How would you approach this new student?
11 year old boy (6th grade)
self taught
strong ear
can pick out favorite tunes & chords
no musical training
keyboard at home
interested in composing & playing
This description seems to fit so many teenage piano students who appear at our piano studio doors, doesn’t it?! Play-By-Ear Paul is keenly interested in piano and spends long hours switching between youtube and his smallish keyboard… painstakingly teaching himself to play his favourite songs. He dreams of one day playing keyboards in a band. His parents notice his aptitude and interest and do what seems natural… sign him up for piano lessons!
And then what?
Many of us feel like a fish out of water with these kinds of piano students. What do we do with Play-By-Ear Paul?
1. Continue on his quest to learn every Mumford and Sons song from memory and ignore note-reading and technique completely?
2. Ignore his passion for pop and give him a beginners method book to give him a “proper grounding”?
3. Spend hours combing our studio shelves for supplementary material that would suit his tastes while limping through quick explanations of the theory behind what he is playing?
I’m exhausted just thinking about it!
New Piano Students Who Play By Ear: Balancing Passion with Practicality
It is our job as piano teachers to give our piano students the skills they need to succeed. The tricky part is determining what is success for each particular student. If you really sit and think about Play-By-Ear Paul… he’s probably never going to ever need to know about Sonatina form. But does that mean we throw all technique and theory out the window and wile away his piano lesson hours simply picking out melodies by ear? Or do we plunk him into an old adult method book and listen as he slogs his way through “When the Saints Go Marching In”? and “Little Brown Jug”… Neither!
5 Tips For Teaching Teens Who Learned To Play By Ear
The key is in finding a balance between passion and practicality. Check out the list below for ways to approach the Play-By-Ear Pauls in your piano studio:
1. Avoid thinking either/or – Every activity you do during Play-By-Ear Paul’s lesson can be integrated to find a balance of reading vs. playing by ear. Having a great ear can really be a benefit… as long as it is also paired with the ability to use the score as a tool. Include eye-based learning by having Paul notate bits of melody he picks out by ear, by learning scores by sight and then improvising on them by ear, by asking ear-based questions about his score (When you hear this part, where is it on your score?) etc.
2. Use lead sheets to your advantage – Paul can learn a lot about reading notation by reading off lead sheets. It’s a great way to introduce note reading to someone who has previously only played by ear. You only have one clef to worry about, there is still the opportunity for improv and self-expression in the left hand, and the results are as immediate (and maybe even more so!) than playing by ear.
3. Introduce Paul to pseudo-classical music – Play-By-Ear Pauls crave that fantastically impressive sound. They’re not going to be happy with anything that sounds “beginner-ish”. Go on the hunt for music that satisfies his need for a gratifying sound… but that also has the opportunity to work on the technical aspects of playing the piano. The teen books we send out through PianoBookClub are designed to satisfy your teens’ need for gratifying yet not discouragingly-difficult repertoire. Play-By-Ear Paul has the tenacity to stick it out through a difficult piece – he’ll be committed to learning it, and you’ll have lots of great opportunities for teaching him theory along the way.
4. Compose – Play-By-Ear Paul has the ears for composing; he can feel his way around a keyboard and has likely spent hours on his own coming up with chord progressions that sound “cool”. Teach him simple ways to organize his “noodling” into a true piece of music. Teaching theory in this way makes it very relevant to these creative-type kids.
5. Assign method book pieces – Choose an Older Beginner method book and assign one piece per week. As much as he’d probably prefer to not play these pieces, it’s the best way to be sure there are no holes in his understanding. The method book should not form the basis for your lessons with him.. but rather serves as a “safety-net” for his piano education ensuring he has the “eye skills” to match his “ear skills”.
