Learning to play by ear

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Hello. Just wondering if somebody could help me. Since March of this year I started taking piano and guitar lessons. My music teacher is very nice, but she doesn't understand the fact that I can't read sheet music very well. I played the saxophone for six years and my ability to read sheet music never progressed beyond the first year. Even in my sixth year of playing the saxophone I was still forgetting which note went with which fingerings, and all those dreaded time changes! I ended up dropping band, one of my favorite classes, because I couldn't read the music.

Five years later and I still can't read it beyond a basic level. But one thing I've noticed over the past few years is that I have very little difficulty memorizing songs. That was actually one of the things that kept me in band for so long; I would memorize the songs and, when I got lost, I could always tell where the band was by listening. Over the past few days I've been teaching myself songs on the piano by using a little bit of sheet music, and a lot of memory. Just by listening I can even tell if I'm playing the wrong note, something I couldn't do when I was playing the saxophone.

I've told my instructor that I learn better without sheet music, but she told me that is a barrier that I need to overcome and she will finally be the one to teach me how to read sheet music! Yeah right. That's the same thing all my band teachers have said and it has never worked before.

So I'm wondering how a person can learn to play and instrument without any sheet music? Are there any sort of techniques? Any advice anybody has?

I think there are computer programs to help you with that, try Google?

Thank you, but I have to use public computers, so if the program requires installation (sp?) I don't think it will work, but it's something I will look into.

Alright, good luck.

My son didn't learn to read music either even with instructors. He did learn the basic techniques and a few simple folk songs. He now plays guitar very well by ear and has several of his own songs. But when he first decided to learn on his own this is what he did...

Choose a song you like and really want to learn. Search Google for guitar tabs. Also check out Youtube for someone demonstrating how to play your song.

Example - 'Wish You Were Here' by Pink Floyd..

On Google - www.azchords.com: Pink Floyd Chords for - Wish You Were Here

(Print the tab chart and take home to practice)


On Youtube -

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n67FLy3TLS0&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/youtube]

Good luck and make sure I get backstage passes when you hit the Bigtime!!

:~) amongthetrees

Oh, also, this might help with the tabs..

http://guitar.about.com/od/tabchordslyr ... ar_tab.htm

I can't read sheet music but can play Tool on bass by ear and guitar by In Flames by ear...it's just such a pain learning by tab and sheet music.

Have you considered just learning basic chords and learning different type of chords? Once you get those down note patterns are easy for people like us.

Thank you everybody!

This may sound like a silly question, but do guitar tabs work with only guitar? I'm searching for a way to learn piano by ear as well.

SanityTheorist- My teacher is teaching me different notes and chords, and I can usually remember those, but then she starts spouting off musical theory and I haven't the slighest idea what she is talking about, so then I can't focus and next thing I know 15 minutes have gone by and we haven't played. To be honest, chords are kinda confusing for me because I am used to the saxophone which, I believ, does not have chords, or if it does nobody ever taught me! But I'm doing much better than even I thought I would:)

Music theory is extremely frustrating and is for those that don't know how to emote with their instrument without sounding good. I always just improvise and come up with some really good material.

Makes me think of language.

Doesn't it feel more natural to learn go speak before learning to read text?

Not like any of us here can read texting language anyways haha.

Exactly! Reading sheet music just doesn't feel natural to me. Plus, without the added distraction of sheet music, I can focus more on the notes and sounds, which are generall pretty important when playing music;)

Texting language. Oh jeez, don't even get me started

Tamsin call up this site on Google:
911Tabs

Should have piano tabs for you.

While I got into music by learning to read sheet music at a young age, I can also play by ear and realize that, in essence, both methods are great together, but one without the other doesn't make you a dead-end musician. Best advice I can give for learning by ear is try to listen to one song intensely and feel your way on the instrument to hit the notes from the song. It will takes multiple tries before you get it! Good luck!!

There are tabbing websites that you can glance at to give you ideas of where to take your playing...may I recommend Songsterr? realy helps me for complex bands like Opeth.

My 4yo can read music notation better than the written English language. He CAN play by ear as well, but I need him focusing more on technique than ear training right now.

I've always had exceptional sight-reading ability. What's going to hold you back by not reading is being able to learn classical music. You won't get it right without the notation and good memorization skills for the more difficult works, at least not as quickly as you would from reading it. Even if you read slowly, memorize a bar at a time, and gradually learn to play some heavy material, that does count for something.

You might be more suited to rock, pop, and jazz styles that rely more on playing by ear and improv. At my church gig, I end up ignoring what's on the page and just playing whatever I want. There's nothing wrong with that