Using the 1 4 5 progression and arpeggios'

[peteh]

I am trying to learn piano in two ways side by side. The first using basic music notation which I understand to grade 2 so far. The other is by ear. I can do all the 1 4 5 chord changes in all majors and arpeggios'. I am just asking how I can use this to play stuff by ear. I hope I'm making sense.
Pete

[andreadvacchiano]

Hi Pete.

There are two aspects to being able to play by ear. First you need to be able to recognise what's goin on in the music you are hearing. Then secondly you need to be able to transfer that onto the piano. Let's look at these two aspects in more detail.

When you listen to a piece of music, you need understand what is being played. What the chords are, or the releationship between the chords. The melody. The harmony. All these things need to be understood.

The best way to go about learning this skill is through 'ear training'. You say you have been playing 1 4 5 chord progressions, but it's not enough just to play them. You need to really listen to them, and focus on how the chords sound in relation to each other. So then, whenever you hear that progression in a piece of music, you will recognise it, and instantly know how to play it.

Of course, there are many other chord progressions. Too many in fact to memorise each one. So a better way to go about it is to learn different types of chords, ie. major, minor, diminshed, augmented, 7th chords, ect.

Play these chords on the piano and listen to how they sound, again so that when you hear one in a piece of music, you will recognise it.

As well as learning to recognise chords, you will need to recognise 'intervals'. Intervals are the distances between two notes, and are the basis of all chords and melodies.

Once you can identify all the intervals (there are 12 in an octave) you will be able to recognise chords and melodies instantly just by hearing them.

This brings us to the second aspect of playing by ear.

It's all very well being able to hear, and recognise what's going on in a piece, but that's no good if you can't actually play it.

So, you need to learn how to play all the types of chords in all different keys, and you need to learn where all the notes are (intervals) in relation to each other on the keyboard. This is where scale practice comes into play.

It sounds like a lot of work, and i guess it is, but it's not as dificult as it seems, and once you get the hang of it you'll start to improve more quickly.