Playing the piano by ear tends to be something that you either can do or you can’t. As someone who learned to read music at the age of 6, there was never really a chance for me to explore the piano and maybe play the piano by ear. I’m not saying that I regret the path I took, but I have wondered whether an ability to play the piano by ear was squashed before I even had a chance to develop it.
I have somewhat frequently come across people that tell me that they play the piano by ear – that they just sit down at the piano and quickly work out how a song or piece of music is played. I freely admit that I am envious of those people who can play by ear, because I had to have about 12 years of piano lessons to get to where I am today.
It is interesting and a little sad that when people find out that I am a piano teacher and they tell me that they can play the piano by ear, all of them seem somewhat apologetic because they can’t read music, or they can only read a very little amount. I’ve never understood this because I have always thought that playing by ear was a different talent, but still a talent nevertheless. Seriously, if you think about it, there are some people that have never had a music lesson in their life and yet, through merely listening, they can work out how to play a piece of music on the piano in minutes. To me this seems absolutely insane because I have had to be taught everything I know about playing the piano. When I say everything, I mean I have been taught literally everything I know about the piano.
Apart from the fact that all of the people who I have ever met that can play the piano by ear just worked it for themselves without ever having any piano lessons, I do think it is possible to learn to play the piano by ear. In fact, when my kids are fully grown and I have more time on my hands, I am wanting to see whether I can learn to play the piano by ear. I do believe it is entirely possible as there are resources available for people to learn. The most obvious source is YouTube but I also know that there have been books written on the subject as well. In the future, I plan to review some of these.
When it comes down to it, it really doesn’t matter whether you read music or play by chords or play by ear. Playing the piano is playing the piano and no one should think that there style or genre is any less authentic or suitable than others. It is important that you are unapologetic about the way you play, or want to play the piano and that you enjoy your time playing.