When you listen to music, if you have heard the piece several times before you will find that you will recognise the piece from the melody .. and even be able to sing along with the piece 'in your head'. Maybe you can even sing the melody out loud, or hum it, or whistle it. If I 'hum' a piece my wife tells me I am 'droning'. Probably because I am not 'humming' in tune, but more importantly, I can hear all the harmony of all the chords in my head .. and my wife can't hear those harmonies because they are in my head. What I hear is a full orchestra/band and what my wife hears is just a drone.
Eventually, the melody just 'comes' as you play it on the keyboard. This is 'playing by ear'. If you play a wrong note your 'ear' will tell you .. and with me, if I play a wrong chord, my 'ear' will tell me. It doesn't usually take me long to play the right notes and the right harmonies .. according to what I remember of the song.
And that is the crux of it. By not playing from the sheet music you could say that most of what I play, I 'play it my way' as I am not following how the song was originally written. And sometimes, what I play is clearly 'wrong'!
Here is an example of a song I have been playing 'wrong' for over 60 years! The song in question is Carolina Moon.
From Wikipedia:
"Carolina Moon" is a popular song, written by Joe Burke and Benny Davis. Written in 1924, the song was first recorded in 1928 by American crooner Gene Austin whose version charted for 14 weeks, seven of them at #1. A version of "Carolina Moon" was recorded by Connie Francis in June 1958.
First, listen to Den playing it on his Tyros 4. Note in particular how the second bit of the tune goes .. where the emphasis of the melody is within the beats of the bar.
Click on the below to listen; then click the back arrow after to get back to this page.
Carolina Moon played by Den on his Tyros 4
And then listen to Connie Francis singing it.
Carolina Moon - Connie Francis 1958
Click the below to listen; then click the back-arrow after to get back to this page.
Now ...
What I asked in the Subject line of this topic was .. How well can you pick up a melody 'by ear'?
You've listened to Den playing Carolina Moon, and you've listened to Connie Francis singing it .. which confirms how the melody goes in the 'second' bit of the tune. You probably know this song anyway. I had said that I had being playing it wrongly (by ear) for the last 60 years. So what was I playing for that second bit? And have you got the melody of the second part of the tune firmly in your head?
Have a listen and see how good you are at spotting the difference.
Click the below to listen; then click the back-arrow after to get back to this page.
Carolina Moon played 'wrongly', with the Chorus melody emphasised on the wrong beat of the bar
So now .. can I play it with the emphasis on the right beat of the bar? Difficult for me! I have been playing it 'my way' for 60 years! But I'll have a go.
Click the below to listen; then click the back-arrow after to get back to this page.
Carolina Moon played with the Chorus melody emphasised correctly'
Can you tell the difference?
Hugh