Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Harmonization and playing by ear, intermediate level

I am sorry if you get this question or something similar a lot. I thought I might find a FAQ, but I don't see one for this group.

I'm a classically trained pianist and can play fairly advanced classical pieces. I'd like to get better at harmonizing and playing by ear. I can pick out one line tunes easily, but I'm no good at chords. I bought this Karajin ear training to give me something to do when I'm not at the piano, but, after having all kinds of difficulty just telling minor, augmented, and diminished chords apart, I'm thinking maybe it's a waste of time trying to learn to identify chords out of context of music. I would rather have something like a collection of pieces that leads me through progressively more difficult sequences, where maybe I listen and try myself, then if I get stuck, I can look at a score.

At the moment I'm going through a book on music theory (The Complete Musician) and I'm also working through Levine's Jazz Piano book. But I think they're going to take me three years to get through them and the Jazz Piano book will be more than I can chew with out a teacher regardless. I don't aim to be a great or even good jazz pianist, I just want to be able to play out of my head more. I also don't want a "method" like a lot of these learn-to-play websites offer. I'd like to be able to play a variety of styles. I want to be a well rounded pianist.

So if you anyone could recommend maybe a book with CD or a list of pieces I might work through or other advice, I'd appreciate it. There' so much stuff out there, I'm feeling lost, and also impatient because I'm getting old.

when figuring out chords to a song, go for the bottom note first, they usually tell you what the chord is. It may get tricky if he is using inversions of a chord, but even he is, chances are the low note is the 3rd or 5th of the chord.

If you want to know what key a song is in, listen to the first and last chord of the tune. Most songs usually end on the tonic or the I chord. Here's the thing about chord progression, most tunes have some kind of I or V chord, maybe ii, and vi, and sometimes you can use the IV chord as a temporary home(like C7 in key of C). You should be able to figure out a good portion of a song just by knowing that.

Also look at the notes you are playing on the strong beat. If the chord is not changing, the notes on the strong beat will give away the chords.

What I would suggest is that you simply sit down at that piano and start improvising purely by ear, with no concern for theory or whether you're doing things the "right" way or not.

Gyro, did you teach Nora the cat how to play?

Whereas after three years of improvising by ear, you will have created thousands of original works for the piano. No contest as far as I'm concerned.

I think it's the other way around, Nora taught Gyro how to play.

Jjo, I'm skeptical. This improvisation you do now, what does it sound like? If you're of the mindset of most of the people here, I suspect it sounds too much like all the jazz piano you hear on Youtube, that is, it all sounds like "standard" jazz. I have no desire to play like that. What's the point in sounding like everyone else, is the way I see it. You might think my improv sounds terrible, because it doesn't sound like anything you've heard before, it's not the "correct" way to play jazz. But that's the whole point. I want to sound different from everyone else. What's the point in playing if you're just going to sound the same as everyone?

What I would suggest is that you simply sit down at that piano and start improvising purely by ear, with no concern for theory or whether you're doing things the "right" way or not. When you do this, everything you produce is your own original music, that no one else has ever played before, which is really amazing when you think about it.