Playing It By Ear
Our girls used to get piano lessons from their mother. But those lessons were never very regular at all. As a mom with a basic ability to play the piano, I feel some guilt for not passing this skill onto my children. I feel that learning to play an instrument, any instrument, is a good thing for everyone. And knowing how to play the piano even a little bit will give them another talent they can use to serve others. In the last few years, there have been almost no lessons at all for any of our sweet girls. If one of them asks me to teach them a lesson and it's something we actually have time for in that moment I'm happy to do it, but it's not something that is planned and scheduled so it rarely happens. Feeling that this is a good or a bad thing varies widely from child to child.
Of all our girls, Madison is the most dedicated and able pianist. Because I was younger and perhaps more optimistic in her piano lesson days, she got more lessons from me than anyone else. And when I didn't sit down each week to teach her she was interested enough in playing that she'd go over to the piano and teach herself. After Madison, Samantha is our child who is most interested in playing the piano, even when I'm not teaching her how to do so. She's the one most often asking for lessons, or asking for help to figure a piece out, or just sitting at the piano playing songs she already knows because she enjoys playing.
One thing that I've always struggled with when teaching Samantha is teaching her how to read music. She has a really strong sense of pitch and can usually hear music and then play it without the notes on the page. She also has a fantastic ability to remember pieces even though she really struggles when first learning a new song. I think it's because she makes almost no connection between the notes on the page and the keys on the piano. So she plays by ear or from memory and I keep hounding her about it and reminding her that eventually she'll want to play music that is too complex to basically bluff her way through - she will need to know how to read music easily and accurately.
Like many teenagers, Samantha doesn't always take her parent's advice. Yesterday I heard her playing the piano. It's not a song I really remember her playing before and I know we don't have any sheet music for Shawn Mendes songs. She told me she just, and I quote, "figured it out on her own." She was a little frustrated because it wasn't perfect, but I have no doubt she'll get there soon. So maybe playing by ear isn't such a bad thing. Any actual pianists have some wisdom to share? Is this a talent I should encourage or just a bad habit?
There are very few people who can play by ear, even some of the highest paid musicians, and there are only a very few I am told in University classes, who can interpret music by listening. Many who can read music, can't play by ear. However, it is also good to read music. It gives you an opportunity to check that what you are playing is absolutely correct and it makes it easier for other people to play any music you might write yourself. Having written music is also less time consuming in the learning process. Smallwoods Pianoforte tutor is a splendid book for learning to read music. Just like we learned to talk before we could read, we should ideally learn to recite written music before we can read it. However, most people learn to read music and never really learn how to listen to it and play it by ear I am afraid I am one of these people. Once you learn to sheet music, you can often pick things up and play them almost immediately.
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