Writing Down Music You Play by Ear
For pianists who play by ear: getting what you play onto paper, reading it back, and the notation habits that trip ear players up.
Play by Ear? You Don't Have to Learn to Read
You play by ear and can't read music. Here is how to get your playing written down properly anyway — for a teacher, a band, an exam, or just to keep it.
9 min read
How to Transcribe Piano Music by Ear: A Step-by-Step Method
How to transcribe piano music by ear: find the key, map the bass and melody, fill in chords, notate the rhythm and check your work at the piano.
9 min read
How to Read Piano Sheet Music: A Beginner's Guide
Learn to read piano sheet music: the grand staff, treble and bass clefs, note names, rhythm, rests, and key and time signatures, for beginners.
10 min readAbout this topic
Plenty of good pianists play entirely by ear and never needed notation until a teacher, a band or an exam asked for a score. Getting what you play onto paper is a different skill from playing it, and the usual advice assumes you already read music fluently.
The guides here start from the piano rather than the page: how to record what you play so it can be written down, how to read the result back against your own playing, and the notation habits that trip ear players up, from key signatures that look wrong to rhythms that are written more simply than they are played.