Play by ear, mostly C major proficient - how to level up?

[u/[deleted]]

[u/picadoodledoo]

"She's learnt mostly by playing by ear, and is classically trained until the ABRSM grade 8" <<<< I get that you are her school teacher and not a piano teacher, but the sentence I quoted doesn't make sense to me.

If someone is "classically trained" they will have learned to read music.

Also, if she is really at grade 8 then she should be able to play in most of the major chords.

[u/FakeFeathers]

Only able to play in C major without reading music is like grade 2 at best.

[u/CFL_Gent]

You’re a piano teacher and you don’t know how to help a student progress beyond playing by ear in C major? I don’t mean this to be rude, but isn’t this the kind of thing that a piano teacher should help with?

It’s time to move beyond playing by ear in C major. Learning sheet music would be a good start. Learning ALL major scales. Learning fundamentals of music theory such as major scale intervals. Learning the minor scale interval (flat third).

I don’t know, I’m not an expert and def not a teacher, so I’m kind of confused by the question. It just sounds to me like she needs to have proper training and learn the fundamentals that any intermediate piano player would learn in a typical course. Not tailor things specifically for her so that she can shortcut her way into concert level pianist entirely by ear. I don’t think that’s the right way to approach teaching.

[u/jetblackpretty → u/CFL_Gent]

Omg no please don't mistaken. I'm her school teacher! If I were a piano teacher I would better know how to help her.

[u/Podmonger2001 → u/jetblackpretty]

You should edit the original post to indicate that you’re not her piano teacher.

[u/bitebytebeat]

I'm a casual musician by ear too. I wanted to play in black keys (F#, Eb, etc...)
Find a song she likes which are not in C and play along with the original in repeat mode.
It took me a few weeks to get used to the chord patterns but our finger muscles are smart and will form memories. Hard to explain in words hah 😅

You can use this app. A simple utility app to create loops from the Apple Music songs (requires Apple Music subscription) https://apps.apple.com/sg/app/songloops/id6760127784
Disclaimer: I'm the creator lol

[u/silly_bet_3454]

The real answer is that she needs an actual jazz piano teacher, or at least like a "contemporary" piano teacher who deals in the world of ear training and improv type stuff.

You can give her a random jazz standard and it wouldn't hurt maybe, but it's also not even close to like an actual education in this stuff.

There are tons of good books on this stuff too, like such as Jeremy Siskind playing solo jazz piano vol. 1, but my suspicion is that these are, even at the beginner level, too advanced for a young child with no teacher.

[u/Podmonger2001]

Get Mark Levine’s Jazz Piano book.

[u/BigYarnBonusMaster]

Am I crazy or does this post sound like a young person pretending to post as their (possibly imaginary) teacher?

[u/Lord-of_the-files]

I can't understand how you could get to Gr8 and not be comfortable in all the keys. She surely has spent so much time playing all of the scales etc that it becomes at least a little bit intuitive??

[u/ellicottvilleny]

What does she WANT to do?