structure of a chord.
On a piano, a basic chord is made up of three keys with unique spacing between
each key. Now, before we play our first chord, let me make it known that learning your
scales will help you find your chords easier, but learning your scales is not imperative for
learning chords. With that said, lets start off with a major chord. Go to a piano, or
keyboard equivalent, and push down any key you wish. That key that you push down is
going to be your starting point, or in musical terms, the root of your chord. The root is
the first of three notes that make up a chord. Ill push down a key as well so we can do
this together. Now, starting from the root key, count up, or to the right, the next 4 keys
you come across. You do not want to include your root key in your count, only use that
as your starting point. Go to the key to the right of it and thats the first key that youll
count. When counting, you also want to be sure to include every key you come across,
both black keys and white keys. It is very important that you do not skip any keys in
between.

Once youve landed on your 4th key, that key is the second note of your chord.
Well refer to that note as the 3rd of the chord.
So far we have the root, and we have the 3rd of the chord, leaving us one more
note: the 5th. So now what you want to do is, using the 3rd as your new starting point, just
as you did with the root, you want to go to the next key, whether it be black or white, and
this time count up 3 keys to get to your next and final destination. That final key you
land on will be referred to as the 5th of the chord.

Play those three keys together, and you have now played a major chord. The root,
the 3 , and the 5th make up every basic chord structure in music. The key I started this
activity on was a C. Taking a look now back at my experience with this activity, I began
with a C as my root, and then I counted 4 keys to the right: black key, white key, black
key, white key. The final white key I landed on was an E. So now, with the E as my 3rd,
I counted up 3 keys to the right to get my 5th: white key, black key, white key. The final
note I landed on this time was a G. So, if I play my root, 3rd, and 5th together, or in other
words, my C, E and G, I will play a major C chord.
rd

The name of this chord is C because the C key was my root. If you began this
activity on a B, then you played a B Major chord, or if you began on a G-flat, you played
a G-flat Major chord. The name of the chord is based on the root key.
Now lets take a look at playing a minor chord. Were going to begin this activity
the same way we began the previous one, by picking any key and pressing that down. I
would prefer that you use the same key that you used in the previous activity as your root,
just so you can hear the difference between a major chord and a minor chord built from

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the same root, but if you choose to play on another key, thats fine too. So start with your
root, but for a minor chord, were going to switch the numbers. Youll notice that to play
a major chord, we used the spacing of 4 and 3 to get to our 3rd and 5th of the chord, now
were going to use the reverse of that and count 3, then 4 to get our minor chord 3rd and
5th. From your root, count up in the exact same manner, 3 keys to the right, to find your
3rd. From there, you then want to count up 4 keys to get your 5th. Play them all together
and you have now played a minor chord.

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Before starting this activity, I didnt specify which hand to play these chords with,
or which fingers to use because I wanted you to focus more on how to build the chord
rather than worry about how to play the chord. There is a proper way to play these
chords, in terms of which fingers to use to push down which keys, but my motto in
playing is do whatever you feel is most comfortable. If and when you decide that you
want to enter piano competitions, then well worry about the proper way, but for now,
lets just focus on being comfortable.
There is one more component to these chords that I want to incorporate, and thats
the bass key. You will use the exact same procedure in finding a bass key to play for a
major chord, as you will for finding a bass key to play for a minor chord. To play the
chord and the bass key, I would prefer that you play the chord with your right hand and
the bass with your left. Try to space your hands about shoulder length apart so that they
are not fighting each other to play the same exact keys. To play the bass key with your
chord is simple. Remember the root key you used to build your chord with? Well,
whether major or minor, that key is also going to be your bass key, only lower on the
piano. If your root was a B, then your bass is also going to be a B to the left of your
chord. In other words, you can pick any B thats to the left of where you started, and
theres your bass key. For those unfamiliar with the letters of the keys on the piano
please refer to the examples on the following page:

