Ear Mastery: How To Play Any Song By Ear On The Piano Without Sheet Music Or Guessing (Amosdoll Piano) 198338870X, 978-1983388705

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Table Of Contents Chapter 1 How It All Started

Chapter 2 The 3 Killer Mistakes That Prevent You From Playing Any Song By Ear Almost Instantly

Chapter 3 My 5 Main Pillars For Achieving Ultimate Music Mastery

Chapter 4 My Best Tricks To Quickly Understand How Melodies & Chords Work In Songs

Chapter 5 The 2 Secrets That Make Up Most Songs You Hear

Chapter 6 How To Master Melody Intervals By Ear Using The Power Of Emotion And Motion

Chapter 7 Ascending Major Interval Reference Songs And Exercises (Part 1)

Chapter 8 Ascending Natural Minor Interval Reference Songs And Exercises (Part 2)

Chapter 9 Ascending Chromatic & Tritone Interval Reference Songs And Exercises (Part 3)

Chapter 10 12 Descending Interval Reference Songs And Exercises

Chapter 11 How To Apply My Melodic Recognition Methods Into Actual Songs You Hear

Chapter 12 How To Identify Chords By Voicing Out The Bass Note

Chapter 13 The One Trick To Distinguish Between Major And Minor Chords By Ear

Chapter 14 How To Identify Chords Fast Using One Simple Trick With Scale Degrees

Chapter 15 My One Secret Technique To Knowing Exactly Where Each Chord Is Positioned With The Melody

Chapter 16 Conclusion: Spark It Up!

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BACKGROUND STORY ON HOW I CREATED THESE PERSONAL PIANO METHODS Hi there! My name is Amos - owner of Amosdoll Music (and no, that baby on the cover page is not me, unfortunately I have no photos of me taken when I was a baby because I didn’t really like piano back then). You are probably reading this because you want to find out how I can post up to 5 completely newly-released songs within a day whilst also having other priorities such as work, social and family. I know you are busy too! That is why I’m teaching you this efficient method. Good news! What if I told you that you could do the same? The same as in only spending 10-20 minutes of time listening to a completely new song then being able to almost instantly play the song by ear without sheet music or guessing… that you once thought was impossible to do (or blamed it on the excuse that a person could do it only with talent)? Don’t worry, this was what I thought too when I was young. I started off piano just like any typical child who was forced by my parents into learning classical piano music from Bach, Mozart,

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Beethoven, Chopin and the such… Have you spent hours and hours practising one of these composer’s songs straining your eyes on the sheet music? Say “aye!”

Same here! It was such a repetitive process of learning about four to six songs with the tedious visual sheet music methods over and over in preparation for graded exams. I always played my songs by memory because I hated reading sheet music in front of me. I felt stressed because I needed to look up and down rapidly from the sheet and back down to the keys, and from this I also couldn’t fully enjoy the singing melodies of the songs at all! It was like a battle in interpreting what each symbol was… It was an eye-straining process to see which line or space that a note was located on. I felt like it was a chore to learn those few exam songs over and over again, and like many people like my friends back then, or perhaps even you… I felt that playing the piano was getting boring because I wasn’t playing all the songs that I wanted to play, and that I was achieving very little by learning only a few songs in a LONG period of time.

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It was not until the final year in primary school where I first discovered the power of playing-by-ear and improvisation. I was about year 6 in primary school, and I was obsessed with a musical Chinese movie by Jay Chou called “The Secret”. There were a lot of interesting piano songs in that movie that I wanted to play back then, but there was no sheet music to be found… I was bored in playing my 4 classical piano songs over and over again and I was thinking to myself “How can I learn to play these songs that I like without waiting for unpredictable days/months/years for someone to have the sheet music?” I first tried guessing and checking by repetitively playing and rewinding each second to try match each note by trying out keys… that didn’t work so well because it took such a long time to even get one melody line. What I tried next was the game-changer to my music life in both YouTube performances and in real life piano-competitions that I participated in back in the times… I began to listen to recordings on everything that I needed (my exam stuff) and wanted (things that I hear on the radio/TV/movies) to play on the piano. From this, I started to figure out how to use patterns and apply them within every song I listen to.

