What is the first song that you worked out by ear on keys?

[Al Quinn]

I can"t remember the first because as a kid I would find melodies on the organ that I heard around me: mostly things I heard on TV like commercials and TV show themes (e.g., Gilligans Island). The earliest recollection I have of putting the needle down on a record repeatedly to figure out the notes of something I liked the was for Chuck Leavell"s solo on Southbound.

[aellison62]

I was a huge Yes fan in the late 70s and I learned/taught myself by ear many songs from the Yessongs album. It sounds crazy to me now that I started playing keyboard (at that time a Lowrey home organ) and learning Yes, but that's what I did

[Theo Verelst]

I don't know what I did as a young kid when I could have a go at a piano (we didn't have on at home), but I recall making my own "bleep" synthesizer with an octave keyboard improvised from iron wire, just not what I tried to play at that. Second half of primary school I would be in recorder lessons where I learned basic score reading, and I could play a lot of stuff varying from church songs to popular tunes I thought would fit. Later I'd improvise string instruments and make my own computer synthesis machine language programs, where I'd improvise a bit on what it would play, until I made my own synthesizer/organ at I guess about 14 y.o., where I learned to play, got theory books from the library and essentially learned most things from that and my ear, except for some classical stuff and maybe some scores/tab sheets I could find. Pretty soon I could play many chords and understood scales, so I'd learn a lot. My proudest achievement from that time was an actually passable version of "Bridge over Troubled Water" I tried on the school pianos, where I'd tried to actually play the chords I heard in there.

 

T.

[16251]

Chopsticks

[wineandkeyz]

The earliest I can remember was "Linus and Lucy" by Vince Guaraldi -- I must have been 10 or 11? I had one of those Panasonic cassette players with the built-in microphone. I set it in front of the speaker on our old console tv and recorded "A Charlie Brown Christmas," then sat at the piano and picked away at that tune until I had it.

[MikeT156]

I was attempting to play organ on a Combo Compact back in the sixties back when all there was to use for learning songs were 45 RPM records. LOL. I had no clue how to do it, but it was a learning experience, I really don't remember the first song I attempted to learn by ear, it was WAY too long ago.

 

When I finally went SOLO years Later, the first song I tackled was "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Playing Bass Pedals and two hands on my Hammond was easy enough, but did you ever try to sing the LEAD Vocal while you played and sang the song too? Musically it was not difficult but adding the vocals was challenging.

 

 

Mike T.

[ChazKeys]

The Blues in C - I'm serious! No one showed me nowt when I was a kid.

[mauriziodececco]

Probably the first "serious" by hear work was finding out the chords of the organ part the Pink Floyd "A saucerful of secrets" on my Farfisa Compat, i probably was around 14/15

 

Maurizio

[JimboKeys]

The Blues in C - I'm serious! No one showed me nowt when I was a kid.

Yup, figured out the boogie-woogie bass line, but never got past the I chord. C E G A Bb A G E C E G A Bb A G E etc repeated until my mother told me to stop.

 

- Jimbo

[tunaman]

Started organ lessons at age 8 and piano at 10... always played by ear, as the good Lord blessed me in that respect.

[mate stubb]

I just remembered an earlier transcription. The year before I joined my first band, I made my mom take me to a drive in theatre where I recorded and later transcribed the organ part for Ghost and Mr. Chicken.

 

Years later when I studied pipe organ, I got a chance to play it on the real deal.

[raffkey]

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida........Iron Butterfly .... 'nuff said

[Dave Bryce]

First few bars of Do You Know The Way To San Jose, on my grandmother's spinet piano.

 

Pretty much all black keys.

 

dB

[NewImprov]

"Just What I Needed" by The Cars on a Moog Rogue.

 

Ha, me too! Except the synth was an ARP Axxe.

[Shamanczarek]

I first tried picking out songs from records on guitar even though I had been taking Piano lessons for a couple of years. One of the first Organ parts I remember trying to learn was "House of the Rising Sun" though it was somewhat beyond me at 15 years old. Many years later I got to play it a few times with Animals guitarist Hilton Valentine.

