Ear Training & Musicianship

Ear Training Exercises

Ear training is an important aspect of musicianship. And it is one element that is often overlooked by many piano teachers. Here's one easy ear training exercise you can do with your students is to have them try to play a pop song of one of their favorite artists on the piano. I do this with my students, and I've had good success with it. Plus, the students like it because it's something new and usually challenging, but fun at the same time.

As the student is hammering out the tune of the keyboard, you can use the exercise to teach them about concepts like B T A S (Bass - Tenor - Alto - Soprano) or four-part harmony. You can begin by helping them locate the bass line in the left hand. Then you can ask them to find the melody line in the right hand. Usually there will be some sort of accompaniment with either a synthesizer or rhythm guitar. You can use these parts of the song to work on chord qualities and scalar progressions.

As your students' ears become more acutely attuned to chord and scale progressions, common cadences, bass and harmony parts, you'll find that their overall performance ability will improve, and that they will find it much easier to tackle the theoretical and musicianship aspects of piano performance.