When it comes to learning to play a musical instrument, there generally tends to be two groups of students: those who teach themselves by playing music by ear, and those who learn through more formal lessons. But learning by ear is such an important skill that teachers usually include some form of ear training in their formal lessons. In fact, instructors recognize the benefits of developing your ear; students with a well developed ear tend to play more musically.
Some people even believe that it’s beneficial in the long-term to learn to play by ear first – before ever beginning any kind of musical training.
Let’s take a look at five of the biggest benefits that come from playing music by ear.
Playing Music By Ear Benefit #1: Stick With It
When a musician decides they are going to try to figure out how to play a particular song on their instrument, they have already set a goal for themselves. When they finally learn the song, there’s a giant feeling of accomplishment and pride. Think about any time you’ve ever figured something out on your own; it was exciting, wasn’t it?
When you get right down to it, human beings are addicted to success, and moreover, to experiencing positive feelings like achievement and pride. We like – and need – to feel confident. What’s more, it becomes a positive feedback loop in which we feel encouraged by our success and the positive emotions it brings to us, which pushes us to perform at a higher level and learn even more on our instruments.
Benefit #2: Learn Faster
Students that start their journey playing music by ear have the benefit of building strong auditory connections. This ultimately helps them learn faster.
Whether they know it or not, students that teach themselves to play by ear have trained themselves to recognize and anticipate melodies and other structures that are common in musical compositions. This, as you might expect, makes learning new songs much easier.
Starting with ear training allows you to at least play your instrument a little (or maybe a lot) with a basic understanding of how notes work together. With this foundation, learning to read sheet music means simply labeling the notes on the staff in relation to how they’re played on the instrument.
Students who spend time on 4 chord keyboard practice (or playing 3 chord guitar songs) usually find more meaning than students who don’t have any understanding of chord progressions; they already know why each chord follows the one before.
Furthermore, if you practice broken chords by ear, you’ll see that the notes aren’t random, they’re chord arpeggios.
In essence, ear training helps students appreciate the sounds of scale degrees and see a more meaningful context to the notes on the sheet.
Benefit #3: Play More Musically
The phrase “playing musically” means more than simply playing melodies and rhythms. Rather, it refers to the nuances that make a particular piece of music sound so great. The key to learning this for yourself is to listen – it can only be done with your ears!
Specifically, you need to listen for dynamic changes, bass lines, subtle harmonies, tempo changes, and dissonance. Each of these musical elements add to a higher level of playing and musicianship.
One might say it’s the difference between sounding like a piano student, and sounding like a piano player.
Benefit #4: Confident Improvising
This next benefit is something that grows out of playing more musically. As a student learns to easily recognize chords and scales, they also learn to put them together however they want in their head, and then play it on the instrument.
How does that work, exactly? Imagine humming a tune you’ve made up in your head. From there, musicians with ear training ability can think about the distances between each note. All that’s then needed is a note to start with, and they’re improvising!
This, of course, takes a lot of practice to master, but even a novice can have fun with it when just starting out.
Benefit #5: Save Money
Finally, the last benefit has less to do with how well you end up playing – but it’s still a benefit nevertheless.
Learning to play by ear, especially before lessons, can actually help you save money in a variety of ways. The first is relatively small: you can save some money on books and sheet music. Not much, but it’s worth mentioning.
However, the big savings come from delaying lessons. Private music lessons are not inexpensive. In fact, most music teachers now ask you to pay in advance, commit to a specific number of lessons, and many don’t offer “make-up” lessons if you should miss one. All said, that can add up to a lot of money. However, if you learn by ear first you can take stock of your interest in playing the instrument. You can decide how much dedication you’re willing to give learning, and decide how far you want to go with it, all with a smaller expense.
If you start with playing music by ear, and later decide you want more formal lessons, you can seek out a teacher that matches your abilities, and can take you where you want to go. All before dropping a lot of cash.
Final Thoughts
That’s just a handful of the countless reasons why learning to play music by ear can be a huge benefit to anyone’s musical journey!
If you’re looking to start your journey, or continue your learning with more formal lessons, take a peek at The Music Studio’s private and group lessons and programs. Sign up today and learn from professionals!