There is no silver bullet to learning to play piano by ear.  There is no quick fix.  No magic pill, shortcut or ‘get rich quick’ pyramid scheme for learning to play by ear.  It takes time to get good!  The problem for most people is in sustaining a level of practise with their ear-training that isn't boring, too time-consuming or ineffective.  So here are 3 simple ear-training activities that you can do ‘on-the-go’. 

Many people like the idea of learning piano by ear, but don't necessarily know that much about how it works.  There's a host of unanswered questions jumbling around your head anytime you start to think about it! 

In this post I've answered the most frequently asked questions that I receive as a piano tutor and a top piano writer on Quora.  The aim of these answers is to help overcome any of the hesitancies a new piano student may have about learning by ear, so that the piano journey can begin with full confidence! 

For as long as there has been the desire to play piano by ear there has also been some reluctance toward it.  The truth is that learning by ear is as equally vital a skill as reading sheet music and today both methods of learning are combined to develop the future super-race of well-rounded musicians! 

Learning piano by ear is now recommended by creative piano teachers the world over.  It’s been around forever (remember the Suzuki method?),  but its recent surge in popularity is due to people simply not having the time, money, or inclination to spend years of private lessons learning to read sheet music. 

"Give a man a fish, and you have fed him once.  Teach him how to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime." – this perfectly applies to the idea of learning to teach yourself songs on the piano by ear instead of simply learning by sheet-music, chord charts or Youtube tutorials.