|
What's a Natural Ear?
All of us have a native facility for music; all language is based on rhythm, tone and pitch change. The preverbal signals that underly speech are universally understood. Music stretches out sounds we produce, either through our voices or instruments that we have made. Humanity creates sounds for its amusement and to communicate ideas. We howl, croon, shout and stomp to all the world.
A natural ear for music means that you are 'tuned in' to this language, and have a desire to express yourself through music. Repeated experience and experimentation create skills that raise the level of communication. Groups form who 'agree' in a sonic arena. Bands are formed, music is made!
I learned a lot of my teaching skills from my own children. Both my boys learned to play 'naturally', without reading traditional notation. My oldest son spent about a week at the piano, around the age of 4, with directions from me and specific boundaries.
"One note at a time."
Then "This is a third; some are happy and some are sad. Find them. Use the black ones, too."
He learned to hear intervals and pitch movement. I didn't know how important this was to me, as I attributed it to his natural 'genius'. I had turned a corner in my teaching methods.
My second son didn't get such micromanagement - I was a single mom and busy. He tagged along as I played gigs and learned all the songs by heart as I practiced and recorded my CDs. I had lots of instruments around. One day I heard him playing fills on a little Gibson Melodymaker as I practiced on the porch; he said he 'heard it in his head and found it on the guitar'. I recognized that this was something new, something I had not been taught as a child. I hired him immediately as my new bass player. He did a great job and it gave me ideas.
We didn't waste anytime on unnecessary details on 'learning to read music'. I didn't have time to tell him why anything worked; I just taught him the songs that I needed for him to know and booked the gigs. I did tell him which key we were in on each song - it helped him catalogue in his mind the differences between the songs. Pretty soon he started noticing on his own the similarities between tunes and chord progressions.
When I finally got around to explaining the theory behind the patterns, he got it immediately. Both my sons have always depended on their ears to drive their fingers, without analyzing or forming any words. They played automatically, by ear, and both had learned to do so in an amazingly short period of time.
In my academic history, students were shamed for playing 'by ear'. This is so wrong on so many levels. Paper music was high tech in the 17th century, but if Mozart were alive today, he'd be uploading files and utilizing the most direct method available to spread his work. Paper is seldom used today in professionals' rehearsals, unless it is to scribble down new lyrics or to document the new progression in a key change. Gifted musicians don't even do that, because they've done these patterns so often that it's child's play. I make people mad when I say this, but I think sightreading causes musical deafness.
Humans love melody, harmony and rhythm. The more complicated, the easier it is retained. Young kids often recognize the Champs' song "Tequila" as soon as they hear it. The rhythm is complex and varied, and it cannot be written down. I can teach a kid to play it in minutes - Hot Cross Buns doesn't stand a chance these days.
MORE ABOUT OUR MUSIC CAMPS >> | 