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It was similar within every song, and it was to do with the MOST IGNORED and DISLIKED things in traditional music learning – which is scales and aural. Who here hates spending most of their time in traditional lessons playing only scales? Say “aye!” Who here also hates the aural component in your music exams because you are nowhere confident enough to provide your sungout answers because your teacher never taught you how to do them properly? Say “aye!” I know how it feels too, but luckily I have figured it out. Figuring out how to fully understand and apply every concept into my (and soon to be your) journey for mastering piano music. Another amazing tool that I found easily done by the ear than reading on sheet music is the complex rhythm patterns in songs. Have you ever looked at a music sheet and saw a crazy bunch of rhythmic symbols and notes grouped in such a way that you had no idea what speed you have to play? With your teacher asking you like as if it was something as easy as 1+1…?

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I don’t know about you, but I have this problem up until this day I am writing this to you to read… I have to take some time to break it down and process those symbols on some complex sheet music before I know what rhythm it is. This concept has actually been visited when you were in preschool and primary school but you didn’t notice it. Do you remember there was a thing that your teachers did when they wanted everyone’s attention and when the class is too noisy? They clapped their hands in a particular rhythmic pattern, and you and every other child in the crowd had to use your ear and listen, then tried to clap back the exact rhythm?

Well, if you could do this back then, this means you have already some music skills that are unintentionally blended into your mind. Believe it not, these simple things are all the magic in playing any song by ear in an extremely short learning time. After discovering these awesome systems, I was like any excited kid © 2015-2016 Amosdoll Music & Best Piano Method. All Rights Reserved

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waiting to unwrap a present that I like… I quickly did all the 10 songs from the movie and posted all of them onto YouTube within a week! (It is all there on my YouTube, my first videos, you can still find them all)

It was a VERY EXCITING life-changing experience for me, because that was the turning-point in my life where I grew from hating music due to the sheet music grinds… to actually started loving music and wanted more because I wanted to play every song that I liked simply by listening to it and applying the systems that a lot of traditional classical teachers did not teach! I became well-known at my school for being able to play any song by ear and I became the official incidental music piano player for my

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high school later on because I was able to entertain all the students and teachers during the assembly speeches with my soft improvisational arrangements of popular songs by ear. I know you want to be able to do this too, so this is why I wrote this book for everyone who want to spend some time to achieve this extremely fun musical mastery. One thing I will guarantee you… after learning all these systems in this book, as long as a song have a singable structure (meaning not purely non-pitched percussions). No… even better – as long as you can hear proper sounds that you can pitch in your mind, I guarantee it is all playable… You can trust me and have my word in all of this because unlike a lot of other “so-called” play-by-ear programs online and even “selfproposed experts” which talks way more in their sales video (or push you straight into an ear-training course) rather than proving that they can actually do this skill for themselves… I actually preach what I teach. I do this every day in extreme amounts (up to 5 YouTube videos in a day) by posting the NEWEST songs released (sometimes within less than an hour from the official release of a song’s audio). Why do I play so many songs? It is because it is extremely fun to learn new songs that I hear and that I like in such a short period of time using the same methods everytime without guessing. Why do I want to teach you this mastery too? It is because I have already mastered this and teach this skill to my local Australian piano students.

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I want to move onto more than just my local students because I know there are MANY MANY MANY more people around the whole world just like you who want to play ANY song by ear almost instantly without sheet music or guessing. By using this book’s systems more and more, by listening to more and more songs and playing them by this system of ear and improvisation, the faster you will identify these system’s patterns within songs, and the more you will enjoy music with this power! As I am doing this more and more every day, 3000+ piano covers by ear (and counting), I am still improving myself… I am still constantly trying to improve to a point where I can play a song within 5 minutes (new goal) by figuring out new patterns and techniques so I will know exactly all the best tricks to teach you for you to become the same! I am here to give you this powerful tool because by reading what I am telling you now already means that you must love music as much as I do! This book is definitely for all of you because this will actually boost up a fast learning curve to ANY style of music that you want to pursue or play-by-ear. Whether it is classical music, pop music, rock, jazz, ANYTHING… …it all works because by learning how to properly play-by-ear and understanding the systems and knowledge behind music is truly the key to achieve music mastery.

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This is my musical philosophy and it is deeply reflected inside my 700+ number of YouTube Videos posted within this year using this method. With that all said… Let me reintroduce myself, I am Amos, a passionate piano teacher both offline and online located in Sydney Australia, a singersongwriter (see my stuff on soundcloud), and a live performer on YouTube and for Australian Gigs (solo and band keyboardist), who has taught thousands around the world just like you to learn piano in the most effective and shortest amount of time!

