Some students will immediately start guessing at random keys and listening to see if it sounds right. You can also tell them the key if they already have some scale knowledge, or just give a simple explanation such as telling them it only uses the white keys. Step 1: Starting Note and KeyĬhoose a key which will make things easy for your student and tell them what note to start on. Whatever you choose, make sure they know it and can sing it for you! It’s going to be very hard and demotivating to try and play a song by ear if they aren’t that familiar with it. If your student needs something a bit easier you might go with ‘Hot Cross Buns’ or ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ to get them going. I often start with ‘Happy Birthday’, as every student knows it and it’s a nice juicy one to work out.
If your student doesn’t have any particular song requests, a folk song which they know well is a great place to start. Teach Piano Students to Play Folk Songs by Ear Let’s take a closer look at how that might unfold when you’re teaching a folk song or a song your student has requested.
Use guiding questions to aid discovery.The basic process you’ll follow in either case is: For students with specific requests or strong inclinations towards a particular genre, you can work on this skill using any song they want to learn. In this article, I’ll give you my step-by-step process to get your students started along with 2 examples of how the process will look in action.įor the generalist student who doesn’t have any strong opinions about what they want to learn, I recommend getting them started with playing folk songs by ear.
#Learning piano by ear practice how to#
I believe we not only can, but should teach all our students how to play piano by ear. What about the other way around, though? Can we teach piano students to play by ear if they don’t do it instinctively? They tend to get all the press, as teachers are often grappling to find ways to teach them to read music as well. Some students just naturally gravitate towards playing piano by ear.
0 kommentar(er)
