PIANO LEARNING STUDIO - LEARN TO PLAY PIANO COVERS BY EAR - Basic 1

Welcome to our learning studio where we share tips and tricks for piano playing! In this first article, we're going down into the practical stuff that'll help you get your game up. We know that many of you out there are picking up musical instruments by yourselves without a teacher. Hopefully, you'll able to benefit from the experiences that we're sharing!

If you have read this post, You'd probably understand by now that the more songs you learn, the better you are able to play song covers by ear. There is no shortcut to it.

Translating sound into playable notes

Before we even venture into real songs, there is one basic skill that everyone needs to know. You can't run without learning how to walk first right?

Scales

You don't have to know every one of them by heart, but you need to know the easiest. 

Start of with C major. 

C D E F G A B C

Learn to hum the notes in your mind, or if you prefer, you may sing them out loud. You might find it hard to articulate these alphabets, try this instead:

Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do

Now try humming or singing backwards

Do Ti La So Fa Me Re Do

Repeat the scales by singing it repeatedly.

I find this video extremely helpful for practising: Practice video ( The first 2 minutes are exactly what you should be doing, try to hum or sing along )

In the further part of the video, You'll see the notes jumping all around. I do not recommend doing it before you master your basic scales above. 

Once you get comfortable with the basic scale, proceed to the next 2 minutes of the video with the jumping notes to further familiarize yourself. you'll be doing the following:

Do Re Do Me Do Fa Do So Do La Do Ti Do Do

(Some of you might be thinking why do the two "do" sound different. It is actually pretty simple. They are an octave apart [ For those who don't get it, I will explain it in another article soon ]

Go ahead and finish up the video

By the end of this article, you want to be able to sing your notes at ease. In the next article, we will talk further upping your level on this exercise and how to translate the songs you hear into "Do Re Mes". In the mean time, please continue to repeat the video and practice until you are comfortable with it. 

What you want to take away from this lesson:

• The ability to sing " Do Re Me Fa So La Ti Do " as accurately as possible without the help of any background tune to follow.
• The ability to so simple jumps such as " Do Me Do Me" accurately in your mind or with your voice.
• The ability to sing the above notes in descending order ( The reverse of the two points above)