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Mistake Number 1: Sheet Music Shouldn’t Be The Main Thing You Rely On I know it is painful spending a long time waiting for a sheet music to be released, and I know it is painful spending hours, days, weeks… and even months to learn only one song using sheet music. I have been there too so I will know your pain.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that you should completely not use sheet music, I come from a Classical-piano background finishing two diplomas in piano – “AMusA” and “LMusA” which is respectively equivalent to a bachelor and masters at piano… and I’ve been using sheet music for those kind of classical art music (which is necessary

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for strong piano technique as where you will see as Step 4 in my music mastery mindmap later on.)

However in the higher steps, you do not want to get fully sucked into using sheet music because sheet music is plainly an inanimate tool which attempts to reproduce what music is supposed to sound like… on a piece of paper. If you get too sucked into only using sheet music, then what would happen when someone takes away the sheet music from you? What if you are put on the spot to play something? You wouldn’t want to say – “Sorry, I can’t play it because I don’t have the sheet music”. This is one of the flaws in traditional music playing, because sheet music has always acted like the spoon-feeding of notes.

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Picture this, when you are a new born baby, it is reasonable to be spoon-fed, but when you are older, you cannot be spoon fed forever right? You know you don’t need it because you know that you can eat faster by yourself as you already learnt how to.

The traditional music teachers always enforced the use of sheet music so many amateur musicians become too reliant on it without actually knowing the true mechanics behind music. This is the same as an amateur primary-school mathematician who tries to do an university-level maths paper with ALL the formulacheat-sheets required for the test. Yes, you may have all the cheat formulas written on your hand just like how you might have all the notes of the piano song written onto sheet music… They may work out one question after a LONG period of time, but most of the questions they wouldn’t know what to do, because the sheets don’t mean much if they do not know the true concepts behind it. Just like music, spending some time knowing the secrets and tricks

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behind music would allow you to magically know what to do subconsciously – and playing any song by ear is just one of these advantages. Trust me, I have been this type of student a LONG time ago, so I don’t want any of you to fall in the same way as I did. In addition, there were requests for me to write out piano sheets for particular songs on YouTube. I can do that too, but it takes ages…. Like 5 hours!! On the contrary, it only took 10-20 minutes to play-by-ear and improvise my performance onto YouTube. I was also very familiar with the sheet music notation program (knowing all the hotkeys and such). So do the math for the time consumption… I think you know which system is better.

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Mistake Number 2. Synthesia Is “The Guitar Hero” For Piano Another recent popular trend on the internet for learning piano songs is Synthesia. This is even worse, and I would even approve sheet music if there was only a choice between Synthesia and Sheet music. Here is why… Synthesia is a very time-wasting and ineffective way to learn any song because it basically acts as a guide to teach you piano as “pressing which buttons”. Apart from spoon-feeding you what buttons to press, it completely disregards the teaching of how chords, melodies, and rhythm TRULY works… It also doesn’t tell you how you should play the song, and you might as well become a robot if you want to press piano keys as buttons like what Synthesia tells you to do. Some people say that it seems fun to play Synthesia because it is like guitar hero. Well, if you want to play an 88-key (number of piano keys) guitar hero over and over again (rewinding or the slowing down function), then go ahead. No one is stopping you, but I just want to remind you

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that is a waste of time and I would never learn a song using Synthesia. Not everyone believes me, some people has even paid me to make Synthesia tutorials for a specific song onto YouTube before even though I told them that it is a horrible method to learn.

I think you would want to be able to play any song just by listening instead of straining your eyes for looking at which of the 88 buttons to press, and when exactly do you press it…

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Mistake Number 3. Stop Being An Ignorant Victim To Guessing & Checking The last misconception is guessing & checking. Right now, as you are reading this… some of you might figure out something here. I have a few friends who resists to learn and take proper music lessons because they think they can “play by ear”, but in reality what they do is spend hours and hours “guessing and checking” the keys until they can match the same note that they can hear in the song that they want to play. Okay, this is not a literal translation, even though they are “playing” a song “by ear” listening, that is actually not truly “playing-by-ear”. They are playing by guessing and checking, and that is not what it is supposed to be. Properly mastering the skill of playing any song by ear and improvisation is no game of bingo… Please please please do not think that playing by ear is Bingo! It makes me cringe when people think that playing by ear is using your ear to guess notes until your ear thinks it is correct. I have had so many comments on YouTube of people claiming that they can “play by ear” for “some” songs but in essence they are really just guessing without any proper music systems and knowledge.

