You may be someone who has found that learning to play the piano can be challenging and oftentimes frustrating.  You perhaps thought that there’s no easy way to learn this instrument other than by the traditional way, i.e., step by step through long drawn-out music theory lessons; and the hope of having a good music teacher to guide you through it all.

Without a doubt, many musicians have developed their skills that way, but many others have fallen on the wayside giving up their interest out of sheer boredom, frustration, and lack of progress. They‘re left with the conclusion that conventional music sight reading and theory were the only ways they could learn music on the piano.

But let me tell you, there is an alternative way you could progress your music learning - perhaps a little faster - through hearing and observation.

This is especially so if you already have some musical knowledge, E.g., from having taken some months of piano lessons, previously played another instrument (especially the guitar, as in my case), or can even hum or sing in tune to a song!

Think about this…   If you can hum or whistle in tune to a song, why would you not be able to translate that to touch (i.e., fingers) on the keyboard?   Why would you not at the same time be able to also  quickly write down those notes you’ve just touched, so that you in fact have  written down the melody of that song?  And with the latter, why would you then not be able to play them back against the song?

Does this sound like talent, or a special gift? Many would say yes, but to me, I think it’s more about knowing how to, and then having patience and persistence, which gradually grow into a passion.   So I’d say learning by hearing is in the most part a skill.

I suppose for some people who simply can’t tell that they’re obviously out of tune when mimicking a song’s tune,  I guess they’d need to just need to recognize this (maybe do a recording!), and then work harder on training this basic ability first.

There are a lot of well-known musicians out there who do not read music: artistes like The Beatles, Erroll Garner and Chet Baker Wes Montgomery, Buddy Rich, and who knows how many, because this may not be an ability some pros would want to reveal.

Benefits of hearing

By being able to learn  through playback and listening of a song that you like on a music player such as your MP3 player or laptop, you can learn an unlimited number of songs, even if music sheets for them are unavailable. This makes music learning very gratifying….

You are able to listen closely to the way an original song is supposed to be played. You also begin to know and trust that what you are hearing and writing down is the most accurate deciphering of the song; and it’s not someone else interpreting it for you, like in a music sheet.

You can develop the ability to tell instantly when a part you hear (E.g., another interpretation of the song) doesn’t sound right, or if it sounds even better than your version… in which case you can find out aurally  what makes it so (a different chord, a right finger touch, a different rhythm, etc.), in order to improve on your own version. 

Have you noticed that the piano playback on many music sheets just doesn’t sound quite like the real/original thing?  That’s often because whoever wrote the sheet has neither  closely listened to the original piece, or isn’t even the the original arranger.

Also, don’t assume that the music sheet is ‘the real thing’. How could it be?  A writer - whom I suspect could well be someone other than the original composer/arranger - has to consider all the instruments and singers in a song ,and decide which parts he’s going to include in writing the piece for publishing…  So like it or not, it’s only his interpretation of what the song should sound like when played on a single instrument , the piano.  It may turn out not be that great a representation of the  song that you’ve come to like

If you have the ability to hear the song and work out your own interpretation and notes, it may be an even better version than the published one…. which is why there are so many good versions of the original piece.

By practicing listening to a song closely, you begin to discern the different instrumental melodies accompanying a main melody or singer, and the right finger accents/touch that you can then try to replicate, and make your playing sound more interesting and authentic.  You also add those extra counter-melody notes to enrich the song, which are often missing in the commercial music sheets  (These are the ‘filler notes’ sung by an accompanying singer or played by an instrumentalist, could even be  an arpeggio, in between the main melodies.  Without them , your piano playing will sound ‘hollow’).

With a hearing ability, if say, there are several versions of a song you like, you can even choose to download them all; then learn your favorite version, or even extract/combine interesting variations from the best  of these versions, to make up your own ideal version for the piano.

Last by least and best of all, learning by hearing means that your piano music will almost always be FREE !  Most of the songs you’ll ever want to learn is probably already up on YouTube.  All you need to do is download and convert any song to an .mp3 file - which is usually of a high aural qualify, and learn it - no buying of CDs or music sheets.

