That is why, when playing by ear, we always recommend that you start with playing pop songs first, because you can rely on that music using common chord progressions.Īs soon as you start to learn more about chord progressions you start to pay more attention to the music you hear. These are not used by accident, they're used by songwriters specifically to gain a particular mood from the listener: familiarity & comfort = POPULAR MUSIC! You might not know what that term means but you definitely know it when you hear it, it usually signals the end of a section or song. Originated around the 50s and it's used in many things today. Here are some you might be familiar with - The blues progressionĮven if you don't know what that is you know that you've heard it before. Songwriters will employ these common chord progressions so that you find the music familiar & comforting. When we hear music and it sounds normal, familiar or comfortable it's because the songwriters have decided to use a common chord progression.Įven if you heard a song for the first time it would feel normal if it had used a common chord progression–not because we've heard it so many times–but because the combination of those chords has a magical power* that makes us feel comfortable. When you're listening to music and it sounds normal, how are we able to tell? If we are figuring out a chord by ear, it helps us to know about why someone would choose to use a certain type of movement or a certain type of chord progression, and what chord progressions most people are likely to use. And we can be purposeful about what we move to and how we move there to create a desire effect for the listener. When we add movement to our chords we get something exciting. But when we are listening to music, it's rare that there is only one chord, it’s usually involving a series of chords, it's harmony with movement. What gives music its power and emotiveness is harmony. It’s a slow, frustrating progress because playing by ear seems like an easier way to learn songs than reading from sheet music, but in the moment it takes a long time to develop those skills. When we're playing by ear sometimes it can feel like we're just stabbing the notes in the dark, blindfolded trying to find which keys we need to play. My mum always said that I should teach piano and I vehemently disagreed… until I realised that I could do it differently and actually teach people the skills that I'm passionate about: creative piano playing. But then I discovered a whole other world of creative piano playing! This is essentially why I am a piano teacher! I never wanted to be a piano teacher when I was younger because I didn't want to teach the things that I was being taught (traditional/classical methods). When you learn piano the traditional way, it's not likely that you are going to be given these tools, and that just makes me sad. This is something that most piano teachers do not, or cannot, teach. But what I'm about to share is something that I did not discover until I did my music degree at university! Music was the biggest part of my life and playing by ear was one of those things that I loved to do. I played in the church band and I played in other bands, we wrote songs and performed. When I was younger I did all the grades, up to grade 8 in Piano Performance.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |