The Myths of Playing by Ear-Part 2

Here is Part 2 of “The Myths of Playing by Ear” by Bradley Sowash.  Read Part 1 here.

Myth #3
Only experts can teach ear skills.

The biggest obstacle for students seeking ear skills is finding instruction. To illustrate this, let me describe my own experience. As a boy, I had an earnest desire to make my own music without the aid of written music. When I asked my teacher to help me learn to play by ear, I was told to stick to the method books. As an interested and obedient student, I tried to stay on track always looking for the section that would deal with playing by ear and/or improvising. It never came. Like so many other “self-taught” musicians, I began “cheating” by imitating recordings, composing, and “improving” my assigned written pieces with embellishments and cadenzas. (Isn’t it interesting that “improve” and “improvise” share the same “improv” root word?)

My search for more open-minded instruction led me to seek advice from professional jazz musicians. It was a dead end. Whether for ego reasons, a desire to protect trade secrets or because they were primarily performers rather than educators, the jazzers I met seemed unable to explain their craft. Their comments such as, “jazz is something you feel,” or “you either got it in you or you don’t” only served to make me feel hopelessly suburban, square and boring.

So I continued with my traditional lessons for a few more years wondering when I, in their jazz vernacular would “have it.” When I still didn’t seem to have it in my teen years, I took the perfectly logical step of quitting piano lessons.

Unfortunately, my educational experience is still the norm. We all know the pattern: Students begin lessons with, at least, mild to wild enthusiasm only to quit by age 10 to 14 because they cannot find the means to play the unwritten music that’s playing on their Ipods.

It doesn’t have to be that way. You are the real teachers. You know how to introduce new concepts. You know how to pace lessons to individual learning styles. You keep abreast of new teaching techniques and resources by attending conferences and reading journals such as this one. In a thousand ways, you are the true professional music educators. However, most of us do a good job of teaching to the eye at the expense of the ear. Reading music requires precision and forethought. We know how to teach and evaluate this skill because it’s objective; notes and rhythms are either right or wrong. The abilities to recreate a tune from memory or tap creative impulses to improvise are more difficult to assess but that shouldn’t scare us off. Teaching these capabilities will save the students who are frustrated with only reading and expand the skills and interest of your most committed, best readers. Ideally, these skills would be taught as a regular and expected part of standard music pedagogy rather than as a quirky curriculum only offered by a few teachers.

So, why are we, as teachers, so resistant to playing and teaching off the page? If it’s because we’ve bought into common misconceptions or are afraid of the unknown, perhaps it’s time to reconsider. The rewards are many. For one thing, teaching to the ear is fun for students and teachers alike. This “pleasure factor” really struck me at a music education conference in Las Vegas. After a long day of enlightening presentations, I went out with a few colleagues to a lounge with live music. Since it was early by Las Vegas standards, the band was still setting up when we arrived. Only the two keyboard players were ready to go so they started trading improvised licks on a two-chord vamp while waiting for their band mates to finish tweaking their gear. The difference between these two smiling musicians, obviously having a great time jamming together and the “expert” music teachers right next door at WPPC, most of whom would not have a clue how to do that, was striking. Why should there be such a gulf between these two approaches to music making? The sooner your students consider playing by ear to be as normal as reading music, the better.

Myth Buster: Ear skills can be taught and you don’t have to be an expert to do it.

Excerpted from a longer article titled “Unlocking the Mystery of Playing by Ear” which appeared in Clavier Companion November, December 2009 and reprinted with permission.