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To truly play-by-ear, you will be able to listen to a song AWAY from your instrument, away from your piano, and then able to figure out the notes and melody using the few systems that I teach in this book. I am constantly doing this everyday whether if I am on the bus when travelling, or in my car driving and listening to a new song that was released… I have no piano in front of me, but by having the correct musical systems used in the correct ways, I am able to notknowingly, subconsciously and automatically pick out the melodies, chords and the distinct rhythmic patterns in the songs. Awesome right? This is the power of playing-by-ear, and I think you will love this system inputted into your music- playing.

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Music will also be a LOT more enjoyable because you will be able to play a lot of songs in a short period of time, and fact that you don’t need to feel like that you need to GIVE UP like how you felt before by spending LONG and ineffective hours with sheet music and synthesia-like programs. I promise you, no more of that! I have been there before, and I would definitely not make you walk that road – because right in front of you… is the true fun in music that I really want to teach to everyone!

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My 5 Main Pillars For Achieving Ultimate Music Mastery Have you ever wondered how the ancient pantheon structures are so strong in the sense that they have survived for centuries and centuries? The answer is their strong supporting pillars their structure up. Just like in music, I have 5 main pillars that you need to build in order to help you achieve the strongest mastery of playing any song by ear and improvisation. Here it is…

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To be able to achieve the level of skill in how I play any song by ear with advanced improvisational technique flying around the keys within 10-20 minutes for all my YouTube piano covers, you must master all 5 steps as shown above. However, to be able to play any song by ear within 10-20 minutes in the most basic form of right hand melody + left hand chords (like what I teach in my YouTube tutorials) only requires Step 3 – that is the pillar of “Ear Mastery”, which is what this whole book is about.

And to obtain this Ear Mastery skill for any song, in the whole book, there are 3 crucial subcategory skills that I am going to teach you so you can learn, apply, and practise these methods to become like me too (because this is exactly what I successfully do every day) A lot of people always question why they cannot play an instrument

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to their full potential, the bad news and the main reason is that a lot of people has actually not even mastered step 1 on music theory (not even teachers). Do you want to know why? Sheet music, note patterns and fingering technique and many other things is only part of step 1… Many people just stay with learning slowly with sheet music for their whole life and never get exposed to the other cool stuff. People getting stuck at a level in music and cannot plateau as no one tells them WHAT to do in order to move out of step 1 is NOT their fault and is NOT your fault too.

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It is because a lot of traditional music teachers only have music theory under their sleeve to teach you and LITTLE to NONE of the other masteries (step 2 to step 5) that is essential to truly master music and play any song by ear and improvisation. In the past, it is very difficult to meet someone in real life that can do this skill and also TEACH you this skill because we only know a limited number of people in our own local area. But luckily, this is the age of internet, and this good news could be spread all around the world where many people like you can finally learn how to achieve this musical mastery! Here are the 3 crucial subcategory skills needed for achieving ear mastery (that I mentioned previously) and you will be learning how to master it by the end of the book.

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My Best Tricks To Quickly Understand How Melodies & Chords Work In Songs To be able to play any song by ear on the piano very quickly, you must be able to voice out your thoughts on the piano. And to be able to voice out your thoughts very articulately, you must know your instrument very well just like how you need to know your voice well when you want to do good in public speaking or singing. If you don’t know the piano well, then you are simply pressing buttons on the piano randomly and not really “playing” it. Anyway, I will basically teach you how to train yourself to become as one with the piano because if you don’t know how the piano works, if you don’t have the whole instrument under control, then how are you expecting to magically control what you want to play by ear? Let’s get started. A Piano or Keyboard has many keys. There are black keys and also white keys!

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From this you can tell the piano is a very friendly instrument already because it is so multicuturally accepting. (Except there are no yellow keys for Asians like me but I still love the piano anyway!)

Don’t let this put you down like what I look like above because you are about to know ALL of them using these simple tricks! You do not have to memorize all the keys because the Black and White Keys repeat itself over and over again across the whole piano, with the white keys forming the repetitive musical 7-letter-alphabet cycle of:

A-B-C-D-E-F-G (visualize this cycle in your head using the diagram below)

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If you have a piano in front of you, check it out! If you don’t, then just look at [Figure 1] below. [Figure 1]

The C-Key is the easiest to find because it is always the white key to the left of the group of 2 black keys as we see that the repeating grouping pattern of the black keys are 2 -3 -2-3 etc. as seen in [Figure 2] below.

