learn piano by ear Now it's YOUR turn to be the life and soul of the party!. Click Here 👈 playing by ear on the piano can ...
learn piano by ear
Now it's YOUR turn to be the life and soul of the party!. Click Here 👈
playing by ear on the piano can be an impressive skill and it can look pretty miraculous when you see someone listen to a song and recreate it on the piano but although it can look like magic when you see someone play something they've never heard before it's actually just a process of deduction in a musician's head they're going through a series of steps to narrow down the possible notes that a song could be using so in this video I'm going to take you through the seven steps to working out a song by ear on the piano I'm going to tell you exactly how to practice it and I'm going to give you examples for each step so you can see how it's done so let's get into it so firstly it's important to know that in music there are actually only 12 different possible notes we have the notes a b c d e f and g and then there are five notes that go in between these notes and these are called Sharps and flats the word sharp just means one up so if I was to play an A an a sharp would be one key above the A and the word flat means one down so if I was to play an A flat I would play one key below the a this means that each of the five Black Keys actually has two names because it's one above a key but it's also one below a key these 12 notes just repeat up and down the piano as lower and higher versions of the same notes so when listening to a song and trying to find any notes that are in that song we are only going to be looking at 12 different possible notes the first step in working a song out by ear is actually the most difficult because it's the only step where we have nothing to go on so step one is to listen to a piece of music and try and just sing any note that you hear in that piece of music once you've sung that note try and hold that note pause the song and then find the note out of those 12 notes on the piano and we want to do this three or four times so we've got a handful of notes and for this I'm going to be using a song called Who's That Girl by an artist called [Music] efl so out of that little Melody section there I can hear the first note is H so I'm going to try and find that note on the piano so so now I know that that note is a b I'm going to do the same thing again with a different [Music] note so that note's a [Music] g that note's an FP or a g flat cuz it's one above an f and one below a g and I'll do one more [Music] note so that note goes back to the second note we had so so far I've got a b a g an F sharp or a g flat and then going back to a g it really doesn't matter what the notes are that you hear in the song or whether you just sing a note that sounds like it works in that song as long as it sounds like it works in the song the song is probably using it so now that we've worked out a handful of notes that we think are in the song now we can move on to step two which is to work out the scale now working out the scale is the best and easiest way to narrow down the 12 possible keys that a song could be using and that's because every single song uses a scale and a scale actually only uses seven notes rather than 12 notes each scale uses one of each of the letters a b c d e f and g but each scale has different Sharps flats or normal notes in them for example a scale might be using an a might be using an A flat or it might be using an a sharp but it will only be using one of those types of a and the likelihood is that the song that you are listening to is probably going to be using one of 12 scales and each of these scales is definitely worth just learning if you want to work out songs by ear regularly but if you don't know these 12 scales then it's good to have them written down somewhere for when you do want to work out a song by ear the only scales that this song could be using are the scales that include a b a g an FP or a g flat and a g so essentially now we want to go through this list of scales and cross out any scales that don't include those notes and in this particular case the only scale that uses these notes is a G Major scale and if you find that you're left with a few different options of the scales it could possibly be then go back to listening to the song and try and work out a few more notes so that you can narrow it down even further so the notes in A G Major scale are the notes g a b c d e and f Shar before we get back to another G so we know that this song is only going to be using those notes okay now step three is finding the bass notes now the bass notes will help us yet again narrow those seven notes down even further in a song the bass notes just refers to the notes that sound the lowest in Pitch so that could be played on a bass guitar it could be the lowest notes played in a piano part it's the notes that kind of hum underneath all of the rest of the music so for this you want to pick a section of the piece of music where is easiest to hear those low notes that might be a verse it might be a chorus it might be a bridge section the good thing about this is now we only have seven possible notes that could be used in that Basse part this time instead of singing it and playing all 12 notes to try and find which one it is I'm going to play through the scale to find out which note is being [Music] used the so this to me sounds like there are four bass notes and then it repeats and a lot of the time you get three or four bass notes that repeat throughout the verse and then a different set of three or four bass notes that repeat throughout the chorus so now I'm just going to sing them and try and find them using that [Music] scale so that note is actually just a g which is the first note in the scale and you'll actually find that a lot of the time the first bass note that you hear will often be the first note in the [Music] scale so that note is a b which is note three in the scale that's an e which is note six in the [Music] scale and that's note five in the scale which is a d so our Basse notes are g b e and then D so at this point we actually have quite a lot of information about the song that we've just pulled from nowhere and now using the bass notes and the scale we're going to move on to step four which is working out the Triads but before we get into that if you are interested in Reading Sheep music then I have just released a beginners gu to reading Sheep music it includes how to read notes how to read note lens all of the symbols and markings that you can see in a piece of music and what they mean along with methods to get good at reading music very quickly so if you are interested in learning to read cheet music and you want to get the best start and not miss anything then check it out with the link in the description and you can use code Feb 10 for an extra 10% off until the 19th of February okay back to the important stuff now in music the basis of all possible chords are Triads and a Triad is just a three note