How to Play Any Song by Ear | Piano Tutorial

Wanna learn how to recognise and play the tunes you hear on the radio directly on your piano? Now this lesson is specially for you. In this lesson we will talk about relative pitch, basic chords, left hand & right hand techniques and dabble a little on music theory.

Don't forget about the homework at the end of the lesson and see if you can finish all of the tasks! And let me know in the comments if you did or when it got hard.

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🕘 Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:23 How to recognize notes
2:53 Nursery rhyme exercise
4:38 Try it yourself!
5:36 LH this time
6:34 Basic chords
7:56 Which sounds better?
11:23 Homework time!

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[jazerleepiano]

🕘 Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:23 How to recognize notes
2:53 Nursery rhyme exercise
4:38 Try it yourself!
5:36 LH this time
6:34 Basic chords
7:56 Which sounds better?
11:23 Homework time!

[MJ-edxx]

This is a good reminder to include ear training regularly. I admit I usually cheat and just ask my 7 year old with absolute pitch. He can knock up a pretty decent lead sheet, but he charges in candy.

[thepianoplayer]

Learning to play by ear is a skill like learning to read music. If you have a song in your head or a recording, your points of reference would be sound pitches. When a song is on paper, your points of reference would be the notes.
Not everybody think of notes in an abstract way with letter names A-G. A lot of Pop musicians have good ears but no formal music training. They can sing a note or play it on an instrument but wouldn't refer to it by the letter name.

[wildwolftamer]

this is so great! i’ve been playing for just under four years and never been able to even play the simplest melody by ear (i already knew how to read sheet music when i started so always relied on that) and already after this video am starting to play songs by ear! thank you so much :)

[CheeseWithMold]

Great video! Really love the bit about finding "matching" left hand chords with what the right hand is playing.

[pdoh]

First comment ever! I watched your play by ear vs sheetmusic video and followed the link to here. I took years of piano lessons from inadequate teachers and all we ever did was read music. Nothing by ear, no correlation between the keys and the chords. I always knew I had missed a lot, but this video just unfolded the whole process to me. I’m good at recognizing notes because I also sing. But the simplicity of looking at key and figuring out the possible chords never occurred to me. This was marvelous. I’m coming back to piano at age 76 and I am so excited.

[Esterick]

YOU, good sir, are an absolute legend of a teacher. Thank you for this and all your invaluable information.

[peter-jac]

Jazer you’re far out the best online teacher, I keep coming back for the basic techniques and soundscape harmonics.It’s a boost for my personal development.While I can’t read notes and have to depend on my hearing these tutorials are a must in order to compose my own music in combination with Logic Pro.
Grateful 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🇳🇱

[RyanBentz]

This is actually really helpful! All of the piano covers I post, I learn with tutorials or play by ear. I can't listen to a song and play it back right away — it takes some time. But, using scales as a reference point is a really good idea. Not sure why I never thought of that. I kind of just thought I would be able to hear the notes rather than use anything as a reference. Thanks for sharing!

[lawrencetaylor]

This is a well done tutorial, however I've come to the realization that I might have Aural Aphantasia. I don't have music in my head. I've been working on ear training and I can't imagine melody. I've been trying to sing, but I have to make sure my neighbors aren't home. I was the kid that choir teachers told me to move my lips and not make a sound. And when I tried to get a stage voice at summer University, the music professor asked if it wasn't too late to get my tuition back. It was, and eveb though she apologized and said that it was a beginning singing course and she should accept any student, the damage was done. I did learn some basics. But damn, it's hard.
I'll keep at it and appreciate these videos, especially since you were the inspiration for me to finally buy a piano. Merci beaucoup.

[rockitmacca]

This video is great! I never thought I would be able to acquire this skill, but you made it fun and approachable. Thanks! You really make learning pian fun 😀

[liquididentity]

I began developing my relative pitch once I identified my reliable resonant anchor. Personally, D resonates with me most and I was able to pull it out of any piece. From there, it was simply a matter of determining which octave it was, then I could focus on my various intervals. A lot of previous chord work made fifths easy to quickly jump to tonally, and from there its either a 3 tone jump back to a resonance at a different octave. With the 1-5-8 chord, you cover intervals of 4 and 3. so the only one left is 2... which is the distance to the middle note in a 1-3-5 chord if you break it up a little and play with it.
This method let my ear pick up on a few tone shifts at a time, but they eventually weave and merge into much deeper patterns. Eventually, it easily integrated into any key I was in (even if D natural wasn't in the scale).

[jordanking]

Great tip and lesson Jazer. Once you've gotten the foundation down, in term s of the left hand though and working out the chords and accompaniment to a particular song, another tip I have learnt when I was taught, is try and minimize the distance your left hand has to travel when playing a piece. Instead of playing the chords at the root position (the original chords, except for the starting chord), try playing those chords in inversions. That's another reason why Jazer said chordal knowledge is key if you want to play accompaniment to a particular song. And that way, you minimize how far your left hand has to travel when playing a piece, making it less jarring if that makes sense.

[noelshowell]

Can't wait to try this. You explain it so well.

[jacobpedersen]

I struggle with left hand, melody is relatively easy for me. Any tips? This is when I figure out the melody of various pop songs etc.😊

[harriette]

I really appreciate your lessons. Clear, concise, repetition when needed, written reinforcement and excellent timestamps. I especially like that you cover the most useful aspects of piano playing for beginners. I'm 70 and have reached a reasonable level of competency with the supplementary info you have presented as well as my weekly lesson. My piano teacher is fine, without a scheduled lesson I procrastinate but your videos top up my knowledge which gives me a sense of achievement. Is there anyway you can help with understanding repeat markings? I'm not to bad at sight reading now but have terrible strife working out the structure markers. Thank you again.

[akachukwunnaji]

❤❤❤ Thanks for this lesson. You're an awesome teacher.

[DevonDandy]

Brilliant, I stumbled on this just at a time when I am trying to play by ear for the melodic line and then apply chords for the LH. so this is very supportive, thanks

[Jonathan_Lewis]

I've always had good realative pitch, but I've never known what to do with my left hand so thank you

[satriadibasuki]

wow, I thought it was the note but instead, the key is the interval. That works for me thaaanks!!! I just need to be more reasonable to pick easier songs first or at least the songs that give me earworm looping in my head over and over