I wish I had the natural talent or training to play by 'ear' ... I admire musicians who can hear where the chord changes are going ... Obviously, except for a ton of songs I've memorized, I play with music, mostly lead sheets with lyrics, lyrics with chords over them, or fake books ... I make up my own 'book' of tunes I play by making copies from the books I purchase ... I have found that using the arranger kb (kn6000) my ear is getting better, especially if playing along with a midi file ... but I'm not going to be doing any 'open mike nites' anytime soon ...
t.
PS A lifetime ago when I was teaching accordion, an adult came to the studio saying he wanted to learn how to play by reading music ... After a few weeks, I felt he was still relying on his ear, even though he denied it ... So I wrote out something like "Mary had a little lamb" but titled it "Popeye the sailor man" ... sure enough one week later the student gave me a great rendition of "Popeye" ...
t.

Interesting topic, Scott.

I began formal musical training by the age of 8 and never had "play by ear" lessons. I learned to play by ear much later, by the age of 17/18, and all by myself. Later, I developed an interest for jazz/latin music, listened to a lot of records, and took some lessons (for a short time, unfortunately) with two jazz pianists.

My approach to learn songs is the following. Most of the songs that people expect that I play, are portuguese pop, portuguese popular, brazilian standards, latin, and some international [english/american pop, some country, mainly] and have a rather simple chord structure / melody. I normaly easily memorize the chord progression (no "complicated" chords are needed; minor, 7ths, 6ths are usually enough) and the main melody line, from hearing a record of the song (or 2/3 different versions). All I have in front of me when I play live, are the lyrics (no chord table or LeadSheet), except in the case of a more unusual progression that I tend to forget (in that case I write a note near the lyrics). The exceptions are jazz or jazzy tunes, Jobim tunes, etc, that require more refined chords. In these cases I always have a LeadSheet with chords. My audiences - in parties or clubs - generally prefer "easy tunes"; however when in a lounge venue I play mostly by LeadSheet w/ Chords.

Examples: Girl from Ipanema, One Note Samba, Tenderly (LeadSheet w/ Chords); I play a country medley - Blowin'in the Wind + Take Me Home, Country Roads - entirely by ear.

-- José.

Though I've been trying to learn to read music for three decades, there has always been a mental block to the translating the symbols in the cobwebs of my mind. I began playing music at age 4 when I sat down at my aunt's piano and plinked Tennessee Waltz in the key of "C". Instantly, my mother insisted that I take piano lessons, which I did for just over a year. Unfortunately, I never was able to comprehend sheet music, but for some strange reason, I've always been able to hear a song one or two times and then play it. My wife says I could have taken Dustin Hoffman's role in Rain Main. These days, I still have to glance at the lyrics once in a while (the mind was the second thing to go in the aging process), and I'm still trying to learn to read, but every time I look at the sheet music, the song just pops into my head and I play it. I may miss a chord or two in a progressive run, but most of the time, unless you were an accomplished musician, the audiences never know.

Though I wish I could read, there is a lot to be said for those who cannot. I have several friends that read and they do not have the ability to adlib, extend the length of a song when the dance floor is filled to capacity or play a song in any key other than the one on the sheet music. Those of us that can't, have all those things going for us.

Maybe one day I'll learn to read, but it's sure tough when you reach Social Security age to teach an old dog new tricks.

Cheers,

Gary

Being able to read has always been on my wish list...along with wishing to be taller, slimmer, better looking, etc.

But the fact is, I was invited to cease piano lessons as a kid due to the generation gap between me and my teacher. Her idea of music and mine were miles apart.

I doubt the words "Rock and Roll", "Country" or "Blues" were in her vocabulary.

But, I loved music and, thru shear tenacity, learned to play by ear.

Where there is a will......

Eddie

I started playing organ in my early teens using sheet music. My teacher taught me music theory as well. I quit after 3 years, not sure why. Just took up keyboards again in my early 50's. I looked for contemporary christian music that I wanted to play on the internet and found only lyrics and chords. Since I heard these songs many times before, I played the melody by ear. In a few months I had accidentally taught myself to play by ear. Still need to know what the chords are though. This means YOU CAN TEACH YOURSELF TO PLAY BE EAR: put the sheet notes away and force yourself to figure it out. I will have to put the chords away to teach myself to hear the chords, but I'm sure this can be done.
Starkeeper

Thanks to EVERYONE here who's responded so far. Some very enlightening comments. I hope more of you will add your 2 cents to this thread topic as well. - Scott

Scott,

this is a good thread.

I play mostly by ear/from memory. Although I can play in most easy keys (up to 4 sharps or flats), I find it easier to play in one or two keys. Lately, though, I find myself performing a lot more, and as I expand my repertoire to the music which is not all familiar, I find it comforting to have lead sheets to remind me of how it goes. Except for the most harmonically-challenging pieces, I do not use the chords on the lead sheet, but play my own harmonies, though I am talking about popular/not so popular music, not Debussy or Stravinsky.

Regrettably, I am not able to read music in real time, while playing the keyboard with the accompaniment going, though I could do it for clarinet (that was my musical training), decades ago.

Regards,
Alex

The "Ears" have it...
All in favour....say "ear"

I started playing organ at about age 4 and although we had music books and something similar to the fake books described, I was not able to reead them at that point. I was able to read a little music and real words as well by the time I started the first grade, but I soon found that that I derived a lot more pleasure when I played by ear, and subsequently that I was better at that than playing from notation.

Today I can read standard notation but I'm not particularly good at doing it in real time. As I grew up I found that reading music did help me to learn the proper fingering / notes for the complex chords and scales, but I still prefer 'ear" play. The other thing that has helped me though is reading and understanding midi notation. Those who still believe in learning by standard notation might want to disagree, and that's ok too, but with midi technology at the forefront, [ particularly for me as a keyboard player in today's world ], midi notation has been instrumental in helping me to write music and to better understand ( and use in real time ) different timings and patterns in general.

AJ

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 01-27-2003).]

Pete Seeger once said when asked this Q in an interview "Pete, do you read music?" Pete's reply "not enough to hurt my playing."

I agree with his reply and prefer to be a better ear player for improvisation reasons, which to me is where some of the most happenin' music comes out. People just jammin' freely sans the confines of charts.
jam on,
Terry

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