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When I learn a song by hearing,  I am essentially trying to decipher the notes making up its melody, bass and chords.   With all that in mind, here are the tools that I use (also watch the video):

1. A piano keyboard

This can be a full-sized 88-key digital piano, or just a ‘fun’ electronics keyboard (with at least 61 keys) like the ones made by Casio, Yamaha, Roland and Kawai that are available quite cheaply. In the USA, one could be bought on eBay or Craigslist for between $50-$100, shipped . I prefer using this (my Casio CTK-601 is  pictured) as it doesn’t take up too much space on the dining table, and is easier to work with in front of my laptop (where I of course store my music, and play them on  the WinAmp media player).

The above electronic keyboard typically features some variations of piano (which really is the only instrument you’d need for learning songs) plus other instruments; and you should of course buy one that comes with an electrical adapter.

Most importantly, for the purpose of learning by hearing, you need to ensure that this keyboard comes with a transposer or transposition feature.

2. An MP3 music player

This device (a) stores the music you wish to learn; and (b) must be able adjustable back and forth so you can re-listen to parts of the song as you are progressively learning it.

Just as a technology flashback, during the 1970s, I had to use a cassette recorder (picture) to learn my songs. I used to go into a record (as in Long Playing vinyl albums) store to select tracks off artistes’ albums, paying 25c for each track that I wanted to learn. The record seller would then record these songs onto a cassette tape, which I would pick up and excitedly take home and insert into my tape player. I would learn each song by rewinding and fast forwarding the tape, accompanying it on the organ. Every now and then, the fragile tape would entangle in the unit’s rollers, while the cassette also diminished in its ability to rewind – difficult times!

Fast-forward to the 2000s, and things have certainly changed quite a bit!

Today, you could pay 99c a tune for a download from the internet, or check out sharing websites like Limewire, Bearshare or Seeqpod, or from the tens of midi sites out there; or for my preferred source, YouTube.

Consider this… if you can then hear and learn the original song, paying 99c a song is a lot cheaper than spending several times more on music sheets.

I just download a video from YouTube of a song I like, convert it into an MP3; or I could also buy and download a song music I want from the internet; or I could even ‘rip’ the title from a CD from .cda into an .mp3 file and store it in my ‘Songs To Learn’ folder.

I then play it back using the WinAmp player on my computer, which I prefer because it looks compact on my screen and sounds clean; and I can use the ‘C’ key on my keypad laptop to stop and play the song, and the > and < to rewind and fast-forward 5 seconds - very efficient for a repetitive activity like learning by hearing.

Of course, you can also use any other MP3 player with a stop and ‘rewind’ tab, like an iPod. I just suspect there’s less ‘wear and tear’ doing this clicking action on a software (such as WinAmp or Windows Media player) on the PC or laptop, than continuous depressing of a button on a ‘hardware’ device like an iPod.  It is also not advisable to learn by re-playing the  CD.

3. Headphones or Speakers

Next in my tools is the use of a reasonable pair of headphones to hear the song clearer, as opposed to just turning on the speakers on the laptop.

You must not only be able to hear the melody clearly, but also and more importantly the song’s bass notes because, as we shall see later, they help indicate what the chords are.   I use the Sony MDR-V150 (picture) headphones because it’s cheap, lightweight and comfortable, and gives great bass audibility.

4. Book for writing your notes

As you will want to write the notes of the song you’re learning, you will need either a plain exercise book with ruled lines, along with one black (for the melody notes) and one red (for the bass notes) ballpoint pen (if you’re writing in alphabets or your own other notation). If you can write conventional music notes, then use the appropriate music blank sheets instead.

5. A work table

To learn songs in the way I do, you should be comfortably seated on a table (say, in the kitchen or dining), and able to lay back on a chair as you patiently work out a song. You should not be stretching back and forth on the back-less piano chair, bending over to write on a book on the piano rest, or straining to adjust your music player.

After you learn 4-5 songs successfully using my hearing method, you may finally discover what ‘hearing heaven’ is! …. It is sitting down comfortably at your table space, with your laptop, keyboard, notebook and headphone all at hand, then surfing onto your favorite music download site, and asking yourself….

“Let me see… how many and which songs do I want to hear and learn tonight?”.

It’s that relaxing and fun when you have these above simple tools, and a command of hearing!

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This blog is not intended to teach in detail how I learn a song by hearing , but just to give you a quick idea of what I do. The individual steps are of course more involved, and I’ll go into them in greater detail in other  blogs .

