Play Piano By Ear (Book & CD)

Rating:
Summary: More Effective Than Rote Method
Review: I taught myself how to play some simple classical pieces (such as "Fer Elise") and I can play them with enough proficiency to fool the average listener into thinking that I'm far more accomplished a player than I really am, so I believe I have natural talent for the piano.

However, without the rigorous/arduous method of learning a song from deciphering note per note, I cannot play the piano to save my life. Since I'm more interested in learning to play the piano for my own enjoyment (contemporary music, playing at parties, writing original material) than in winning piano competitions, I wanted to break free from the constraints of learning how to play by reading music. I wanted to learn how to play by ear by playing chords. I had seen/heard others do it yet whenever I asked them how they played that way, they would ALWAYS give me a cryptic answer that never explained how they did it. I figured that the process must be very complicated and that it couldn't be explained in layman terms.

Well, I've just started reading Simon Schott's Play Piano By Ear and it's really not that mysterious a process. After a few "lessons", I was able to play "Silent Night" with just chords - WITHOUT any music notations to help me. I simply decided to play it in a particular key, figured out the chords and was able to use inversions to make a simple arrangement sound more interesting. The result was not groundbreaking, but it proved that Schott's method yielded results. And results are everything as far as I'm concerned.

I've giving his book 4 stars because I have not finished it yet, otherwise, I would rate this book at 5 stars based on what I've been able to accomplish only after a few lessons.

One warning: To get the most out of this book, it does help to have some basic playing skills such as fingering and hand positions otherwise the frequent use of 4-note chords might be frustrating if you aren't even familiar with playing 3-note chords.

As with anything else worth doing, Schott's method does require commitment and practice. But the results of the time you put in using his methods FAR OUTWEIGH the results you get by putting in the same amount of time and effort using the rote method of learning.