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[Figure 2]

Using this 7-letter-Alphabet cycle, we know the next white key up from C is D, then E, F and G, then after G there is NO “H” as it goes back to A, then B, and so on... Guess what? You now know ALL the white keys on the piano! Now to the black keys that are called…

Flats (♭) - and - Sharps ( # ) Before we start, memorize this favourite motto trick of mine by saying it out loud a few times:

FLAT - LEFT SHARP – RIGHT Once you memorized it, let’s continue. I’ll tell you what and how [FLAT – LEFT] [SHARP – RIGHT] is used in a little while…

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Flat is marked with the symbol ♭ (which kinda looks like a small lower-case letter “b”) Just remember that in this symbol, the line is flat on the left of the curve

Sharp is marked with the symbol # (which kinda looks like a small hashtag symbol) Just remember that in this symbol, the hashtag has sharp pointy lines everywhere including the right side Finally, the most useful application for the [FLAT – LEFT] [SHARP – RIGHT] trick I taught you is by paying attention to the red parts:

FLAT - LEFT SHARP – RIGHT 1. FLAT has the letter L in it, which stands for LEFT. So the black key to the LEFT of the white key is a FLAT… 2. SHARP has the letter R in it, which stands for RIGHT. So the black key to the RIGHT of the white key is a SHARP. So for the example in [Figure 3] below, this is G flat (to the left of G) and this is G sharp (to the right of G)

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[Figure 3]

Now that you know all the notes on the piano, we are now ready to learn the secrets behind every song that we hear, whether it is from the folk children songs like “Mary had a little lamb”, to pop, rock, hiphop songs that we hear on the radio, music from games, movies and anime… and ANYTHING else – it all works the same way! I live by the motto: “If you can hum or sing any song, then anything that you hear is playable on the piano.” Now you may ask – “How do I apply all this information to learn ANY song by ear?” For ANY song that you hear nowadays, they are formed by a melody (singable line) mostly played by the right hand on the piano, and harmony chords (the accompaniment & other sounds in the background that supports the melody) mostly played by the left hand on the piano.

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First things first, ALL songs that you like to hear on the radio, on your mp3 player or on your phone are ALL structured by chords. Chords are 3 or more keys played together to form a harmony support to the melody. As for now, we are going to learn the most basic 3-note chords. There are many different chords in music, but pop music basically centres around…

2 Main Types of Chords: Major Chord -and- Minor Chord To work out ANY Major chord, just remember my major chord formula:

4-3 And for ANY Minor chord, remember my minor chord formula:

3-4 The numbers in the formula just indicate the number of half steps between each note of the chord. Let me show you what I mean…

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The easiest chord - ( C ) Major is worked out by firstly pressing the bass (lowest) note of the chord which is ( C ).

And since we are dealing with a “Major” here, then we work it out using the first number in the 4-3 trick, where the 2nd note is 4 half steps above… ( C ) [+4 half steps is counted as C# -> D -> D# -> E] which is ( E ).

Now that we have ( C ) and ( E ), our 3rd note would be completed with the second number in the 4-3 trick, where the 3rd note is 3 half steps above ( E ) [counted as F -> F# -> G ] which is ( G ).

And there is our C Major - from bottom to top, the notes are: (C)(E)(G)

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This works the same way for ANY other Major or Minor chord! Let’s say we want to play Bb Major, we start by pressing the B(flat left) key and we go up 4 half steps above that, press that key as well and then go up another 3 half steps from that key- and also press that key. And…Voila! There is your Bb Major Chord! (The chord highlighted in red in [Figure 4] below) Likewise…suppose you want to play a G minor chord, just reverse the formula of 3 – 4 like what we just did, and there you have your G minor chord. (The chord highlighted in green in [Figure 4] below) [Figure 4]

This Major formula and Minor formula trick works for any key even for the flat and sharp chords. For the time being now… play your chords with the left hand, as the

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right hand would be saved later to do the melody of a song. Now that you know how to play all the major and minor chords on the piano, you ask… How do you apply these chords into a pop song? Let’s take the popular song “See You Again” by Wiz Khalifa & Charlie Puth from Furious 7. (It is also a song that I did a piano cover for which was pretty popular so you might like it too)