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Playing both your bass and your chord together, you have a complete major or
minor chord, depending on which chord you chose to use for this example. Pick any key
you want as your root, if you follow these methods I provided, you can play a complete
major or a complete minor chord anywhere on the piano.
Before moving on any further, I want to address something that may be confusing
starting out, and thats the labeling of sharps and flats. A piano has both black and white
keys, the black keys being sharps and flats. You may be wondering, how do I know what
to call it? Is it a sharp, or is it a flat? Thats a very good question. Your answer is
relative to how you approach the black key. Lets look at the model below:

Lets say were looking at the C at the very bottom of the piano. Youll notice
that if you go to the right from that key, the very first key you run across is a black key,
then a white. Well that black key, in relation to the C you started on, since you traveled

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up the scale to reach it, or in other words, you traveled to the right, it is called a sharp. In
music, moving up means youre moving higher in pitch. The black keys also have names
just as the white keys do, but to figure out their names is a little different. Each black key
is named by the key it directly follows. Beginning on the C, moving right to the black
key, the black key is therefore called a C-sharp. Sharp because you traveled higher in
pitch, or to the right, to approach it, and C because it directly follows the white key C
when moving to the right in direction. If you continue going up the scale, which again
means up or higher in pitch, you then come to a D, then another black key. This black
key weve now come across, since were going higher in pitch, and it directly follows a
D, is a D-sharp. Then we meet an E, then an F, F-sharp, G, G-sharp, A, A-sharp, B, and
then we find ourselves back to a C. Remember, going up the piano, the black keys are
referred to as sharps, and are named by whichever key they come directly after.

Now lets start from the opposite end of the piano, starting from the highest B
key, and work our way down the scale. Coming down the scale, the black keys are
referred to as flats and are given the name of the key they come directly after. Starting
from the B, to the left of that is a black key. That black key, since were now moving
down the scale, or in other words, to the left, is called a flat, and since it comes directly
after a B when moving left in direction, its called a B-flat. Then we have an A, A-flat,
G, G-flat, F, E, E-flat, D, D-flat, C, and then finally we end on B.

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The black keys are called sharps when moving up the piano from left to right, and
called flats when moving down the piano from right to left. Try testing yourself on these
keys and see how quickly you can name the keys accurately. One thing I used to do
when learning the names of keys, was I would close my eyes, press down any key, open
my eyes, and then try to name the key as quickly as possible. Try to use the shape of the
key that you press down, as well as its location, to your advantage in naming the key.
Now that you know the letters of the keys on the piano, as well as how to build a
basic major and minor chord, lets move on to a few other chords you may find in trying
to learn these songs by ear.

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IV: Advanced Harmonies

I will now introduce you to a few more chords that you just may find in the songs
that you learn. There are three chords I want to teach you which will be referred to as 7ths
, diminished, and augmented chords. Just as we learned our major and minor chords in
the last section by finding a starting key and counting from that key to our next
destination, we will use that same approach to learn these chords as well.
First lets start with the 7ths. 7ths add a unique sound to any song, but may be some
of the harder chords to figure out by ear. 7ths can also be played in both major and minor
modes. There are three kinds of 7ths that I will show you how to play: minor 7th,
dominant 7th, and major 7th. To begin, well start with a minor 7th. To play a minor 7th,
begin by playing any minor chord. Remember, our chord will have a root, a 3rd, and a 5th.
To play a minor 7th chord, youre simply going to add one more key to the minor chord
that you already have, and that will be referred to as the 7th. To reach our 7th, well start
with the 5th as our starting point, and in the same manner we did in the previous activities,
well count up 3 consecutive keys. Remember not to include the 5th as the first key, but
begin your count on the key to the right of the 5th. The third key that you land on will be
your 7th.

Play all four keys together and you have now played a minor 7th chord. If I were
to conduct this activity starting from the key of C as I did in the previous section, my
minor 7th chord would be a C, E-flat, G, B-flat.
Playing a dominant 7th and a major 7th are very similar in their structure. They
both begin with a major chord. First lets play a dominant 7th chord. To do this, start off
with any major chord. Now use your 5th as your starting point and count up three
consecutive keys. Your third key will be your 7th of the chord. Play the root, 3rd, 5th and
7th together and you have played a dominant 7th chord.

