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Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear
Feb
12
The most fun thing to do when playing piano is to pull out the piano bench, stretch out the limbs and let rip with a song you’ve previously learned, or a solo piece you’re experienced with. What’s not so much fun is staying on piano benches attempting to learn what all the squiggles and dots of music notation are, and trying to read them as quickly as possible. Often the music you’re trying to study will be thrown into a sheet music cabinet, not to be considered until motivation happens to strike again. Is practicing reading notation all that important? Wouldn’t it just be superior to focus on the areas of playing that is fun and simple?
The answer to that is a definite “No”. In order to become a well-rounded musician, the difficult aspects of music are going to have to be studied along with the easy parts. But in saying that, I’m misrepresenting the actuality of learning music. The fact is that all aspects of musical learning can be fun, and as you become more and more proficient in reading music notation, you’ll find yourself enjoying the experience.
The basics of reading music are pretty elementary. The challenge, of course, is learning to comprehend these symbols well enough so that it becomes second nature.
If you’ve decided to begin practicing to read notation, make sure that you do it consistently. Don’t just cram in as much learning as you can while your motivated and then forget about it until the urge to learn again comes back. It’s better to practice reading notation for ten minutes every day than to practice for a full hour every six days. You want the meanings of symbols to stick in your head the same way writing does.
Notice for a minute how easy it is for you to comprehend everything I’m writing here. If you’ve ever tried learning a language with a unique set of letters, you’ll know just how hard it can be to get into your brain what those squiggly lines are. But when it comes to reading English, we don’t think of squiggly lines or even single letters, the words simply jump out at us with seemingly little effort from our mind.
The same is possible| to achieve with reading music symbols, and it’s called sight-reading. Sight-reading can only be achieved with the classic method of practice, practice, practice.
Remember, when you find something in music that’s hard to learn, that’s a good thing. The more difficult something is for you to learn, the more your mind will benefit from attacking the problem straight on. Some musicians focus on repeating solo pieces they know well and can play fast, while some are always looking for what they don’t know, for things they can do better. This is what differentiates a great musician from all the others.
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