Pedagogical steps to Playing By Ear

by MConklin Posted on September 26, 2011

In my last couple of posts, I’ve talked about the importance of teaching play-by-ear skills to foster creativity and related some of my experiences in assigning play-by-ear exercises, as well as the results I’ve seen in my students and in my own musical studies.  In this article, I’m going to share some of my pedagogical insights on teaching students to play-by-ear.

As with any skill at the piano, some students will take to playing-by-ear almost without any instruction at all.  In fact, some of your students may be doing it already without your knowledge.  But for some students, learning to play-by-ear will take as much thoughtful and leveled instruction as learning to sight read proficiently.  As with all skills, the trick to getting better is to continually improve with consistent practice with progressively more difficult assignments.

Remember that it is not necessary to precede play-by-ear assignments with theory.  In other words, it is not necessary to teach melodic intervals or solfege prior to assigning melodies to learn by ear.  In fact, I think it is useful and beneficial to precede the theoretical concepts with many play-by-ear examples that illustrate the concept. Continue reading “Pedagogical steps to Playing By Ear” »

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PBE Examples

by MConklin Posted on September 21, 2011

I thought I would follow up on my post Play By Ear is Good Pedagogy by sharing a few of the PBE (play-by-ear) assignments that I used with my class piano students at Iowa State University.  There are audio files attached, but it may take a bit for the player to show.  Be patient!

Tow Truck

This was one of the first PBE assignments for my Level 1 class piano students.  I limited the harmonic motion to an open fifth in the LH with a 5 finger melody in the RH.  This assignment was given in the second week of classes, so it is quite simple, yet challenging for someone new to the piano.  Notice that the RH and LH never coincide.

Listen to

Lyrics:

When I moved to Iowa
Had to call a Tow Truck
Towed the Ford to empty spot
Had to pay the tower a lot.

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Play-by-ear is good pedagogy.

by MConklin Posted on September 19, 2011

I thought I would take some time to talk about my experience with using play-by-ear (PBE) exercises in music lessons.

Play By Ear in Private Lessons

I have always been a very flexible teacher with my students when it comes to repertoire selection.  My answer to “Can I Play…” is almost always, “YES!”  Back when I was a graduate assistant at the University of Oklahoma, one of my private collegiate students asked if she could work on a Ben Folds song called “The Luckiest.”  I went about trying to find the sheet music, and in the interim, asked the student to learn the melody by ear, and play it on the piano.

The student took to the assignment with enthusiasm.  When I did find a version of the song available as sheet music, we were both disappointed with the quality of the transcription.  The rhythms were approximate at best, and the some of the harmonization choices didn’t even seem close to the track I downloaded from iTunes.  The student had done such a good job working on the melody by ear, that I decided to try to learn the accompaniment as it is played in the radio version by ear.  Now, at the time, I was not an accomplished “play by ear-er”.  I found the process somewhat difficult to accomplish on my own, and I certainly didn’t feel adequately skilled to teach it.

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#1 Investigative Tool for Students

by MConklin Posted on September 13, 2011

In my last article, I mentioned that there was one tool that I believe is crucial in developing creative pianists.  Not only is this tool crucial, in my opinion, but I believe it is currently neglected, if not actively discouraged by most piano teachers.

The Creative Flowchart

But before we get to that tool, let me explain why I think it is so important.  In order for students to be creative, they must be able to investigate the music that interests them.  I propose the following flowchart to creativity.

Interest-> (leads to…)
Curiosity->
Investigation->
Identification & Recognition->
Acquisition->
Creative Implementation

Let’s take these elements one by one, and do so from the perspective of a student who is interested in popular music on the radio.  Under what circumstances will this interest lead to a new musical creation from the student?

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Creative vs. Re-Creative Pianists

by MConklin Posted on August 15, 2011

In my last article, I made the assertion that if we continue to structure our teaching around competitions and auditions, we will never produce the next classical piano superstar.  I promised some pedagogical heresy and apostasy, so I’ll get right to it.

Where auditions and competitions fail is that they don’t promote true creativity at the piano.

Where piano teachers fail, is that they fall into the trap of teaching in service of the repertoire.

Auditions and competitions foster RE-Creative musicians, pianists who can reproduce the music of others.  The dash in the word re-creative is important, because I don’t mean recreative, as in, “I do this activity for recreation – because it’s fun.”  Re-creative tasks are those in which the artist faithfully reproduces the creativity of another.   Yes, there is opportunity for creative musicianship (and that is what piano teachers/audiences/judges crave), but that is not the same as having the understanding of the mechanics and grammar of music to create new expressions in musical form.

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Piano teachers, How do you judge Success?

by MConklin Posted on August 5, 2011

Piano teachers, I have a question for you.  How do you judge the success of your piano teaching?

  • Do you judge it by the number of competition winners you’ve taught?
  • Do you judge it by the rankings your students receive from National Guild Auditions?

No.  I’m betting that most of you judge it by the smiles you see on your students’ faces when they come to lessons, or by the smiles of parents and friends at studio recitals.  You judge it by the swelling warmth in your heart while thinking about your students, and the joy that you hope you have brought into the world by giving the gift of music to another person.

Okay, now that we have the “pedagogically correct” answer out of the way, seriously, what sort of goals do you set when you choose certain activities for you piano studio?  When you enter students into competitions, do you teach in a way to maximize the possibility that they will have a positive experience?  When you enroll students in Guild auditions, do you structure your teachings so they will get the highest ratings?  And, even though such benchmarks are not a fair assessment of a piano teacher’s ability, after a win or a “Superior +,” do you view that as independent confirmation of your teaching ability?

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