Learn like a Concert Pianist

Question: Mr. Frantz,

First of all I’d like to thank you for your amazing site. Everything you wrote and explained there has served me considerably.

I am an 18-year-old girl who has decided (a year ago) to pursue piano studies in university. I started to play at a very late age (15), but...

There is one ear training skill that every musician and every music student, including absolute beginners, must develop. It should be done from the very beginning of music study and is a suitable exercise for the first lesson and to test a new student’s overall musicality. This skill makes...

Question: How can I readily identify any chord when played?

– Timothy (Nigeria)

Albert’s reply: The first step in chord ear training is to learn to identify the basic types of chords, starting with triads in root position. Since a triad is composed of two stacked thirds and each of...

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...