Learn to play beautifully

Question: I’m a music student – a piano student – and also I want to start a fitness program. Can it damage my piano technique? I mean, how can push-ups, pull-ups, yoga, isometric training and so on bring me problems with practice, and if this is the case, what kind of fitness...

Question: I learned to play piano back when I was 16 years of age and I learned to read piano notes. I haven’t played in years (my own fault for not keeping up with it). Can I learn again to play piano?

– Virginia (Sierra Vista, Arizona, USA)

Albert’s reply: Of course you can...

Question: I know people usually say it depends on the person. Well, I want to know the average year of when a person who take lessons starts playing by ear. I know that some people don’t take lessons and play by ear.

– Mila (USA)

Albert’s reply: The unfortunate truth is that...

Question: I would like to know more about proper voice leading. I can hear each separate voice in a piece and I can hear chord progressions, but this seems like an either/or method for me. When transposing all voices, notes in chords are arranged in different orders and inversions. I would think...

Question: Thank you very much for this website – it has helped me tremendously. My question goes for the Intervals lesson, where you stated that to learn the intervals in a scale, one should sing the actual numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. In order to remember the intervals, how would I be able to...

Question: Hi Albert,

My name is Shane. I’ll keep this brief. I’m hunting around for different ear training methods. I’ve been through a bunch of stuff but it doesn’t stick.

The level of ear training I’ve done was 2 1/2 years of classes at a university music school,...

Playing piano by ear is among the most essential of musical skills, yet it is generally looked down upon by teachers of traditional reading-based approaches (of which I am also one). In this article I wish to demonstrate that the two can live in harmony with one another.

I find this state of...

Many piano teachers tend to look down upon efforts to play piano by ear. Yet music is sound, and the better our aural skills the better musicians we become. I believe we should encourage students to learn music by ear by teaching aural skills while continuing to teach reading skills.

Playing...

Question: In my ear training exercises, I can currently hear every scale interval in my mind’s ear in every key. I am wondering about the minor intervals. I can hear them externally and correctly match them but I have not yet been able to hear them in my mind’s ear first in every...

Question: How can ear training help singers?

– Jojo (Fairfield, California, USA)

Albert’s reply: It is essential for all musicians to train their ear, since music is sound after all and it is our duty as musicians to comprehend it. A musician without a trained ear would be like a...

Question: Here’s one I can’t explain… in specific ear training where the student is asked to do chord identification (major/minor with inversion) using 4-note chords, the student can only hear (and can sing back perfectly) three of the notes… and it’s not always...

Question: One problem faced by my students in aural tests is memorizing a long melody. Any tips please? Thanks.

– Achilles (Malta)

Albert’s reply: The most important thing in learning melodies by ear is to learn to hear the scale degrees. In C major for instance, we can hear C, E,...