“Playing-by-Ear” is not the same as “Developing the Ear”
When we think of someone who can “play by ear”, we usually imagine someone that can hear a piece of music and then sit down at the piano and play it. Of course, the magic play-by-ear requirement is that they do not read a musical score.
Someone asked me once if I could do this and I remember answering in a vague sort of way’
“Yes”
“Sort of”
“I guess so?”
Because the truth is that I can read music, and when I sit down to play something that has already been written by someone else, it’s quicker for me just to read it than try to remember it well enough to play it correctly from memory.
I also have a strong understanding of harmonic theory and how music works. Whenever I sit down and actually try to “play by recall” (I think this is a much better term for it), I sort of feel like I’m cheating. I know what chords go in what order, I know how pitches relate to each other, and I generally just know how things should fit together.
Is this “playing by ear” or “playing by knowledge”?
When we teach and use a method that is strongly aural based, like the PianoForte Method, it can give the impression that we are teaching our students to do just this, Play-by-Recall.
However, in the case of the PianoForte Method, this could not be further from the truth.
“Developing the Ear” is a total and completely different skill than rote-learning. Developing the ear teaches our students to play with real knowledge and wide understanding of musical sound. We are teaching them to understand music and how it functions. This creates is a rich musical foundation.
We are not teaching our students to simply memorise and then recall.
Music and Language
Developing the ear is similar to the development of language in as much as it is based in sound and sound vibration, it has emotionally communicative elements and, when notated, is symbolically abstract. However, we mustn’t get carried away with this comparison because, although music and language might begin at the same cognitive place in infancy, music and language quickly branch into two different paths. Language remains a tool for communication and is symbolically representative of the specifics found throughout communication within a society. Music is different.
Music is just sound.
Yes, musical sound can be representative of emotion and it can communicate meaning - but it is not specifically these things. Music is sound, and we can help our students create deep musical knowledge when we develop their understanding of musical sound.
The wonderful and magnificent thing about musical sound is that it is like the universe - vast and complex. It is filled with nuance, curiosities, and variation. We can spend a lifetime studying music and never even scratch the surface of its depths. How marvellous is this!
Developing the ear is just this - it is the process of studying musical sound. It is not memorisation or rote playing. It is not “playing-by-recall”.
Teaching our Students How to Understand Musical Sound
No matter their background, our students already have a base knowledge of musical sound. Babies begin to hear sound when they are inside the womb when they experience vibrations in the mother’s body created by her voice. These vibrations are not random. The vibrations felt and heard in the womb are the partials most strongly felt in the overtone series. These are roughly; the fundamental (tonic), fifth and third scale degrees. In Moveable Solfa these are Do - Mi - So (the tonic triad).
These tonal relationships are present in the physical formation of a human being. They are also found in the early vocalisations between an infant and the people close to it. When we vocalise with babies we naturally shape our voices in a way that centres around these tones and overtones. This is called Infant Direct Speech or Motherese.
How does this help how we teach?
If we understand that humans come pre-programmed with a base recognition of certain tones, we can use these tones to build musical understanding. We can teach students to understand the connections and relationships found in musical sound by starting with what they already know.
We do this is many ways:
Singing. Singing resonates the body in the same way the mother’s voice did in the womb. This is the strongest way to develop musical understanding.
Internalise musical sound. Help students understand that they can hear music in their mind and know what it is.
Expose students to a variety of ACOUSTIC musical sounds. Acoustic sound is important so that they can resonate with the overtones.
When our students develop a strong understanding of musical sound FIRST - we can easily make a connection between this sound and the playing of an instrument and reading music notation. In fact, the process feels seamless and simple.
This happens when we have approach it from a “Sound First” methodology. If we introduce a each musical concept aurally and then take it to the instrument and music notation, students understand what it means. It is organised in their mind. They will begin to predict patterns and feel curious about other musical sound relationships. They will learn how to listen carefully and develop a physical technique that helps create the sound qualities they hear in their mind.
They will play with knowledge.
The PianoForte method
I created this method based on these facts and the extensive research surrounding this topic. I spent several years writing an entire dissertation and series of papers on this subject.
The PianoForte Method begins by meeting a student where they are AURALLY and developing their skills from there.
It is not rote or recall.
It is real musical understanding. In fact, it’s almost like the music teaches itself.