When I learn a song by hearing, I am essentially trying to decipher 5 elements making up its arrangement:

1. the rhythm or ‘beat’;

2. the main melody;

3. the accompanying counter-melodies (if any);

4. the basses;

5. the chords.

My favorite source of songs to learn is YouTube, from which I download the song’s  .flv video file into a folder in my laptop, and then covert that into an .mp3 song file using an easily-available .flv to .mp3 converter program.   I next listen to this  .mp3 song file back and forth, to learn it.

Watch these two videos on how to convert YouTube video to Mp3 song files…

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Wearing a pair of headphones (with good bass) partially on my ears (so I can hear both the music and the keyboard), I first play and listen to the song to determine the key it is in, and also to get a feel of the song structure and arrangement.

If it’s a more challenging key that has lots of flats and sharps (E.g., B, Db, F#) in its scale, I decide whether I’d like to learn this song in a simpler key, like C, F or G, or even D or Eb. This is just a matter of convenience and preference, as these keys are easier to both play in and to teach with. See my blog on figuring out a song’s key and transposing it.

After figuring out the key I’d like to learn the song on, I then commence to learn the entire song in several steps:

STEP 1

I listen to a few notes each time, constantly press ‘pause’ and ‘back’ on the music player, at the same time quickly transcribing what I’ve heard by playing the notes on the keyboard - often humming along as well - them in alphabetical notes (as I don’t read or write conventional music notation) onto my lined exercise book.  I keep doing this until the end of the song when I’ve written the entire melody.

This is not as tedious as it sounds, because often the melody repeats itself with the same notes (i.e. most of the notes in Melody 1 would probably be the same as for Melody 2 in the Song Structure), and you get very quick at doing this after learning many songs.   Of course, should be reasonably familiar with moving around the keyboard, and knowing which notes are the correct ‘high’ or ‘low’ pitch one to press, in order to approximate the notes you are hearing on the song.

STEP 2

After writing the whole Melody of the song, I then replay the song on my music player,  but this time I listen to the basses.

Listening to each bass sound/note accompanying a chord – before it changes to another chord - gives a very good clue as to what that chord actually is.  More about this in another blog.

Furthermore, after learning a lot of songs and being able to recognize the more typical chord progressions, you find yourself able to quite reliably predict what the next chord is going to be for the song by just listening to flow of the melody.

Like the way guitar notes are written, I write these chords just above the melody note where they’re supposed to be held or played.

STEP 3

Finally, I play over the notes and chords that I’ve written in accompaniment with the song.  This is to check for accuracy, and also to match up the timing with original version.

You can write your timing based on your music knowledge, or in my case I just play the notes I’ve written  against the song a few times until I get it about right and use cues in my alphabetical notes to help me as well.  It’s not much different from you singing to a song and knowing when to sing in sync or timing with it.

Depending on its complexity, it takes me anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour to learn and write a song.

Finally, I play the song on the notes I’ve written, re-checking as needed against the original song. The way I decide to perform the song is then a matter of interpretation, touch, and improvisation  (which comes with experience and a lot of hearing to all sorts of music), and I may modify some notes and even chords accordingly.

I then transcribe these roughly-written notes neatly to my final Music Book…and that becomes another addition to the 1000+ songs I have in my repertoire.

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(Piano Tutorial follows below article).

Every 4 years when an Olympic Games comes by, I look forward to hearing the theme song

The alluring 2008 feature song, You And Me , sounded very ‘learnable’ and piano-friendly; while there’s nothing better ensuring of popularity in a song than when a popular Chinese singer (Liu Huan) and British opera diva (Sarah Brightman) collaborate.

Here’s how I went about learning it….

The day after being one of the billions of people around the world who watched the song sung at the Opening Ceremony, I clicked to the most obvious source for the music - YouTube. I simply keyed in ‘Olympics 2008 theme’, and the video was there, uploaded by someone just as eager to be the first to share it, as I was the first to put up a piano video (link) on it.

Using YouTube’s ‘Download Video as flv’ feature, I saved the video as an .flv file onto my folder, and then used my simple FLV  program (it’s free - Google it) to convert the video file instantly into an .Mp3 file.

With my usual ‘learning by hearing’  tools set up (see blog), excitedly (hey, being able to quickly learn song via hearing IS so much fun!) I clicked on the song and it started playing on my laptop’s WinAmp….

