Don’t wory, I can’t either. It might just be they are really experienced with the instrument. i’ve been playing clarinet for 5 years, and I can barely play anything we do in band half the time.
Playing by ear is very hard to do. You have to have a kraft for it. My best friend plays the organ by hear. And he can catch on to any song real fast. He said the key to playing by ear is really fixing your mind on what you are hearing and while you are listening try and see if you can play the song softly and soon enough you will catch on. My friend has begun teaching me how to play by ear. It is hard but I am going to try my best and learn. You have to have a ear for it.
Um, it’s hard at first. It comes easy to some, impossible to others, and some of us are just lucky enough to be born that way. I’m somewhere in the middle, I can figure out chord progreesions and sometimes a few little licks and riffs from popular songs.
I’ve been playing piano on my own for probably 6 years or more and guitar and clarinet for 4+. The way I go about doing it is by listening to the song and figuring out what key it’s in. I usually have to guess around and pick out notes on the piano until I find it. Other times I get lucky and I can hear and know the note before I press a key.
From there you just kind of listen to the song and get the tune into your head so it’s stuck and then experiment until you get it.’
The only good way to do this is just practice, practice, practice. At first maybe with slow easy songs and then with faster more complex songs. It will require time and patience as it is an acquired skill for most of us. Good luck.
It’s free and has a video tutorial on how it works. If you can identify your intervals then you can play songs by ear. It even has a song mode where you can practice identifying certain intervals when many notes are played sequentially.
August 25th, 2011 
Chris Miller 
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Don’t wory, I can’t either. It might just be they are really experienced with the instrument. i’ve been playing clarinet for 5 years, and I can barely play anything we do in band half the time.
Playing by ear is very hard to do. You have to have a kraft for it. My best friend plays the organ by hear. And he can catch on to any song real fast. He said the key to playing by ear is really fixing your mind on what you are hearing and while you are listening try and see if you can play the song softly and soon enough you will catch on. My friend has begun teaching me how to play by ear. It is hard but I am going to try my best and learn. You have to have a ear for it.
Um, it’s hard at first. It comes easy to some, impossible to others, and some of us are just lucky enough to be born that way. I’m somewhere in the middle, I can figure out chord progreesions and sometimes a few little licks and riffs from popular songs.
I’ve been playing piano on my own for probably 6 years or more and guitar and clarinet for 4+. The way I go about doing it is by listening to the song and figuring out what key it’s in. I usually have to guess around and pick out notes on the piano until I find it. Other times I get lucky and I can hear and know the note before I press a key.
From there you just kind of listen to the song and get the tune into your head so it’s stuck and then experiment until you get it.’
The only good way to do this is just practice, practice, practice. At first maybe with slow easy songs and then with faster more complex songs. It will require time and patience as it is an acquired skill for most of us. Good luck.
Just use this program:
http://www.trainear.com/
It’s free and has a video tutorial on how it works. If you can identify your intervals then you can play songs by ear. It even has a song mode where you can practice identifying certain intervals when many notes are played sequentially.