Play-By-Ear Paul has the potential to be your piano studio’s star. His passion and his natural musicality have laid the groundwork for what has the potential to be a truly fantastic piano student. By adjusting your teaching slightly to accommodate his interests and style, while maintaining his passion for piano, you’ll quickly begin to love his weekly lesson… and maybe even improve your own play-by-ear skills along the way!
jamila says
many thanks for sharing this, i have a new piano student who sounds exactly like this as well, loves to compose yet does not have all the theory skills needed to fully understand chord progressions, cadences etc. fortunately his father is very supportive and sits in on the lessons as well. i had him begin to learn the blues and the blues scale to start improvising and learning some basic chord progressions. but his father said he really wants him to learn some classics and develop his technique, so i told him to pick out a classical piece he really loves and he brought back ‘Fur Elise’ ! he really loves the piece and i have been pointing out to him the progressions, the repetitions in music and accompaniment figures to help him apply these skills to his own compositions. he has learned the first two sections so far and he plays very musically with so much expression. his technique is developing and he is playing scales, arpeggios and hanon exercises and learning to relax his arm and wrists. so i am excited to see him develop musically, learning some great classics and modern pieces as well as developing more skills to continue in his own composing. great article thanks for sharing, very inspiring with lots of great ideas to help my student progress !
Andrea says
Hi Jamilia – this is fantastic! Often it is that one special piece that you can use as a “hook” to really bridge the gap for these kinds of students. Fur Elise… what would we do without it! LOL 🙂
Marnie says
This is kind of funny. My husband is a naturally gifted musician, although he doesn’t play or teach music for a living. His main instrument is guitar and voice, he reads music a little, but largely plays by ear, even though he’s deaf in one ear and about 50% deaf in the other. And guess what…his name is Paul.
Andrea says
Hi Marnie – that is quite a coincidence! The title of this post must have made you do a double-take! 🙂
jan says
Is it okay to teach these type of students a song by rote as long as note reading and theory is covered through a lesson book or the lead sheets?
Andrea says
Hi Jan – absolutely (in my opinion). There is no reason to stop playing by ear as long as you are also giving him the skills to read. Playing by ear gets a bad rap – it’s not all bad! In fact, students who play by ear are often quite musical and intuitive. If they also gain the reading skills they have the potential to be fantastic musicians.
Rebecca Brown says
Honestly…..I refer these students to one of the other piano teachers in my studio. I never feel like I do a very good job teaching these students, so I am just honest with them and tell them that my other two teachers are much stronger in the areas of composition/improvisation and playing by ear than I am (especially with students who want to do this from day one) and will be much more effective at incorporating that into the lessons. I’m not ashamed that we all have our own areas of strength and weakness. While Mr. Bell is fantastic with students like what you described above, he is also a fish out of water when it comes to teaching preschoolers…..while I am extremely successful with the preschoolers, and simply flounder around with the students you described.
Rebecca says
Another great resource for these awesome aural learners is John Schmidt’s 36 Fun Songs (I think that’s the title… it’s purple). Using his method gets them playing familiar songs quickly, and if they haven’t already seen the piano guys on YouTube they’ll quickly learn to love them – and there are versions of their stuff right there in the book! Great for the note-reading portion of the lesson.
Yuka says
I am so happy that I found this website!
We have just opened a new music school in Kenya, and your articles have given us so many great ideas to try out.
I have had a couple of students like Paul and unfortunately I could not keep them engaged enough to practice.
I wish I had seen this blog much earlier!
Thank you so much once again.
Jan says
It is 2015 and I have just read this article. So glad I did. I am a piano and voice teacher. I began at 3 playing by ear. I have studied all forms of music. I love teaching kids that have an ear, and can play songs that they have heard. I usually follow the plan you gave 1/2 ear, and 1/2 learning to read notes. I t does Work!!! Thanks for the ideas!!
Brenda says
I have had 11 years old students that have learned the Suzuki method and plays songs beautifully but are so limited as they cannot read any music, do not know basic theory, and do not even know chords to play a basic lead sheet.
Caren says
I read one of your articles that said to use postit notes on the score. It was like a game. Cannot find the article for the life of me . HELP
Andrea says
Hi Caren – Hmmm… We had a couple posts similar to this… could it be one of these?
https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2015/03/23/bring-this-printable-passport-if-youre-travelling-back-in-time-to-review-a-piano-piece/
https://www.teachpianotoday.com/2013/05/16/a-piano-practice-game-that-will-make-piano-pieces-stick/
Betty Lange says
Love all the help. Lots of interesting ideas. I have an electric piano in another room so students can practice their lessons before it’s their turn. Gets them warmed up, too.
Amber says
This is perfect! My newest student perfectly matches this description, and I’ve been worrying how to handle his lessons. Thanks so much for the great ideas!!