Then, as I do with all the songs I learn, I first listen and learn the main melody of the entire song… starting with the piano intro, and then all the other elements.  After writing all these melody notes down alphabetically, I then figure out the chords – with particular attention to the basses - to figure out the chords.

Here’s what the song structure of You And Me looks like, and I of course write the notes I’ve heard and learned under each of these sections:

INTRO (‘Bb’ key): Short Piano

MELODY 1 & CHORUS: Liu Huan sings

Change To ‘A’ key

MELODY 2 & CHORUS: Sarah sings

MELODY 2: Kids Choir sing

Change To ‘B’ key

MELODY 3: Man sings

Change To ‘G’ key

CHORUS : Sara sings

ENDING MELODY: Sara and man sing.

Enjoy!

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“You And Me” links:

• Watch My YouTube Video

• You and Me MP3

• Watch my Tutorials below

You And Me (Tutorial 1)

You And Me (Tutorial 2)

You And Me (Tutorial 3)

You And Me (Tutorial 4)

You And Me (Tutorial 5)

Like to leave a tip for the piano teacher ?

Greatly appreciated!

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In this blog, I will discuss probably a mundane subject,  but yet an essential part of ‘learning by hearing’…

Remember, learning by hearing does not mean not having to read notes. It means that as you learn to hear and decipher the notes of a song, you also need a way of writing those notes down so that you don’t forget them, or have a need to revisit the song again. It’s just obvious that as you progressively become better at learning songs by hearing, your repertoire of songs will increase, and it would be a matter of time before you realize that you cannot possibly memorize all your music or play them infallibly without referring to some form of notation, i.e., sight read.

You should therefore put some effort early in the stage to do this if you’re serious about learning and playing the piano.

If you already read and write conventional music, you may want to skip this blog, as it’s aimed at readers who don’t already know how to read notes; but if you would like to consider an alternative way of writing notes, do read on….

While it all started with my teacher making me ‘shortcut the system’ and write notes in the form of alphabets, I have since those early years written in better indicators to my notes, to make my interpretation of the song more accurate.  Watch the video…

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It’s like anything else - after you start on something, you get used to it and then you find ways of improving your system. For me now, I just can’t imagine myself learning those squiggly notes in conventional music (picture)…. let alone paying for it.

Moreover, in my performing experience, I only encountered, at most, two instances where I absolutely needed to know how to read conventional music, or else miss the gig.   This was well outweighed by the many other instances where I was able to quickly learn songs by hearing, where the music sheet was not easily available.

In a wedding gig, an advantage I have is being to tell a bride I’d happily learn 1-2 any special requests she may have for her ceremony, if she’d just sent me the Mp3’s, and provided that I hear  those songs to be ‘piano friendly’. I’d eagerly expand my new songs repertoire this way through hearing. And you see the amazement and fascination of many, whenever they perchance get to glimpse at the way I write my notes (picture below) !

So, I’m in a situation where I’m happy to perform as a solo pianist, and if some singer/instrumentalist wanted my accompaniment, I’d just say: “Give me ½ -1 hour to learn the song; otherwise, find another pianist“. No big deal; and no offence to my pride. Not being able to read conventional music has never been a stumbling block for me.

Unless you’re planning to play the piano in an orchestra or in a situation  (E.g. musical) where reading conventional music is absolutely necessary (and you have the dedication to the long theoretical route), it really doesn’t matter what ways you choose to write your music notes.

For instance, you could be writing it in ‘Do Re Mi…’, numerically as ‘1-2-3…’, in Chinese or Greek characters, or in whatever language or symbols you choose. That’s why there are different languages in the world to communicate the same thing; and music should be no different.

Basically, as long as you can understand your own notation system, it works well to translate what you hear in a song, and you it makes you enjoy music learning more - that’s all that matters.

No one else needs to understand your notes but you . They only need to appreciate the quality of the music that you put out when you read and play these notes/symbols to them.

At worse, if writing your own notes doesn’t work out for you, you can revert back to learning conventional music notes, perhaps through a teacher or the internet, where there is already an abundance of free tutorials.

For any song I wish to learn , I spend about 30-60 minutes to write the notes including cords. This is a very worthwhile effort, considering that there are many songs you can’t obtain music sheets for. You also derive a lot of personal satisfaction from learning the song directly by hearing.

In another blog, I will discuss how I actually write my alphabetical notes.

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