How (and why) to practice with your ear
One shift in practice that brings freedom, fluency, and musical confidence.
“Playing by ear” beyond the page
Whether you’re playing an instrument, singing a song, or just jamming out to your favorite track, you can think of your ear as your most important instrument. In fact, you can even consider it a hidden superpower.
The term “playing by ear” means learning, recalling, or performing music without written notation. It’s where you use listening and memory as your main guides. Instead of relying on sheet music, a chord chart, or tabs, you use your ear to identify melodies, harmonies, and rhythms, then reproduce them on your instrument. It’s a natural shift that allows a musician to escape the trap of relying only on memorization of sheet music or visuals. While this may seem like a complex skill only advanced musicians can master, it’s not! Learning how to utilize your ear can be a really powerful skill in your learning journey.
Common misconceptions about ear training
“But wait… don't I have to be born with perfect pitch to use my ear?” This is one of the most common misconceptions about playing by ear. You don’t need to be an expert musician, and you certainly don’t need to have started training at a young age to use your ear. There’s a big difference between having perfect pitch abilities and recognizing pitch in your day-to-day. Think about it this way: you may not be able to hum the note “C” off the top of your head on a whim, but you can probably recognize or hum the melody of your most listened to song. You’re using your ear to recall the music, and ear skills are learnable, step-by-step.
Why practicing with your ear matters
Practicing with your ears allows you to have a deeper musical understanding, and it’s extremely beneficial for a number of reasons. First, it will help you internalize sound, not just symbols. Your ears also help boost your memory by retaining music faster than your eyes alone.
On the creative side, using your ear to guide you can open up a new world of possibilities for music-making and improvisation. It will build your confidence to play without notes in front of you. Lastly, it improves communication if you are jamming with other musicians and reacting in real time.
It may seem simple, but practicing with your ear is all about knowing up from down. Musicians refer to this as relative pitch, the ability to reproduce a note by comparing it to another known note above or below, rather than recognizing the note as it stands alone. Instead of trying to identify every single note, begin with broad categories and relative pitch:
Does the sound go up or down?
Is it higher or lower than the note you just heard?
It’s similar to perfect pitch, but it’s much more attainable, even for beginners. With a little conscious practice, your ear can become an expert with relative pitch.
Starting simple: first ear-training steps
You’re probably already doing some ear training with relative pitch without even noticing! Singing or humming along to your favorite songs is a great way to practice! Expanding on that, you can train your ear to recognize a few main things in your playing: rhythms, notes, intervals, and tone.
The next time you hear a melody to a song, try to repeat it by clapping or tapping it out. You’ve just used your ear to identify and replicate a song’s rhythm. The next time you sit down to practice, try singing back single notes as you play them on your instrument. Go up a scale, then go down a scale. Then, try singing notes slowly, one by one, to your favorite song. This exercise is called matching pitch. You won’t develop perfect pitch just from this, but this exercise will help you be more in tune with what you’re playing and how to recognize up from down.
You can also do the same thing with intervals. In music, an interval is simply the distance between two notes. Practice starting on a single note. Then, press a note any distance above or below and listen to what that sounds like. Over time, you may start to automatically remember (and hear) what it feels like to move up five notes versus three.
Using your ear to recognize 'tone'
One of the best uses of ear training is learning to recognize tone. Tone is the “character” or “color” of music.
When you listen to a song or a melody, ask yourself: Does this sound happy? Sad? Calm? Eerie? These qualities often come from whether the music is in a major or minor key, or from the intervals and chords that shape its mood.
Training your ear to pick up on these emotional colors helps you understand music on a deeper level, beyond just the notes on the page. With practice, you can start to identify major as bright or uplifting, minor as darker or more dramatic, and other tonalities that create unique atmospheres.
Practical Exercises to Try
When you feel like you’ve gotten the hang of some simple practice steps in using your ear, you can try some more advanced exercises, like a call-and-response exercise.
Have a friend play or sing a short phrase to you. Then, try to copy it on your piano. You can do this on your own, too. Pick a short melody from a song you like. Listen once or twice without playing. Then, without looking at any sheet music, try to hum it back first, then play it back on your piano just from memory. This exercise trains your ear to hold onto pitch patterns and strengthens the connection between what you hear and how your fingers respond.
Practicing with your ear unlocks freedom, creativity, and connection. Even just 5 minutes a day of conscious practice with your ear can lead to noticeable growth. Don’t worry if pitches feel impossible to hear at first; that’s completely normal.
Ear training can be like learning a new language: at the beginning, every sound may seem the same, but remember, start small. Instead of trying to identify and repeat every single note in an entire string of notes, begin with broad categories and relative pitch: does the sound go up or down? Is it higher or lower than the note you just heard? Once that feels easy, move on to short, familiar melodies.
Starting with songs you know will help the transition to conscious ear training seem smoother. Think of it like strength training: one rep at a time builds muscle you can’t see until later. So next time you practice, close the book, close your eyes, and just listen!
About Celia Tewey
Celia Tewey is a musician and multi-instrumentalist based in NYC. A jazz pianist first and foremost, Celia has studied and performed piano for over 20 years. With a nurturing teaching approach in her classes and lessons, Celia emphasizes the importance of ear-training, improvisation, repetition, and slow and steady practice. Taking much of her composition style inspiration from greats like Oscar Peterson, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, and Vince Guaraldi, Celia enjoys sharing her music and teaching online on Instagram and TikTok at @celia_2e.
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