Learn piano without reading music by harmonizing

Can you play the piano without reading music?

Yes! While I believe that every pianist benefits from reading music, the reverse is true as well. The ability to play piano without reading music opens up many options for both the casual and professional pianist. The amateur pianist who wants to learn the popular songs they are familiar with might have a hard time finding sheet music of the correct difficulty, but will find it fulfilling to explore these pieces when they don’t need to read off the page. A gigging pianist could encounter special requests while providing musical entertainment at a party, and the chances of them being able to bring enough sheet music for all potential requests are slim.

Playing by ear

You might be familiar with the phrase “playing by ear”. This contrasts playing by “sight” or using your eyes to read music. The first step to figuring out a familiar piece is using your ear to find the notes to the melody. This involves a bit of trial by error until you find the keys that sound right.

Playing by ear takes more than just your ear

The ear is your constant checkpoint when playing the piano. This is true anytime you play, but it becomes doubly important when you are working without the printed notes. By no means does it work alone, though. An understanding of music theory with an emphasis on chords and harmonies is extremely important.

Why would you want to play the piano without reading music?

Reading can be challenging

Modern classical piano pedagogy has leaned very hard on reading skills, but reading is only one skill that a musician needs. Someone who prefers to look at their hands instead of a page while they play is just as much a musician as one who sight-reads. In fact, encouraging these aural skills can help keep students engaged in learning to play the piano, so they don’t quit over their frustrations with reading music.

You have a song in your head that you want to be able to express

Otherwise known as composing! Some people are bursting with musical creativity. The process of finding a melody on the piano and elaborating on it with harmonies is exactly the same whether you are trying to play a song you have heard or if the first place you heard the music was in your own mind.

You want to play pop songs you hear on the radio

Most students want to play songs they are familiar with. That is why there are countless books of piano arrangements on the market. Most of these songs are sung, and beginners can struggle to read the music because vocalists tend to use fairly complex and syncopated rhythms. I have found that students get bogged down trying to read the complicated rhythms and it gets in the way of them enjoying the song. By relying on their ear, they can recreate the music they enjoy – and know by heart – without the hassle.

How can you learn to play the piano without reading music?

Youtube tutorials

There are a lot of very popular tutorials on YouTube. I have been amazed by what my students are able to put together after watching YouTube tutorials! They are always very proud to have been able to learn something on their own outside of lessons.

By harmonizing

In music, you have the melody (the part that you would sing) and the harmonies (all the other notes that add support to the song). Both serve a vital role and, as I mentioned above, on it’s own your ear is only going to find you the melody or help you copy someone else. When you learn to harmonize you learn how to craft an accompaniment that gives you a full sound and something to do with both hands.

Chords

A chord is a group of 3 or more notes. We usually build chords by stacking notes a third apart.

Which chords should you use?

You can build a chord on any note of the scale, but to start you should focus on the primary chords, I IV and V7.

The I chord uses scale degrees 1-3-5

The IV chord uses scale degrees 4-6-1. To make it easy on your hand and to avoid having to jump around use an inversion (re-arrange the order of the notes) and put the first scale degree on bottom. 1-4-6

The V7 chord uses scale degrees 5-7-2-4, although to make it easier on your hand you can drop the 2nd scale degree and use an inversion to play 7-4-5.

As you play, picking which of those 3 chords to play is as simple as selecting the one that has notes in common with the note you are playing in the melody and checking that it sounds right.

Accompaniment Patterns

Once you get comfortable with playing chords in block patterns, you can start to vary the sound with accompaniment patterns. This basically amounts to playing the notes in different combinations and orders and moving your hands to create different base lines. To get inspiration, listen to music and notice the differences in the accompaniments. Take the opportunity to use your ear and try different combinations until you find some that you like.

Where to go from here

If you like to learn things independently, continue to search YouTube for tutorials. If this is all sounding very complicated, consider taking a few lessons to get a teacher to explain the basics.

You might find at a point that you want to also go on to learn to read music. Reading music and playing by ear are complementary skills. As you improve each skill, you will tend to find the other easier, as well. Learning both will make you a well-rounded musician.