cord and using a scale we can actually make seven Triads because we can make a Triad starting on every note in that scale to form a Triad we essentially play every other note in the scale so chord one using the scale of G major would be g b and d chord 2 would be a c and e which is an a chord chord three would be b d and f sharp which is a B chord four would be c e and G which is a c chord five would be d f sharp and a which is a d chord six would be EG and B which is is an E chord and seven would be F A and C which is an F chord if we go up one more we just get back to another G chord so those are the seven possible chords that this song could be using and we're going to have one chord with every single bass note that we play so because our first Basse note was a g the chord that we play also needs to include a g and out of those seven chords there are actually only three of the chords that include a g and this will be the same for any bass note that you work count there will be three options that include that Basse note so now we've narrowed down 12 possible notes on the piano to seven possible notes on the piano and we've narrowed that down to three possible chords so using a G Major scale the three chords that include our first base note in this example which is a g are the chords G which is Chord number one then we have a c chord which has a g at the top and this is Chord number four cuz C is note number four and our third option is an E chord which is Chord number six because G is in the middle of this chord so now what we need to do is play each of these chords in the right hand with a g in the left hand while playing each of these three chords in the right hand to see which one we think sounds the closest to the song so the first option is g with a G chord the second option is g with a c chord and the third option is g with an E chord now to me the closest out of those three possible chords is g with a G chord and hopefully you can also hear that so now we can go through that exact same process with each of the other three bass notes that we've worked out for this section so here our Basse note was a b and the three possible chords that include a b using a G scale are a G chord because that has a B in the middle a B chord because that has a b at the start and an E chord cuz that has a b at the top now out of those three possible options to me this one which is a B chord sounds the closest to what's in the actual song so so far we have a G chord with a g in the base and a B chord with the b in the Basse our third bass note was an e and the three possible chords using a G scale include an e are an E chord which is Chord six a c chord which is Chord four or an F a chord which is Chord two so out of these three chords the one that sounds closest to the song to me is an E chord with an e in the Basse which means the three chords so far are a G chord with a g in the bass a B chord with a B in the Basse and an E chord with an e in the bass so at the last chord we had a D in the Basse and the three possible options with a D in it are a G chord that has a DN it at the top which is Chord one A B chord that has a DN it in the middle that's chord three and a d chord which is Chord five and has a d at the bottom of it so to me out of those three possible chords A D chord sounds like it's the closest to what's in the song which means our four chords for this section of the song are a G chord with a g in the bass a B chord with a B in the bass an E chord with an e in the Basse and a d cord with a D in the Bas initially it might take a little bit of time just going through each of the possibilities and training your ear to hear which one you think sounds correct and at this point you can go through step three and step four which is working out the bass notes using the scale and working out the Triads for each of those bass notes for each of the sections of the song now in a standard song you'll find that there is some structure to it and you often have a verse A Chorus and a bridge section you might also have an intro and an outro or some solo section depending on what the song is but if you listen through the song and make a mental note of which sections there are in the s song then you will know that the chords that are in the verse are going to be the same in every verse that you hear and the chords that are in the chorus are going to be the same in every chorus that you hear so you actually only need to work out two or three sections in a song so at this point move on to a different section of the song and work out the bass notes and the chords and then you should have an outline of the chords and bass notes for the entire song she walks around around like she could rule the world she goes for everything that she say what would it take for me to be like her so the chord for the chorus sounds to me like a c chord with a c in the base an E chord with an e in the Bas and then a c chord with a c in the bass an E chord with an e in the Basse and then a d chord with the D in the base and then a long held G chord so once you've worked out the entire song that takes us onto level number five which is to work out the melody now if you are playing a song and you want to sing along to that song then you can skip this step all together and move on to step number six but for those that want to be able to play the melody on the piano as well with the chords and bass notes that they're playing then that's the next step that we need to work through so Melodies are a little bit more challenging to prescribe a method for working them out because Melodies are different in every single song that you'll come across and they are one of the distinguishing factors between different songs however there is still a lot of formula that we can use in order to narrow down what the melody is actually doing so firstly Melodies will also only be using notes that are in the scale so we're still only using seven of those 12 notes Melodies are also most likely going to gravitate and use notes from the chord that are underneath it so for example in the section of this song where I have a G chord with a g in the base the melody is probably going to be using a g a b and a d more often than not the reason for this is because because if a Melody is using notes that aren't in the chord the notes are going to be clashing against the chord so when you're looking for a Melody the first place to start is using those three notes that are in your Triad if a Melody is using notes that aren't in the chord they are usually using something called a passing note or an auxiliary note and a passing note means it's just going from one chord note to another chord note using a note in between for example this is a G chord which is GB and D the melody might be using a d and then it might use a c to get to the B the D and the B are both chord notes and the C is a passing note to get you from one chord note to another chord note another way that Melodies often use notes that aren't in the chord is by using an auxiliary note and