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Now well play a major 7th chord. To do this, just as you did with the dominant
7th, again were going to start off with any major chord, but this time, rather than
counting three keys up from our 5th, were going to count 4 keys up from our 5th. Putting
this root, 3rd, 5th, and 7th together, we have now played a major 7th chord. You may
notice that the major or minor mode of the 7th depends on the mode of the chord its built
on. If you play a 7th on a minor chord, you are playing a minor 7th chord, and if you play
a 7th on a major chord, you are playing either a dominant 7th chord or a major 7th chord.

Before we begin playing songs, well take a look at our last 2 chords: diminished
and augmented chords. Diminished and augmented chords, although are not as common
in songs as the 7ths may be, they still show up from time to time, so I felt it was
important to show you how to build these two unique chords.
Lets start with a diminished chord. To build a diminished chord is simple. First
you must pick your root. Then, count up three keys to find your 3rd. For your 5th, count
another 3 keys to your destination. Play these three keys together and you play a
diminished chord.

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An augmented chord is the exact opposite of a diminished chord. To build an
augmented chord, you must first start with a root, and from there count up 4 keys to find
your 3rd. Then, youll count up another 4 keys to find your 5th. Playing those three keys
together will give you an augmented chord. So recapping, the note spacing in a
diminished chord is root, 3, 3, while the note spacing in an augmented chord is root, 4, 4.

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Up until this point, we have covered, what I believe to be, all the basics necessary
for learning how to play songs by ear. Weve distinguished between melody and
harmony, weve learned the letter names of the keys, and along with that, weve learned
how to build major, minor, 7th, diminished, and augmented chords. I encourage you to
study and practice playing the material youve learned in the previous sections. Your
experience with these harmonies, along with your ability to recognize them, will help you
learn how to play songs quickly and easily. With your music knowledge, I have the
greatest confidence in your ability to play by ear. So, lets start playing!

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V: Ready to Play
Have you ever listened to songs within the same genre and noticed that some of
them may have sounded very similar? If this thought has ever crossed your mind, youre
not alone in this observation, matter of fact, youre probably right. Each genre of music
contains its own characteristics that set it apart from other genres of music. A group of
songs may fall into one genre but not another because of the lyrics of the songs, the
images of the artists of the songs, and the chord progressions of the songs.
As we mentioned earlier, a chord progression is the movement from one chord to
the next. One thing you may want to note is not all chord progressions work well
together, or in other words, not all chord progressions sound good when played with each
other. I can play one chord in the middle of the piano, and then jump all the way down to
the end of the piano and play another chord, and follow that by another chord played all
the way at the top of the piano. Yes, that would technically be considered a chord
progression, but it wouldnt be something youd like to listen to. Chord progressions are
used to support the melodies of songs, but to do this, you dont need to necessarily
include a lot of chords within the song. To be honest, most songs are just fine using as
little as two or three chords throughout the course of the entire song. As you begin to
play, youll find that most songs use no more than 4 chords. Throughout the course of a
song, the chords are played in patterns. To give you a better understanding of what I
mean, well take some of the typical and most commonly used chords used in the key of
C major and label them with numbers.
If a song is played in the key of C major, the most common chords you will hear
in that song are chords made up of the letters C-E-G, F-A-C, G-B-D, and A-C-E.

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Each chord that I just spelled out has a numeric value, based on its root, in
relation to the key its in. As I mentioned, we are in the key of C, so that makes C our
number 1. So a chord with a root of C will be called a 1 chord, since C is also the key
were in. It can also be viewed as our home key. You would then simply number each
corresponding letter of that scale, following C, its relative number. D would be 2, E
would be 3, F is 4, G is 5, A is 6, B is 7, and then we start right back at C being 1.