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This song contains the 4 chords repeated in a cycle for this order: G minor -> Bb Major -> Eb Major -> Bb Major So simple right? If you haven’t noticed... you already learnt G minor and Bb Major from my examples above at [Figure 4]! That leaves you with the 3rd chord in the cycle – Eb Major which is… (Eb) (+4) (G) (+3) (Bb) (Using the 4-3 Major trick that we discussed earlier) Try these chord cycles on your LEFT hand as the right hand is saved for the melody singing part (just like what you see in my YouTube tutorials). Congratulations! In such a short period of time, you have not only learnt… 1. Two of the Three main components to songs - Melodies, Harmonies (Chords) 2. ALL the notes on the piano. 3. How to work out ALL Major and Minor Chords using formulas without memorizing each one of them individually 4. How to play the chords to a popular song “See You Again” Do you agree with me that it’s really not that hard at all when you have the correct guidance because you don’t have to do any guessing? Let’s move on!

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If you want to play any song by ear without sheet music or guessing, then you have to fully understand the… 3 Core Musical Elements (That Make Up ANY Song) In the most basic form, songs are made of these 3 things… 1. Melodies, 2. Harmonies, And 3. Rhythm So let’s go ahead and begin by letting me teach you everything about “Melodies” because that is the first thing I need to work out within the first few minutes when listening to a song. Melodies are the main prominent lines that stand out the most when you are listening to a song, for example it is the musical notes that a vocalist sings with lyrics, or it can be a solo guitar part in an instrumental break, or it can even be instruments that take the main role in an orchestral arrangement.

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Melodies are made of a combination of many different note distances. Some distances are the same, some distances are larger or smaller, and some distances can be higher or lower. These distances are called “intervals” in music, and my job is to teach you how to recognise by ear exactly “how much higher” or “how much lower” between each melody interval without guessing. Here are my best 2 secrets that I have figured out through listening to hundreds and hundreds of melodies of songs (in my own experiences when playing my piano covers by ear) Here are the 2 secrets.. Did you know that in 98% of the pop songs you hear, the melodies are actually formed by making combinations of intervals on one of these 2 types of scales? 1. Major Scale - and 2. Natural Minor Scale For some people with some classical music background, you may briefly know what Major is, but the natural minor scale is the scale that most of you don’t know of because most of you are only taught what the harmonic and melodic minor is but not the useful natural minor. Since I teach the traditional classical syllabus too, I find it RIDICULOUS that there is no natural minor scale in their examination syllabus when the natural minor scale is the scale that pretty much all songs use for melodies!

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Traditional teachers have taught the harmonic minor, which has pretty much NO APPLICATIONS for melodies except for gypsy-styled songs which is hardly popular and known at all!

However, the melodic minor that some of you may have already learnt is more useful in a sense because it “obscurely” contains one of the secrets for melodies. Why obscure you may ask? It is because it is so hidden, no normal person could logically work it out! For your information (FIY), for classical musicians, you know how the melodic minor scale has different notes going up as to going down?

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(Which is already pretty stupid…) But did you know that the natural minor scale is actually the notes of the melodic minor scale when it is “going down”? Who would have known that something so useful was hidden inside a SMALL part of a scale that you once thought was the weirdest and dumbest scale ever? Not only that, I have taught both AMEB and ABRSM syllabuses to people who want to do classical examinations, whilst AMEB is slightly better by requiring you to learn BOTH harmonic and melodic minor (so you get a chance to know the natural minor scale)… …ABRSM however doesn’t!! You can “choose” either the harmonic minor or the melodic minor (1 not the other) to be tested in your piano examination at the end of each year! How silly is that? No wonder some of my new students who have spent years and years with another traditional piano teacher before has no idea how to play any song by ear! Luckily, for most of you reading this, you would not have to spend years and years wasting your time and money on traditional music lessons that doesn’t teach you how to apply music theory into musical mastery because you are already willing to make a change now. Anyway, to make everything easy to understand in this lesson, and to save time, we are just going to use the C Major Scale as our major scale example because it happens to consist of all white keys from C © 2015-2016 Amosdoll Music & Best Piano Method. All Rights Reserved

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to the next C, and we are going to use the A Natural Minor Scale as our Natural minor scale example because it also consists of all white keys from A to the next A. If you have no idea what I just said (here is the diagram showing you exactly the notes of these 2 scales).

