How To Play By Ear With Chords

Whether you want to play jazz, rock, pop, soul, or country music, you need to do this first!

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Video recorded using:
Earthworks SV33
Earthworks PM40
AKG P220
5'3 Hallet Davis Baby Grand
Panasonic Lumix G85

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[leslieackerman]

The more I hear you the less words I can find to describe fairly the immense nature of your teaching talent.

[andrewvanoverbeke]

One of the best music teachers online. I am not even a piano player, and I learn so much.

[millenniumtree]

THIS. I basically gave up on music when I was a kid due to the constant drilling of scales and melody.
Years later, I picked up the ukulele and have stuck with it, because the chord shapes are easy and the music is immediate!
I wish my piano teacher could have seen this video way back then!
The ukulele doesn't even care much about inversions - half or more the first position chords are inversions. Where's the root? No care!
You can learn 3 chord shapes, and PLAY A SONG! 15 minutes tops.
I almost cried during this video, thinking about trying to learn piano way back then! Thank you.

[Jauhara]

I have a piano student who was really bored and struggling with his traditional lessons. I was trying to get him to understand how easy it is to pick up a song by ear. I chose a song that every 10 year old boy wants to play: The piano theme from Ultimate Smash Brothers. In the course of 3 weeks, using a white board with staff lines, we learned how to play the chord progressions and melody. Then I broke up the chords and made part of the harmony into the right hand with the melody.
Welp! Before I took this approach, I was having a difficult time getting him to practice 5 minutes a night. Now he has practically mastered the song...without a sheet. just working it out on the keyboard using his ears.

[AspenTruth]

Aimee, I’ve visited frequently to watch your channel without interacting, but this time I had to comment. You’ve laid out, and rather succinctly, the path to understanding composition and improvisation.
I had the split experience of classical training (at the piano), that built my dexterity but failed to connect the dots, while also digesting as much current popular music (in my case The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones via purchases of 45’s) as possible. For me, these worlds were not truly connected until Jazz Band in the 8th grade. That’s when I changed teachers and the door to theory was opened wide, demystifying everything.

The way that you touched on the paradigm of learning classical works without the benefit, even at a fundamental level, of understanding the underlying chords is inspired.
This would exponentially change the advancement of any young student.

Bravo.

[Garrett_Rowland]

What you said towards the end really resonates with me.

I'm a pianist myself, and I've met peers in college who can play fantastically well. Beethoven sonatas. Chopin etudes. All the standard repertoire.

However, they barely know any music theory. They don't know what sonata form is, or how it works. If you ask them to improvise, they freeze. If you ask them why they chose the dynamics, tempo, rubato, etc. that they used in their playing, they'll say that that' just what their teacher told them to do. They might as well be a real-life midi player.

It used to annoy me, but now it just makes me sad.

[RokhartMusic]

This is one of the most important and inspiring music lessons I’ve ever had!
Thank you so much Aimee
🎶😊

[SFSurvivor]

I’m glad I found your channel today. I’m 66, and when I was younger I wanted to learn to play the piano, but we didn’t have a piano. So then I wanted to learn the violin, but my mother said that hurts her ears so I learned the cello. I got very good on thecello, being in orchestra in both elementary and middle school, I could sight read and it was so easy for me, and everything on the cello, of course was written on the bass clef. Then in ninth grade, when I took typing class, I became a superb typist typing close to 100 words per minute, because it was the same thing as sight reading music. I could just look at a page and I knew what keys to push on the typewriter. It very easy. Then in 11th grade, we finally got our piano which I still own it today. Problem is I was so used to the cello with its bass clef and a typewriter with just words that now I had a treble clef to deal with and that’s always been a stumbling block for me. So I actually write the names of the notes on the sheet music and I keep practicing from that until I have the song memorized and I can play it only without sheet music.

I’m now at the stage in my life where I really want to learn how to play the piano by learning chords, and also by sight reading music as I used to do on the cello. I think your videos are going to be a big help for me. By the way, my piano was bought by my parents brand new in 1972 and it’s a Baldwin spinet. I bet it needs tuning 😉

[skymooseft]

You are a good teacher! I’ve been playing bass for 56 years. I’m about to retire and am thinking of taking piano lessons. You are inspiring me.

[joeducosin]

Amy, I my opinion this is your (the) best piano chord teaching video on YouTube. Thank you and keep them coming!

[viralbuthow]

This video wasn't exactly what I expected and yet it's what I needed. It's a visceral approach. Makes me feel music rather than merely memorize a whole bunch of technical stuff.

[inversemedia]

100% Aimee! I’m teaching 6-10 year olds and sometimes their parents might think I’m nuts for teaching them how to listen, theory in steps and most importantly how not being intimidated by the piano, we bang and improvise on the black keys only (pentatonic :) and learn dynamics and expression by doing the “rain and thunder” and “emotions” such as happy and sad…all the mechanics of written music can be learned later, IMHO

[billfung]

I've just discovered your channel, and comparing with other channels that I've come across on teaching how to play by ear, I must say that you've hit the nail on my experience of learning how to play by ear by self-teaching that started about 10 years ago. Now that I'm in my 70's and my 10 years old grandson has started to learn the piano from a piano teacher, I don't want to confuse him by teaching how to play by ear, but I really tempted to show him how. Maybe I need to wait for a while until my grandson understands scales, chords, and base note of a song, etc., and then teach him to rely on his ears to figure out the chords. Thank you for sharing your experience on this video!

[Erdos]

Thank you for all your hard work in making an excellent tutorial on playing chords by ear and sharing your learning experiences in a musical family. What a blessing to have a mom as a music teacher! Your teaching moms to be music teachers to their children. And dads too!

[alexsiuwh]

i think this is the most important jazz lesson that cannot be missed. Thanks for sharing this valuable details which I puzzle for so long since learning Jazz👍🙏👏

[sempopo]

You're a great teacher! God bless..

[changwilliamwang]

I wish someone taught me this when I started learning piano!!! Thank you so much, Aimee!!! The way you tell your story is so captivating and encouraging!

[Vaejovis]

Amiee is one of the greatest and most naturally gifted piano educators of her generation. This is a priceless lesson for young beginners and could spare them decades of frustration (speaking from experience).

After getting a handle on these concepts, if you’re not totally committed to classical performance, I would recommend starting with 12 bar blues, then in a general sense, organize your studies along the lines of the chronology of jazz, stride, swing, post-bop, bebop, quartal harmony etc. You’ll painlessly learn about the jazz giants that have left us this magnificent art form.

The 12 bar blues should be your foundation. Everything emanated from there.

[elizabethsaltares]

Awesome teaching, i've always had difficulty in learning the inversions but surely will practice yr technique. TY

[terada]

Aimee. What a beautiful soul you are. So talented, funny, and speaking straight from the heart. I have played guitar on and off for years but always had the desire to play piano but like many, I just never got around to it and let life get in the way. As a senior, I now have a piano and am working hard to play. Your approach is so gentle and to the point. I have lost a lot of time but making good use of it now and you were spot on about the teachers. I have tried two Teachers and both seem to talk to me like I am something stuck to the end of their shoe because I am into Jazz and blues which one said wasn't proper music! well, thank you so much for the video, I hope my journey can begin here.