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Its important to know that just because the C I ended my count on wasnt the
same exact C I started my count from, that fact doesnt change its numeric value. In the
key of C, any C would be considered a 1. Now, lets build chords with different keys as
our roots, keeping in mind their respective numerical values. So if a chord is built on an
E, it would be considered a 3 chord in the key of C, simply because, in relation to C, E is
the third letter you come across.

If we built a chord on D, that chord would be considered a 2 chord in the key of

C, simply because, in relation to C, D is the second letter you come across. Looking back
at the most commonly used chords in the key of C, I mentioned a chord with C as the root
(C-E-G), a chord with F as the root (F-A-C), a chord with G as the root (G-B-D), and a
chord with A as the root (A-C-E). Giving numeric values to these chords, the C-E-G
would be considered the 1, the F-A-C would be considered the 4, the G-B-D would be
considered the 5, and the A-C-E would be considered the 6. So recapping, the most
commonly used chords in a major key are the 1 chord, 4 chord, 5 chord, and 6 chord. In
music, the order in which these chords are played, or the patterns theyre played in, can
come in different combinations. As you start playing, youll notice that chords are played
in common patterns. Once you get to the point of noticing the patterns of the chords, the

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chord progressions in songs will begin to be predictable to you, which is a good thing. If
you can find yourself listening to a song on the radio and accurately predict which chord
will follow another, then youre in great shape because youll know how to play the
chord progressions in your mind before you even reach for a piano.
I now want to show you the technique I use in learning the songs I hear. Well
break this method down into two parts that work hand in hand. The first part were going
to look at is a little method I like to call the Stop and Go Method. Executing the Stop
and Go Method, or well call it SGM for short, basically means that I use either my
computer, or iPod to listen to a song in small sections in order to learn it. I use anything
in which I can control the flow of the music, in terms of pressing play and pressing pause.
Remember, I mentioned earlier that when starting out doing anything youre new to, you
always want to start slow, and then speed up as you get more comfortable with what
youre doing. The SGM is a perfect example of starting slow.
The first thing I learn is the chord progression. The reason for this is because,
compared to the melody, its the hardest thing to pick up seeing that youre trying to
listen for multiple pitches being played at the same time. The melody found in the lyrics
is easier because its usually one pitch at a time, which to the piano interprets to one key
at a time. When executing the SGM, Ill start listening to the beginning of a song and
play a few seconds of it, just enough to hear the first chord, then Ill stop the music
immediately. What I want to accomplish by stopping the music right away is I want to
stop the song while the chord is still in my head. If Im listening for a chord, itll be a lot
easier to find that chord when its the only thing playing in my mind, opposed to if I let
the entire song play from start to finish, and then try to think back to the very first chord I
heard in the beginning of the song 3 minutes ago. Since were trying this method out for
the first time, Id suggest that if you can arrange it so that youre listening to the song
while trying to play it on a keyboard or piano at the same time, that arrangement would
be the best way.
I stop the music so that I can focus in on the sound I heard last. Heres where the
other half of the learning process comes in: humming. I made mention to humming in
the first section, here Ill show you exactly how it works. When listening to the song, try
to pick out the bass note and hum it. Continue to hum this note when you stop the music
from playing. If you cant find the note on your first try, dont get discouraged. Simply
start the song over and try again. Once youve successfully hummed the bass note, then
try to match the note that youre humming with its equivalent on the piano. Starting out,
this may not come to you as easily, but keep at it, youll get better. The advantage of
humming and finding the bass note first is, as mentioned in the previous section, usually
the bass note is also the root note of the chord being played with it. Let me make it
known that the bass note will not always be the root note, depending on the song you
choose to learn, but Id say a good 80% of the time, it is. So with that said, you can now
use the process of elimination to figure out which chord is being played with that bass
note as the root. Is it a minor chord? A major chord? A 7th chord? Use trial and error to
try and figure out the matching chord. Playing by ear utilizes a lot of trial and error,
especially when starting out, so dont get discouraged if you cant find the chord right
away. Replay the segment of music you initially started off with, and while the music is
playing, try playing your different chords to see which chord matches. Once youve
found the right chord that fits the puzzle, then you can move on to the next. Let the

