RABid Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 As someone classically trained on piano it was a major change for me to try and figure out songs by ear. I always said that I never played by ear until I moved from drums to keys, but in reality, I did work out one song before then. I was in high school and the Muppet Show was a hit on TV. I talked a group of friends into performing the Muppet Theme at a high school talent show. I worked up all the parts by ear and taught those parts to other musicians. I was really shocked when a friend volunteered to play piano. She was a bit uppity, her dad was principle and she ended up being valedictorian. But she was a different person on this project. I showed her the part and she picked it up immediately. Saw another side of her during that project. I played trumpet on the song. We did well and it went over big time. So do you remember the first song that you worked out by ear on piano? Quote This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drohm Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 Axel F! Had to get a synth after working that out on piano. I was 14years old and Roland D-20 was my first synth. No, I don't have that synth anymore I had worked other things out by ear at younger age, but nothing that made me want to buy a new instrument until Axel F. Quote NS3C, Hammond XK5, Yamaha S7X, Sequential Prophet 6, Yamaha YC73, Roland Jupiter X Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FatFingers Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 Twinkle twinkle in 2nd grade -- does that count? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokely Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 Probably the main theme of Close Encounters. Later when I was in my first band (which started as a lip-sync fake band for my buddy's super-8 video project, none of us could play anything), I was picking out notes to Doors songs like 20th century fox and Light my Fire. Why a bunch of 14-year-olds in 1981 were playing the Doors is a question for the ages. I was elected keyboard player (random chance really) and I didn't know what a chord was for several years, so I did my best 1-note-at-a-time version of those songs and others by the Beatles, Stones etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoken6 Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 Twinkle twinkle in 2nd grade -- does that count? My son, aged 3 and a bit, walked up to the piano, reached high above his eyeline and picked out the first line. When he'd finished he gave me the biggest smile. "Dad, wasn't that cool?" I knew we had to get him lessons after that. Cheers, Mike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MathOfInsects Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 I always played by ear, for years before my first real piano lesson (which came at age 10). Mom was a musician, so there was a piano and music in the house at all times. I never had a relationship with songs that didn't involve using the piano to try and play them somehow, even if I was almost certainly way off on how they really went, as a little kid. Quote Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material. www.joshweinstein.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Mike Metlay Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 The theme from UFO. Quote Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1 clicky!: more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my book ~ my music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Motif Max Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 This would have been when I was around 3 years old...I honestly don't know. Probably a hymn of some kind. I know on the accordion it was either the Liechtensteiner Polka or the Beer Barrel Polka - I was eight. Quote Yamaha: Motif XF8, MODX7, YS200, CVP-305, CLP-130, YPG-235, PSR-295, PSS-470 | Roland: Fantom 7, JV-1000 Kurzweil: PC3-76, PC4 (88) | Hammond: SK Pro 73 | Korg: Triton LE 76, N1R, X5DR | Emu: Proteus/1 | Casio: CT-370 | Novation: Launchkey 37 MK3 | Technics: WSA1R Former: Emu Proformance Plus & Mo'Phatt, Korg Krome 61, Roland Fantom XR & JV-1010, Yamaha MX61, Behringer CAT Assorted electric & acoustic guitars and electric basses | Roland TD-17 KVX | Alesis SamplePad Pro | Assorted organs, accordions, other instruments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogs Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 Moody blues 'Go Now' ... Even though it was nearly 60 years ago, I can still remember feeling pretty pleased with myself at the time... These days, I have a job to remember what I played an hour ago! Quote Yamaha - YC61 - P105 - MOX6 - HC2 -- Neo Vent 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harmonizer Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 I don't know if this qualifies, but I did a lot of picking out the middle horn part (the sax part) in a bunch of Chicago songs when I was in 7th grade (1974?), dropping and lifting the needle on the LP over and over. The trumpet note was easy to find because it was on top, and the trombone notes were easy to distinguish on the bottom, but that inner harmony of the sax part was hard to find sometimes. When it got really tough I would need to transcribe the trumpet and trombone parts first, then figure out the few sax notes I could pick out directly, and infer where the unknown sax notes in between might be. Sometimes I walked over to the piano to play the 3 notes together (including the guessed sax note) to see if they sounded right together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GovernorSilver Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 "Sara" by Fleetwood Mac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffincltnc Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 "Just What I Needed" by The Cars on a Moog Rogue. Quote Yamaha U1 Upright, Roland Fantom 8, Nord Stage 4 HA73, Nord Wave 2, Korg Nautilus 73, Viscount Legend Live, Lots of Mainstage/VST Libraries Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevieDeepD Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 She Sheila by The Producers. I was the singer in our band, we needed keys to "fill out the sound". Been playing ever since, LOL. Quote M-Audio Hammer 88, Yamaha MODX6, Yamaha ReFace CP, Korg D1 MacBook Air 13" M1 (2021) Logic Pro X 10.5, Mainstage, Roland Cloud (Ultimate), U-He DIVA, Arturia V-8 JammSammich, Peoria, Illinois Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rustar Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 "Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross" Quote Yamaha P-515, Hammond SK1, Casio PX5s, Motif ES rack, Kawai MP5, Kawai ESS110, Yamaha S03, iPad, and a bunch of stuff in the closet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Lobo Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 What'd I Say, Ray Charles. I would have been about 15. I played sax, clarinet, guitar, uke. But I wanted to make that sound. Been hooked on classic R&B ever since. Quote These are only my opinions, not supported by any actual knowledge, experience, or expertise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CowboyNQ Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 