Introduction - I have just read a very interesting book entitled, How to Play by Ear by M. Emett Wilson. It is directed toward teaching the novice to enjoy and gain facility in playing the piano, although the principles could well be applied to the playing of any instrument. Mr. Wilson does this by discarding as unessential most of the technical impedimenta that usually confront the aspiring student who wishes to play the piano for relaxation, recreation, and a little individual expression. .

1. Fun in Music - Listening to music is fun; playing music is more fun; playing music by ear is the most fun of all. If the player remembers the music he is playing by means of his ear, he is playing by ear. But most players who have learned to play by the traditional method of reading notes on a page and then punching keys on an instrument do not trust to their ears to tell them what is coming next. Instead, they remember the notes by name or by their chord name, or they have a visual memory of how the notes look on the page, or they use some other nonmusical system of recall.

2. Simple Melodies - The most simple melody in music is probably Mary Had a Little Lamb. One version of this uses only three notes. If you have no experience in playing by ear, this is a good one to attempt first.

Any tune can be played beginning on any note on the key­board; but it is easier to begin on some notes than on others. Try beginning on various notes, and you will find that there are three different notes with which you can begin which will not require you to use any black keys.

3. Scales - The ears and fingers feel an orderliness in the arrangement of tunes long before we ourselves are conscious of any logical arrangement of the tones. Since the ear player more or less feels his way along, rather than rationalizing it, he is able to progress far without any intel­lectual effort. The time comes, however, no matter how good he may be, when he reaches the limit of this easy develop­ment and his progress in music slows down or completely stops.

4. Chording - The familiar ear player is one who "chords." He takes any tune he has heard and supplies his own chords to it. These chords may be the same that the composer used, or they may be quite novel; but they satisfy the ear of the player.

This pattern of chords which the composer supplies beneath his melody in most pieces is correctly known as harmony.

5. Harmony - Harmony is nothing but a more formal name for chording. In my volunteer choir I once had a bass who tortured me after each rehearsal by sitting at the piano and playing by ear. He would get a melody under way in any key he happened to strike and then search around with the left hand for the "harmony." For him the harmony meant the tonic chord, and once he found it he would wham away regardless of the harmony implied by the melody.

6. Minor Scales - Although the major scale is used in most music we wish to play by ear, we occasionally find some­thing in minor, and pieces which begin in major often modulate to minor. Everything we have learned so far in connection with the major scale can be applied with but little change to the minor.

The construction of the scale is responsible for all the differences. In the major scale the half steps fall between 3 and 4, and 7 and 8. In the harmonic minor, which we use in playing by ear, they fall thus:

7. Polyphony - For most ear players music is a combination of melody and harmony. Popular pieces, folk tunes, and the usual light numbers actually are nothing more than this; but almost without exception the masterworks gain their effect from the addition of polyphony—poly, many; phone, voice—many voices going on at one time. Voice, of course, refers to any melodic line played by separate instru­ments or on the piano.

8. A Bach Invention - Bach wrote fifteen inventions for two voices and fifteen inventions for three voices. He wrote them for his pupils, and for over a century all serious piano students have practiced these simple polyphonic compositions as a preparation for studying the more complicated masterworks. We are going to learn the Two-Part Invention in F Major (Number 8).

9. Intervals - Chords rather than intervals, are the harmonic units by which the ear player works. But if the principal chords of the major and minor keys have been learned, the player will do well to notice the intervals which make up these chords. If we were following a logical order, these intervals would have been presented before the chords; but instead, we have been following the order in which an ear player develops and makes extensive use of chords before he knows anything of intervals. Now we may well take time to notice the subtle tendencies of the intervals themselves.

10. Grammar of Music - So far we have studied melody and harmony in the music we are playing. Now we shall organize this knowledge into a system to which we can refer in learning new and more difficult pieces.

Our music today is based upon scales, if we except some ultramodern compositions. The major scale with its half steps between 3 and 4 and between 7 and 8 is the basic scale of our musical system. The minor scale with its half steps between 2 and 3, 5 and 6, and 7 and 8 and a step and a half between 6 and 7 appears to us as a variant of this.

11. Rhythm - Most people consider rhythm as something added to music in the same way that instrumentation may be added after a piece has been completed. There is some justification for this attitude. Our melody and harmony are written in the system of major and minor scales; and a mistake results in a "sour note"—a tone which is not only incorrect in this particular piece but is outside the key.

12. Form - Next to polyphony, form is the most neglected element in music performance. Here, also, the ear player has a decided advantage. The long rows of similar-looking notes encourage the note player to plod along without regard to the form of the melodic line, which exists in the sound but not in the sight of the music. The ear player grasps the form immediately. We call attention to it here that we may note the refinements which depend upon complete comprehension.

13. The Pedal - The pedal of the piano is often considered no more important in playing the piano than the foot in writing on the typewriter, but actually it can ruin any performance, and it often can make a composition. This is particularly true of the ear player, who strives for the main effects rather than the little details. The pedal deserves careful consideration.

14. Interpretation - The ear player is a natural interpreter. Having heard a piece of music he plays it because he wants to get the effect which he heard originally. Despite this natural advantage he tends to get in a rut and to interpret all types of music in his own easy style. He will profit by con­sidering the various factors which determine interpretation.

15. Notation - The ear player who has come this far will realize that notation is essential if he is to acquire much that he would like to know. Whether notation be used only as a matter of reference, as we use the dictionary, or as a source of reading, as we read a novel, the knowledge will be well worth while. The student can easily learn it by himself; indeed, a teacher might be an encumbrance. A few sug­gestions, however, will speed the student's progress

16. Reading at Sight - Rumor has long maintained that ear players never become good sight readers; facts prove just the opposite. Although there are exceptions, the large significant units of sound which the ear player uses encourage him to grasp notation in the same manner. The note reader tends to grab note-note-note; once the ear player has become familiar with the notation he grasps large handfuls of notes and comprehends whole phrases at a glance.

17. Various Instruments - The instruments which play a single-line melody find it so easy to play by ear that a course in ear playing seems superfluous. A player of a melody instrument can usually play various tunes and themes as quickly as they are named. When there is just the one line to read, however, note reading is also easy.

18. Advice to Teachers - Children enjoy music on many accounts. They enjoy the physical fun of moving their arms about in orderly patterns; they enjoy the praise of friends and parents; they enjoy getting a job of satisfactory practice done; they enjoy the teacher's commendation; and they may enjoy the music. Opposed to this enjoyment is their resistance to practice which resembles the intellectual drill they are required to practice in school.

19. Memorization - We have many methods of memorizing music. Most obvious is the visual memory, whereby we see in our mind's eye the printed page or our hands on the keyboard in position to play a particular chord. Most people think they memorize in this manner. Actually they memorize by other means but are able at any time to project the passage which they are playing in their mind's eye.

20. Final Objective - Ear playing is a pastime. At its lowest level it is little more than aural doodling with an instru­ment. We play with this musical tidbit; we attempt that trivial air. But the delight in musical form draws us on. The folk tune, the popular song, the easy classic—each step makes the next possible. Where is the end?

Appendix

I. Perfect Cadence - To find the minor cadences, lower the upper tone in the IV chord and the middle tone in the I chords.

II. Bach Invention - (If the reader prefers to check this Invention from the letter notation, the version on page 141 will be helpful.)

THE END