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music play a little longer, then use the SGM to find the next bass note to help figure out
your next chord. Continue to do this method until youve reached the end of the song,
figuring out all the chords that are involved. Once youve worked your way through the
entire song, focusing solely on the chords, then its time to learn the melody.
The bass note is that which stands out to my ear the most, and along with that, as
you may have noticed from a previous section, the bass note is very often the same as the
root note. There are some exceptions where the bass note isnt the same as the root note,
but a good majority of the time, the bass note and the root note are the same. So by
finding the bass note on the piano, I can then find the root of the chord its being played
with. And from the root, all I have to do then is figure out if the chord is a major chord or
a minor chord, and then find its respective 3rd and the 5th to go along with it. Before I get
ahead of myself, let me take a few steps back and address a few things about the
humming aspect of this process. Some may wonder when to begin humming. You can
actually begin humming before you stop the song. I do that sometimes myself. I also
find that this works better in some cases. Treat it like a sing along. When you hear the
words to a song you love, you sing along with the artist, so why not hum along with him
too? The truth of the matter is, it doesnt really matter when you begin humming, in fact,
as you get more experienced with playing by ear, you wont need to hum at all, but since
were starting off, well incorporate this humming process. The bottom line is, all you
want to be sure of is that you can pick out a note from the song, and match that note on
your piano. The humming process allows you to be able to isolate notes from songs, as
well as works on your ability to match those notes on the piano. As you continue to train
your ear, youll begin to not only be able to hum the bass note, but there will come
instances where you will actually be able to hum the 3rd, and even the 5th of the chord as
well; therefore, making it easier to find and match the accurate chord on the piano.
Hum the melody of the original song and match it on the piano. Starting off, this
process could take a while, depending on how long the original song is and how fast the
singer is singing. For some songs, this may require more SGM than others, but be
patient. Also keep in mind that you want to feel comfortable playing each part with one
hand at a time, first, before you try and play them with both hands together. Once youre
comfortable, you can then pair up the melody with the chords of the song. Here is
another moment where you should keep in mind that starting slow is the best approach.
Usually what I would do is play the melody and the chords very slowly until I get to the
point where Im comfortable enough to play them, together, and at the regular tempo. To
do this takes time, especially when starting out, but dont get discouraged.
So recapping this section, we want to keep in mind to break the song up into
sections (melody & chords) and to do that, rely on your humming ability to match up the
sounds from the song with your piano.

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VI: Making It Your Own

Congratulations! You have now learned the letters of the keys on the piano, how
to build chords, and how to train your ear to learn songs just by listening to them. Before
I leave you, I want to give you a few last pointers which may help your creativity. When
making my interpretations of songs on the piano, I try to add little elements here and
there which may not necessarily be in the original song, but I feel they add uniqueness.
One thing I use is dissonance. Dissonance is a combination of two or more notes which
causes a painful or rough sensation to the ear. To hear an example of dissonance in
comparison to its counterpart, consonance, go to your piano and play a C and a C-sharp at
the same time. The sound these two notes produce is a dissonant sound. Now play a C
and a G at the same time. That sound is a consonant sound. I also try to make sure that
the rhythm of the song is displayed with my left hand in unique fashions. By utilizing
and mastering these techniques, mixed with your own creativity, youre bound to make
piano interpretations.
You are now equipped with all that I feel is necessary to go out and be able to
play by ear. You have the knowledge, now you just have to go out and do it. Practice,
practice, practice and youll quickly see results. Above all, do not give up. I thank you
for taking the time to read through my book and I hope you have benefited from it. Best
of luck on your new adventure!

Works Cited
Groves Dictionary of Music & Musicians Volume I. Ed. J.A. Fuller Maitland, M.A. F.S.H. New York:
The MacMillan Company, 1908

The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians Volume III. Ed. Stanley Sadie. New York: MacMillan
Publishers Limited, 2001

The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians Volume VII. Ed. Stanley Sadie. New York:
MacMillan Publishers Limited, 2002