[vonnor]

Your Song - Elton John

[El Lobo]

The Blues in C - I'm serious! No one showed me nowt when I was a kid.

Yup, figured out the boogie-woogie bass line, but never got past the I chord. C E G A Bb A G E C E G A Bb A G E etc repeated until my mother told me to stop.

Now that you both say it, yeah that was the first thing I picked out by ear on a piano. Blues in C chords (taken from guitar), pentatonic blues scale, walking bass.

[ChiefDanG]

I don"t remember the first song I picked out, but I remember being proud of myself for learning the organ solo in 'Kind of a Drag'. That got me in a band and impressed a girl I had a crush on.

Also early on, some Little Rascals stuff. Tried learning a couple Zombie tunes, but the solo in 'She"s Not There' was beyond me at the time - very frustrating.

Going from pop to rock, learning the solo in 'Evil Ways' was a milestone for me.

[Steve Nathan]

I never learned any songs any other way than by ear and would have a hard time remembering the first. I told the story in a recent thread about figuring out Mercy Mercy at the age of 12-13ish, but I'm sure I'd been figuring out other stuff my Dad played on the record player, Ray Bryant, Brubeck, Timmons. I "wrote" a song when I was three for my new baby sister. Called it "Nancy's Tune", and My Dad wrote it out on staff paper. Wish I had it now. Would be fun to see.

[rod76]

Jump

[Zydecat]

96 Tears.

[BluMunk]

Not sure that this was truly the 1st, but the Layla outro.

[HSS]

The Blues in C - I'm serious! No one showed me nowt when I was a kid.

Yup, figured out the boogie-woogie bass line, but never got past the I chord. C E G A Bb A G E C E G A Bb A G E etc repeated until my mother told me to stop.

Now that you both say it, yeah that was the first thing I picked out by ear on a piano. Blues in C chords (taken from guitar), pentatonic blues scale, walking bass.

Same here. When I was about 13-14, I learned 1-4-5 blues in C by ear with a walking bass line, dominant 7th's, and blues pentatonic scale. And I still like playing 1-4-5 blues in C, with G and F slightly behind. As long as you play from your heart, simple can be good.

 

I pretty much play by ear now, only occassionally resorting to charts if I'm in a hurry and dealing with songs with complexity.

[El Lobo]

When I was about 14, I learned 1-4-5 blues in C by ear with a walking bass line, dominant 7th's and blues pentatonic scale.

Yeah, I meant to mention those dominant 7's, again chords I took from guitar, but I loved that dominant sound, especially on the V chord but also sometimes starting on the I chord and just hanging there with a rhythmic thing. One of the early songs I learned and still playing in my band 50 years later:

 

[Rod S]

I must have been 9, there was this TV program that I liked that had a wind instrument playing in the intro. I still recall it actually (or think I do, anyways), but can't remember what the TV program was. Played it in one of the mini casiotones.

[wd8dky]

Most of the Abacab parts.

[jazzpiano88]

It all blurs together a little bit but these are the main ones from high school:

 

- Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy album

- Blues Brothers Soundtrack

- Doobie Brothers: Minute by Minute, Taking it to the Streets.

- Stevie Wonder: Isn't she lovely, I Wish

 

Oh yeah and just about every song from Yellow Brick Road and the one before.

 

Ooops and I forgot every song from The Stranger (played a Bass/piano/vocal trio of Vienna for the HS variety show )

[Mark Schmieder]

Chop-Sticks.

[Tom Williams]

I must have been 9, there was this TV program that I liked that had a wind instrument playing in the intro. I still recall it actually (or think I do, anyways), but can't remember what the TV program was. Played it in one of the mini casiotones.

Hmm. Crazy like a Fox (horns, written by costar John Rubenstein, son of Artur); or perhaps Sanford and Son (Sax, played by Boots Randolph). Oh, clarinet for Matlock, bassoons for Rumpole of the Bailey.

[Groove On]

Axel Foley Theme song. (Beverly Hills Cop).