Jazz Piano Chords – Learn How to Play Guitar or Piano by Ear

Learn How to Play Guitar Or Piano by Ear

Are you impressed with people who are able to play the piano, guitar or any musical instruments by ear? Do you reckon that these people are born with the talent to play music by ear? You know what? Play music by ear can be learnt. There are many methods to learn how to play piano or guitar by ear and in this article, we will explore one of these methods.

Are you able to recognize chords or scales without looking at music notations? Do you happen to know that the same chords are often repeated in most songs over and over again? If you do, then you are on your way to playing music by ear.

Playing by ear is not a matter of memorizing every chord and note in a song but by just being able to recognize the chord patterns of the song and being able to predict what chords or progressions will occur next. If you can do that, then you will be able to play by ear on any musical instruments.

Playing by ear is not a well kept secret nor is it a complicated process. On the contrary, the techniques and principles are simple and simple-to-know. If you are a novice and is struggling to learn music theory, you will know that the conventional method on learning how to play the piano or the guitar is a real challenge and will need to take years to master the musical instrument.

To place it candidly, learning, not to say mastering a musical instrument is not an simple task. It requires an intensive level of comprehension, application of the techniques and skill and most of all, a dogged determination.

Furthermore, it can never be really be mastered because there will always be something new to learn such as unused chord progression, unfamiliar music theory, or exploring different genres of music. So by learning how to play music by ear, you will then be able to cut through all the complexities in learning how to play the piano or the guitar in the conventional way.

The following are some simple techniques you must know in order to play any song by ear. The first step in learning to play by ear is to learn how the melody is constructed. Especially so when learning how to play jazz piano or the lead guitar because of the solo runs involved. This is because when you know how the melody line is constructed, you will then be more able to predict where the notes of the melody are going to be.

For instance, if you know that a melody is being played in the key of say, G major, you will then first assess whether this melody sounds like it is made from a major, natural minor, melodic, minor, harmonic minor, blues, or any other scale that you can reckon of.

So by knowing all of these scales and being able to recognize the scales with your ear, you can then eliminate notes that are less likely to be a part of the melody in most cases.

After recognizing melodies from scales, you will be more experienced and will be able to immediately play any tune in your head!

For example, if you recognized that a song is played in G major, by knowing the notes of the G major scale, knowing what notes are most likely to be played and knowing what notes are not likely to be played, you will then be able to predict what notes will be played and what notes have already been played. It is just that simple.

By knowing what scale the songs are made from, by knowing what notes are immediately eliminated or less likely to occur in a melody or tune and by knowing what notes are most likely to be repeated, you can learn and play any song on the guitar or piano by ear. Of course, there are more to this if you want to be an accomplished play by ear musician.

Chris Chew is the webmaster of a music learning website at How To Play Jazz Piano By Ear and How To Sing In Perfect Pitch

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Jazz Piano Chords – Piano Improvisation: Learn to Improvise on Your Piano by Faking

Piano improvisation: Learn To Improvise On Your Piano By Faking

Do you have a fake book? Just one of those songs could be the source of many meaningful exercises that will help you grow as a musicician and as a pianist.

What is a fake book?

A “fake book” contains songs written in a concise format that includes only the melody and chords, letting you interpret the song’s performance according to your own taste.

The songs in a fake book have a single melody written out in notes with the lyrics written beneath the notes. Above the notes of the melody you’ll find the names of the chords to play.

This format is very compact. You will often see fakebooks containing 500 or more songs. Here are some suggestions on how to use one of these songs for increasing your improvisational skills:

1. Chords. The suggested chords are often very rudimentary. Most jazz pianists spice up the songs with more elaborate chord progressions. Try to find more chords to use in the song. This exercise will increase your skills in chord theory.

2. Scales. When you have elaborated upon the chord progressions in the song you can choose scales that work with the chords you have chosen. If you find this hard to do you can buy scale books with scale suggestions for different chord progressions. This is an exercise in scale theory.

3. Practising piano chords. Start with the first chord in the song, play it in different positions on your piano and in different combinations.

4. Practicing chord progressions on the piano. Take a couple of bars of the song and practise to play the progressions over and over again varying the chord voicings.

5. Practicing scales on the piano. Start with the first chord and the scale you have chosen with it and start by playing the scale up and down the keyboard with the right hand and the left hand.

6. Practice piano improvisation with scales. As soon as you master playing the scale up and down the piano it is time to make music with the scale by playing around with it, making patterns and inventing melodies.

7. Practise piano improvisation. Take a couple of bars and play them over and over again with chord voicings in the left hand and improvising with the appropriate scales with the right hand.

It is also excellent to practice piano improvisation with your left hand and voicings with your right hand.

There are of course many more things you can do with a song in order to develop your skills in piano improvisation. Help yourself and don’t forget to have fun and to also play the song in its entirety with the melody.

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free piano sheet music and learn to play piano resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com


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Jazz Piano Chords – Learn How to Play Guitar or Piano by Ear

Jazz Piano Chords – Piano Improvisation: Learn to Improvise on Your Piano by Faking

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