C Major Notes: CDEFGABC

A Natural Minor Notes: ABCDEFGA

So go ahead and get use to the sounds of these 2 scales by playing them on your piano because the melodies of practically every song is formed by different combinations of these scales but in different KEYS. The “KEY” of a song is the specific Major or Natural Minor scale the

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melody and chords are formed on. For example, have you heard of the song called “In The Jungle” or “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”? (I don’t even know the proper name hah)

So this song called “In The Jungle” in the KEY of C Major goes like this – CDE..D…EF..ED…C..DE..DCED… And with the corresponding lyrics “In the jungle… the mighty…jungle…the…lion…sleeps tonight….” (red numbers = order that you play it in)

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Then after when you have tried that, if you play it in a different key of… lets say - the Key of D Major, check it out… it sounds the same – D E F#.. E… F# G.. F# E… D.. E F#.. E D F# E… (Go ahead and play this D Major version and compare it with the C Major version to hear the similarities) And even for Ab Major, check it out…it still sounds the same – Ab Bb C.. Bb… C Db.. C Bb… Ab.. Bb C.. Bb Ab C Bb… Magical right? The reason behind this is because even though different Major and natural minor scales have different notes, the intervals between the 1st to the 2nd note, the 2nd to the 3rd, the 3rd to the 4th etc… ALWAYS follow the SAME formula. The ONE Formula For ALL Major Scales Is…

2-2-1-2-2-2-1 (where the numbers stand for the number of half steps between each note) Check it out for C Major: C is the first note, and using the formula – 2 half steps above C is D, then 2 half steps above D is E, followed by 1

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half step above E is F, 2 half steps above F is G, 2 half steps above G is A, 2 half steps above A is B, and finishing off with 1 half step above B is C. It works! CDEFGABC Try it also for Ab Major: Ab is the first note, and using the formula – 2 half steps above Ab is Bb, then 2 half steps above Bb is C, followed by 1 half step above C is Db, 2 half steps above Db is Eb, 2 half steps above Eb is F, 2 half steps above F is G, and finishing off with 1 half step above G is Ab. It works again! Ab Bb C Db Eb F G Ab Now check out C Major and Ab Major played back to back. Both sounds the same right? You can sing “Do re mi fa so la ti do” perfectly to both of them right?

This is one of the tricks which explain relative pitch, solfege and transposition, and those things are more advanced concepts that is beyond the scope of this book & I would go through in detail for my advanced courses. Anyway, let’s move on…

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Now, the same thing goes for all natural minor scales… The formula for ALL natural minor scales is…

2-1-2-2-1-2-2 (where again the numbers stand for the number of half steps between each note) If you use this formula and try check if it works for A natural minor starting on A, then you WILL end up with A(+2)B(+1)C(+2)D(+2)E(+1)F(+2)G(+2)A =… ABCDEFGA (which is exactly what I said the A natural minor is) Then try it with F natural minor starting on F, then you WILL end up with F(+2)G(+1)Ab(+2)Bb(+2)C(+1)Db(+2)Eb(+2)F = F G Ab Bb C Db Eb F And if you play A natural minor and F natural minor back to back, you WILL also hear that they sound the same but is only in a different key. Yet again, this covers the slim basics of relative pitch where all melodies based on scales sound the same despite the fact if they are played in different keys.

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Now, let’s get your ear into work by applying these scales into the melodies of recent pop song hits. Here Is Your First Test To See If You Have What It Takes To Play By Ear… This following melody is in the key of C Major, play it and listen to how it sounds! C E G A… G… C-D D C E... (notes of this song is within this range as shown in the diagram below)

Do you know what this song is? If you don’t, then add these lyrics with it – “It’s been a long…day…with-out you my friend…” Yes, this is the C Major version of the melody from Wiz Khalifa & Charlie Puth’s song called “See You Again” dedicated for Paul Walker in Furious 7 with over 1 billion views on YouTube. Do you remember this scene from the movie? I cried… 

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With all the sad feels aside… Guess what…? You Have Just Played A Song By Ear In Your Head… Why? Because your ear actually correctly recognized the melody of the song in a KEY that is actually NOT in the original key. How do you know if it is not in the correct key? You can either play the C Major version whilst simultaneously listening to the original, or you can try playing the chords that you have learnt for this song (earlier) with the melody and you’ll find that they both don’t match.

