Playing By Ear “vs.” Free Piano Sheet Music

Free piano sheet music is now available all over the internet. Musicians are performing daily searches for their favorite gospel, pop, R&B and Contemporary Christian songs. One struggle that continues to exist is the ability to play piano by ear. While free piano sheet music can be easily found, it doesn’t provide any help for music students who want to play piano by ear.

In order to play piano by ear, music students must learn how to understand music theory, how to interpret chord symbols and notations and how to hear the bass line. Even though you can find your favorite song on free piano sheet music, it will never teach you how to write and transcribe songs by ear. Music student that avoid free piano sheet music and learn how to play piano by ear will also learn how to compose songs, improvise and listen to a song on the radio and instantly play it like they always knew it. Free piano sheet music will never deliver these advantages.

Reading chords is absolutely critical when playing piano by ear. When music theory is used correctly theory gets inside the science of the music and allows you to apply creative elements such as scales, tritones, blues licks, altered chords and chord substitutions. While free piano sheet music will provide you with a written transcription on the song, the music student is limited and confined only to the notes written on the staff. This gives way to no creative freedom. One again free piano sheet music strips you of all your creative juices and confined you to only what’s written on the page.

When chords are provided above the measures in free piano sheet music, the musicians can use the chord voicings of their preference. No longer being a slave to free piano sheet music we can now add our own flavor to the song.  This way free piano sheet music does not hinder us from adding our own personal touch to the music.

As long as we can get free piano sheet music online 24/7 the ear does not reap the benefits of hearing at another level. Although we enjoy getting free piano sheet music, if self-expression and creative awareness is your goal, free piano sheet music is not the final answer.

In order to harness the power of playing piano by ear and not be intimidated by free piano sheet music, one thing must happen. You’ve have to hear the bass line. The secret to playing piano by ear without free piano sheet music is in hearing the bass line. If you want to be rescued from the free piano sheet music trap learn to hear the bass line. This is why I create my Contemporary Keyboard Harmony 1 course which includes my acclaimed Contemporary Ear Training 1 course. Stop being a slave to free piano sheet music and learn to harness the power of playing piano by ear. “Click Here” for details.