that's going from one note that's in the chord out of the chord and then back to the same note this is kind of a similar idea where the melody is using notes that aren't in the chord but it's not for that long and it's just a kind of moment momentarily add a little bit of tension against the chord that's underneath it also if a Melody is jumping around and not moving by step in the scale when it jumps it's most likely going to be jumping to another note that's in the chord for example my notes here are GB and D in a G chord and I could be jumping from a b to a g or from a d to a g or from a b to a d or from a G2 a b essentially more often than not the melody is going to be using notes from the chord and if it isn't using notes from the chord it's probably not that far [Music] away so because I know that there's a G chord underneath this the first place I'm going to look for the notes is using either GB and D from the chord and because the first note I think sounds like a I'm going to try each of these notes to see if it is in fact one of the notes in the chord and it is it's a b the second note to me is a so once again I'm going to try notes from the chord and it is a [Music] g so here we have a note that isn't in the chord but it goes straight back to a note that is in the chord so this note here is an auxiliary note because it's going out of the chord and then back in so fortunately this pattern repeats over and over again so the actual notes we get are b g f g e g d g then the first part of that repeats but this time it goes up to d g EEG instead now at this point you might be thinking well we have bass notes we have chords and now we have a Melody so how are you supposed to play three things when you only have two hands and for this the two things that we cannot sacrifice are the bass notes or the melody because those are the structural things that make up a piece of music so for this what we actually want to do is try and include some notes from the chord in the right hand with the melody so we know for the entire time that we have a g in the base here the chord is a G chord which is the notes GB and D so we want to include a g a b or a d wherever it's possible to add at least one or two of those notes in so for example because the melody here is I can probably add a d to this melody and because a d is part of that G major chord that will sound pretty good and because for the second half the melody goes up a bit I might add a b into that section cuz that's quite near where the melody is so that would give [Music] me which sounds a little bit more interesting than just playing the melody on its own and that means that we don't have to sacrifice the chords the melody or the bass note and then we can do this to each of the sections of the song and once again when you first start doing this working out what the bass notes are working out what the chords are and then working out the melody might take some time for each section but as you start to see the same chords the same bass notes the same scales the same patterns with melodies come up time and time again you'll start to get much faster at the process so that takes us on to step number six which is adding Rhythm and texture to you're playing so firstly we can thin out or thicken the texture depending on what we want to do with it or depending on what's happening in the song if we want to thin out the texture then we can just play the music a lot higher on the piano because the higher you go on the piano the more sparse and spread out the notes sound for example if I play a G chord here the notes sound quite distant whereas if I play a G chord here they all sound really dense so the higher up you move on the piano the more sparse and thin textured you can make it sound we can also thin out the texture by playing a lot less often so for example instead of going I might just hold [Music] notes and that will sound much thinner however in the opposite direction to make a song Sound much thicker textured there are also several things we can do so firstly in the left hand instead of just playing a single bass note we can play something called octaves and octaves are just where you play two of the same type of notes so if I'm playing a g I can actually play two G's in the left hand and these are an octave apart because they're actually eight notes in the scale apart so this will immediately thicken out that texture just a bit more if you don't want to use octaves then instead you can use something called fifths and like it says on the tin fifths are just five notes apart and they are actually just the outer notes of the full chord so a full G chord would be GB and D if you take out the middle note you're actually five notes apart in the scale which is a fifth so you could try these in the left hand another thing we can do is play Left Hand patterns to make it sound more thick textured and interesting and one of the best patterns we can do in the left hand involves arpeggiating the chord and arpeggiating just means separating out the notes in the chord so if we have a G chord playing the notes GB and D separately would be arpeggiating the chord so in the left hand if we have a G chord we could play a g followed by a d missing out that b in the middle there and then another G and then if we put our third finger over to play b d g this is one of the most common patterns that you will see when someone is playing by ear and this is because using this pattern you can go up and down the piano as much as you like so you can start really low and go g d g BD G BD G bdg and then back down and this allows you to take one simple Triad and turn turn it into something that's really big across the piano the other thing that you might want to do if you want something a little bit simpler that's a more rhythmic idea is you could play Just repeated octaves or fifths in the left [Music] hand so to demonstrate this I'm going to quickly work out the chorus for this song and show you how I might approach the texture and Rhythm for it like she could R the world she goes for everything that she Des say what would it take for me to be like her I want to know so for the chorus if I wanted to make it slightly thinner textured then I might go for playing fifths in in the left hand and filling out the texture a little bit with chord notes in the right hand and I might get something like [Music] this but if I wanted to make it less of a paired down piano cover version and I wanted to make it a bit more similar to the real song where it's a bit bigger then I might start using some of that left hand pattern to thicken out the texture and play a few more chord notes in the right [Music] hand so that's level six and level number seven is making your chords more interesting and I have actually broken down playing chords into eight different levels and I actually take you through those eight levels in this video here so if you're interested in that then head on through and I will see you there ...
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