Playing It by Ear
by Amy Dunn Williams
Have you ever wished you could sing? Or that you were a wiz at improv? Maybe you've longed to pick up a new instrument, but fearing it would take months or years to learn, decided to stick to the tried-and-true instrument you already play. The key to all of these skills might just be the same -- learning to play by ear. It's something you hear a lot about when you become a musician, and many of us have been led to believe that it's something only prodigies or professionals can do. The truth is, learning to play by ear is much easier than you might think. And you could have a lot of fun doing it.
Musical Marco Polo
Many musicians consider call-and-response instruction to be one of the easiest and fastest ways to learn to play by ear. It is widely used by instructors, but if you have a talented friend who is willing to extend a little patience in your direction, call-and-response can be used even without formal instruction.
The process works just as it sounds -- the instructor "calls" by playing a few notes, and the student "responds" by repeating them. On an instrument that is new to you, try taking things slowly, repeating only one note at a time. Soon you'll be repeating phrases, and even entire tunes. The more you practice, the more the notes will become familiar to you. You'll end up not only memorizing new tunes, but genuinely gaining an understanding of how to produce specific notes on the instrument, how to pick out one note from another, and how they all come together to create a melody.
You can also practice call and response while watching television. When that annoyingly familiar fast food restaurant or car dealership theme tune pops up, grab your instrument and play along. You'll quickly learn the fingerings to the notes, and be able to hear the interval relationships between them.
Call-and-response instruction is a time-honored tradition. In fact, families used it to pass down the art of music making long before anyone wrote down folk tunes and original compositions. It is easily taught in groups, which makes learning it fun, and can be used with nearly any instrument imaginable. Several students can even be playing different instruments, all at the same time.
Use Your Noodle
“Noodling" is a trick professionals use; it's a method of improvisation that lets songs reveal themselves naturally. When you picked up your instrument for the first time, you probably started to fiddle around with it, plucking strings or striking keys, trying to eke out something that sounded recognizable to you. Maybe you even managed to get a series of notes that sounded pretty good. This, in a nutshell, is noodling.
While it might seem like a waste of precious learning time, noodling is an effective way to get started in picking out notes by ear. As you progress, your brain will start to identify notes and phrases that sound good together, and you might even hear a phrase that reminds you of a song you know. You'll learn where your fingers need to be in order to find those notes when you want them again, and how to put them together to play that old familiar tune. Before you know it, you might just be composing your own music.
Carry a Tune, No Bucket Necessary
Instructors often note that nearly all musicians, over time, acquire the ability to sing in tune. You may not be taking the mic at Madison Square Garden any time soon, but once you are able to differentiate between the notes made by an instrument or another person's voice, you should be able to start making that same distinction between the notes made by your own voice. Over time, you'll auto-correct, and your singing will hit the mark. This can be a great "perk" to learning an instrument (who doesn't love to sing?), but it's also a huge help when it comes to learning how to play by ear. Being a musician can help you to sing in tune, but learning to sing in tune can also make you a better musician.
If you're serious about developing this skill, consider working with a vocal coach. Recording yourself during this process is advisable, as is carrying a recorder with you so that you can tape yourself singing throughout the day -- in the car, at your desk, or doing work around the house. This kind of "vocal noodling" will help you enhance your singing skills, and will give you ideas for songs you might want to try playing through improvisation.
Give Orff Schulwerk a Whirl
Orff Schulwerk is a way to both teach and learn music, based on fundamentals that include creativity, movement, and improvisation. The process was originally intended to be taught to children, and is also used as a means of music therapy. It is a wonderful way to introduce individuals with limited mobility to music, or to develop an intergenerational connection between an adult musician and a child just starting out.
But Orff Schulwerk is for experienced musicians too, and can be hugely beneficial to anyone who wants to learn more about playing by ear. Because the process relies so heavily on improvisation, making music becomes less about structure and more about simply having fun. Listening to each note and playing by ear are encouraged. Musicians of all playing abilities embrace this.
Says Baruch Whitehead, an expert in Orff Schulwerk and an associate professor of music education at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York, "The process offers almost instant success. Students have an immediate sense of what they're capable of, and they want to learn more."
This instant success comes in part from specially-designed instruments such as xylophones and metal glockenspiels. Their designs make for easy playing. "You can't get a bad sound out of them," says Whitehead. This means that someone who has never touched an instrument before can sit down and almost immediately begin producing pleasant-sounding melodies. And someone who has played before will quickly start to hear familiar notes in new combinations; it's like noodling, but without the inevitable "bad chords" noodling will produce.
At a recent workshop Whitehead held at Longview, a senior community in Ithaca, about a dozen participants with varying musical backgrounds and varying physical abilities sat down to Orff-designed xylophones. Within minutes, they were playing music that sounded as if it had been practiced for weeks. Starting with just a few notes, Whitehead took the group from simply hammering out a rhythm to playing entire songs in just an hour and a half, as he played along on recorder. Several of the students took "solos" throughout the workshop, playing entirely improvised tunes that were literally music to the groups' ears.
Whitehead says that anyone interested in learning how to play using the Orff Schulwerk process should seek out a certified instructor. The American Orff Schulwerk Association's website (www.aosa.org) includes a nationwide list of local chapters. Start there to find an instructor in your area.
Developing the ability to play by ear may not happen overnight, but most musicians find that it's not nearly as intimidating an endeavor as they had expected. Trust yourself, trust the music, and love every note of it.
