Piano Tricks

Most people say that playing by ear is something that cannot be taught. I disagree with hard work, diligence, and patience, anything is possible. I want to give a few pointers on playing by ear. If you want to get good at playing by ear you need to familiarize yourself with common chord changes. I will give you a few of the most common chord changes. Often used are the I-IV-I, I-vi-IV-V, I-IV-ii-V-I, I-IV-V-I, and iii-vi. (If you are unfamiliar with this kind of notation read my previous post on Basic Notation). Now what you will need to do is start to recognize these patterns in various songs and when you hear them you will know what chords to play. I suggest you practice playing these various chord progressions in different keys so that you can get used to hearing how they sound. Then when you hear them in a song you will be able to play them. Once you begin to listen for these chord progression in various songs, you will soon notice that a lot of songs use the same chord progressions but just tweak the actual position of the notes to give it a different sound. If you have any questions you can leave a comment and I will try my best answer the question in the next post.