How to play by ear – Example 1

How do I play by ear?

Here, it’s not a tutorial like the others, where you learn a song step by step, but this is more a video to show you the method I use to learn a song by ear. Anyway, as i decompose entirely the song, it shows you which notes to play for the melody and the chords for the left hand.

First of all, I was asked if I could do a tutorial on this piece and secondly, as many people think that playing by ear is difficult if you are not gifted, which it’s absolutely not true, I just would like to demonstrate how it’s easy to play by ear and how fast you can learn a song. 

This is not a lesson to explain step by step how to play by ear, but just an exemple to show you in realtime how I do.
As I didn’t play this song for years, I completely forgot it and had to learn it again from scratch. So, I sat next my piano and turn on my webcam while I tried to analyse the song and find the notes of the melody as well as the chords. I tried to say out loud what was going on in my head even it’s not obvious at all. Worse, I quote notes and I play other because in real I don’t think in term of note names when I play by ear. In this video, if I’m saying the note names, it’s just for a question of understanding.

I hesitated for a long time between publishing this video or make another one more professional. And finally I think that publishing my rushes will be more like Reality TV than a good video-montage. It will reflects more closely in real-time my way and my ideas, sometimes a bit confusing.

Once again, the purpose of this video is to show you how it’s easy and fast to play a song by ear once you know some tips and tricks. (you will find these tricks and tips in the “play by ear” part of my blog.