| You've all heard the expression "play piano by ear" | | | | copy what they "heard" on the radio and instead took |
| right? This refers to a musician's ability to pick out a | | | | those same chords and created something new and |
| tune, harmonize it, and figure out the rest of the song | | | | original? That's playing by heart! |
| along the way. | | | | It's very hard for most of us to trust our own intuitions. |
| A great skill to have no doubt. But, just having the | | | | We're constantly being told we're not good enough, or |
| ability to play by ear won't help you create your own | | | | not ready, but by trusting your own intuitive mind first, |
| music. Why? Because you still have to be able to | | | | you leap from way ahead of those who can only |
| improvise freely - a skill that is quite different than just | | | | copy or imitate. You learn that there is another way of |
| picking out tunes on the piano. | | | | playing. A way where copying is not necessary and |
| Playing by ear assumes that you want to learn how to | | | | only serves to slow down creativity. |
| play other peoples music. Guitarists do this all the time. | | | | Look, there's nothing wrong with learning from those |
| They'll sit around in front of the stereo strumming along | | | | you love, but at some point, you're going to want to |
| to their favorite songs trying to figure out the chord | | | | create something on your own. And unless you've |
| changes. | | | | exercised your intuition a little, you're going to have a |
| Eventually they get it and can play these songs. Pretty | | | | hard time "coming up" with something. But, if we start |
| impressive right? | | | | out by trusting our own hearts and ourselves, we can |
| But what if this same guitar player took these chords | | | | quickly bypass this "copying" and launch directly into |
| and relied on the heart instead of the ear to guide him? | | | | our own unique creations! |
| What if this guitarist decided not to try and imitate or | | | | |