Memory is poor but I"m guessing it would have been when I started in my high school rock band so it was probably Roadhouse Blues or some such thing. I remember attempting The Great Gig In The Sky as a teen but I doubt it was very accurate, or that I even got all the way through it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonglow Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Like many here, I started plunking out easy tunes on the piano at an early age. I recall this impressing my "girlfriend" in second-grade. My first real "keyboard" song (including a solo) was "Evil Ways." I had "Santana's Greatest Hits" on an 8-track tape, which meant that after the song ended there always was some wait time listening to other tunes (no rewind/fast-forward) before it would play again. I'm sure some folks here can relate... Quote "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brenner13 Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 I"ve harkened towards the melancholy since early in life. Go Tell Aunt Rudy was the first tune I plunked out by ear...probably at seven or eight years old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timwat Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 The Black Page. Quote .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Warren Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 I remember attempting The Great Gig In The Sky as a teen but I doubt it was very accurate, or that I even got all the way through it. That was the first piece I ever learned, but it wast by ear. I was a late starter to playing keyboards, age 17. I decided I wanted to learn to play the piano so went into town one day and bought a Casiotone, a book on music theory and the Dark Side of the Moon music book. Great Gig was my initial learning piece. Pretty much straight away I started working out other stuff by ear. Quote DigitalFakeBook Free chord/lyric display software for windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mate stubb Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Light My Fire, long versiom Quote Moe --- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hookie Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 I was probably about 8-9 when I figured out the song More. Parents bought a new Wurlitzer organ from the Wurlitzer store in a nearby mall when I was 8 years old and my older sister and I started lessons right away. They often had a kid maybe 12 years old that played the fancy Wurlitzer on a turn style in the mall during busy times. He wasn"t reading music - played everything by ear. Inspired by that I was able to play More by ear. Can still hear it in my mind with a Latin rhythm. Something about that song back in the day that just hooked me. Wish I could have continued to develop my ear. Alas, not so much... Quote Yamaha C2, Yamaha MODX7, Hammond SK1, Hammond XK-5 Heritage Pro System, Korg Kronos 2 61, Yamaha CP4, Kurzweil PC4-7, Nord Stage 3 73, Nord Wave 2, QSC 8.2, Motion Sound KP 210S, Key Largo, etc…yeah I have too much… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Williams Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 The Little Drummer Boy. I think I was 8, and had never touched a piano. The director of the church's Junior Choir (I sang alto) suggested to my unchurched parents that I could make use of piano lessons. By age 10 I was picking out Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, and "approximately" playing the Light My Fire opening. By age 12 I was learning Jimmy Smith (Peter and the Wolf) by ear and transcribing / arranging BS&T tunes for my fellow junior high band members. 50 years later, I still have mutant-grade hearing. My biggest musical deficit is sight-reading. Quote -Tom Williams {First Name} {at} AirNetworking {dot} com PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan_evett Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 If You Could Read My Mind, by Gordon Lightfoot; next was Part of the Plan (Dan Fogelberg). I was around 15 years old then; picked out a bunch of folk and roots stuff first. Then I discovered REO, and Neal Doughty's pyrotechnics... Quote 'Someday, we'll look back on these days and laugh; likely a maniacal laugh from our padded cells, but a laugh nonetheless' - Mr. Boffo. We need a barfing cat emoticon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S_Gould Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Whatever my baby-sitters were practicing in the early 60s. Couldn't tell you the very first, but "Spinning Song" and Schubert's "March Militare" were among the 1st. As far as popular music I heard on the radio it would have been something by the Kingston Trio or Peter Paul & Mary ("Puff the Magic Dragon" comes to mind). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoLights Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Cast Your Fate to the Wind -- at least the first 16 bars. And maybe Happy Birthday. Quote _______________________________________________ Kurzweil PC4; Yamaha P515; EV ZXA1s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Real MC Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Darned if I can remember. Mom said I was learning by ear as young as three years old, picking out songs on the piano. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mighty Motif Max Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Darned if I can remember. Mom said I was learning by ear as young as three years old, picking out songs on the piano. Yep, same. Quote Yamaha: Motif XF8, MODX7, YS200, CVP-305, CLP-130, YPG-235, PSR-295, PSS-470 | Roland: Fantom 7, JV-1000 Kurzweil: PC3-76, PC4 (88) | Hammond: SK Pro 73 | Korg: Triton LE 76, N1R, X5DR | Emu: Proteus/1 | Casio: CT-370 | Novation: Launchkey 37 MK3 | Technics: WSA1R Former: Emu Proformance Plus & Mo'Phatt, Korg Krome 61, Roland Fantom XR & JV-1010, Yamaha MX61, Behringer CAT Assorted electric & acoustic guitars and electric basses | Roland TD-17 KVX | Alesis SamplePad Pro | Assorted organs, accordions, other instruments Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Kaenel Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 I"m sure I can"t recall the first melody I ever picked out by ear, but the first two melodies I ever *transcribed* into notation were the Star Wars 'Cantina Theme', and the unison lick in Stevie Wonder"s 'Sir Duke' â 1977, junior in High School. The former, to insert into the middle of the concert band SW 'suite' we were learning for Spring Sing; the latter, for my first garage band gig. Quote Legend '70s Compact, Jupiter-Xm, Studiologic Numa X 73 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legatoboy Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 'Light My Fire' - long version also...some of it was wrong, the larger chunk was right....had stopped music lessons a few years earlier. That and 'Puff the Magic Dragon' on trumpet were my big hits prior to the age of 15 and 'Lady of Spain' (but I had the music for that one). Quote CP-50, YC 73, FP-80, PX5-S, NE-5d61, Kurzweil SP6, XK-3, CX-3, Hammond XK-3, Yamaha YUX Upright, '66 B3/Leslie 145/122 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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