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The original key of this song is Bb Major. Try it out – Bb D F G…F…Bb-C C Bb D… (notes of this song is within this range as shown in the diagram below)

Double check your ear by comparing this Bb Major version with the original YouTube song here: (Hold Ctrl + Click the following link) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgKAFK5djSk If You Have Passed Your First Test, Here Is Your Second Test… Let’s try your ear with another song with a melody in A natural minor… Play this – DE… D D… CEE… EE… EE… DD…CD…ED…AC… (notes of this song is within this range as shown in the diagram below)

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Do you know what this song is? If you don’t, then add these lyrics with it – “Hello… it’s me… I was won-dering… if af-ter all…these years…you’d like… to meet…” And yes… this is the A natural minor version of the melody from Adele’s massive hit song called “Hello” where she is singing on the telephone line for literally 5 minutes… with over 1.4 billion YouTube views.

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And guess what? Again… You Have Just Played Another Song By Ear In Your Head… Why? Again…because your ear actually correctly recognized the melody of the song in a KEY that is actually NOT in the original key. The original key of this song is F natural minor... Try it out for yourself and test your ears – Bb C… Bb Bb… Ab CC…CC…CC… Bb Bb… Ab Bb… C Bb… F Ab… (notes of this song is within this range as shown in the diagram below)

Double check it by comparing this F natural minor version with the original YouTube song here: (Hold Ctrl + Click the following link) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQHsXMglC9A Awesome right? I can show you and go through this same concept all day long through every single one of my 600+ piano covers on YouTube…

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It is ALWAYS the same result, so let’s move on… If you have passed both these song tests, then you have what it takes for the first step to play a song by ear, that is –

☑Recognizing Melodies Of A Song In Any Major Or Natural Minor Scale

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Melody Intervals – Idea To Emotion, Emotion To Motion

The reason why most people cannot properly listen out a melody by ear is because there is no sense of “emotional” connection from one note the next note in any melody. Here is what I mean by this… Do you feel like that each note in every song you hear seem like “foreign objects” where every note seems like random elements of hearable pitches? Can you only figure out that one note was higher or lower than the other, but cannot tell exactly HOW much higher or lower because you don’t know how it works so you just resolve to guessing by pressing all the keys that are approximately higher or lower until you match the right pitch? The reason is because you have not tied an “emotion” to the sounds and pitches of music that you hear. You have not tied an emotion to each melody interval element so everything just seems very foreign and alien to you because it is not a recallable element in your memory system. This is very hard because tying an emotion to sound (our hearing sense) is not as common as to tying an emotion to an image (our visual sense).

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This is what I mean… For visual senses, what does your eyes tell your brain to process the main colour in the following picture as? If your answer is white, that is correct! Jokes… I’m kidding! I wasn’t asking about the colour of the bucket nor the background, but rather wanting your answer to be the colour of the paint. You got RED right? The emotion of your visual representation of the colour red has allowed your brain to process it as the conceptual colour of red.

Ok, how about this following paint colour?

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You got BLUE right? Same process again, your emotional visual representation of the colour blue has allowed your brain to process it as the conceptual colour of blue. OK, now here is the main test. Connecting an Idea to an Emotion is not enough. We must know how to apply the ideas we know into bigger concepts by taking action using movement and motion on an emotion…and this what I call – “emotion” to “motion”… …where many emotional connections to ideas in our brain work together to remember what kind of motions can be connected together to form bigger solutions to things we know. Let me show you what I mean… Using our 2 visual examples above, let me ask you… What happens when you mix the RED paint with the BLUE paint together? If you are a painter or someone who have experienced this paint mixing process, then you should emotionally remember the practical “motion” in your head of what happens when you mix these colours together… Close your eyes and do you remember the time when you grabbed your paintbrush and mixed these 2 colours together?

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…Ok your mind should process the answer as RED + BLUE = PURPLE This is the exact same concept for music, whether for melodies or chords or whatever you are trying to work out with your ear. It is the fact that many people NOT ONLY have no idea on how to properly associate the proper memory “emotion” to each music element like notes and intervals, but they also have no clue on how to apply and connect each interval and scale with the proper “motion” (specific usage of scales/ reference songs/ exercises) in order to work out songs very easily without guessing. So my task is to teach you everything that you need to be able to almost instantly identify each note in a song’s melody by drawing emotional connections to notes, patterns on melodies and chords.

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But as I said, this also requires “motion”, which means practical movement of YOU to actually follow my methods and physically move your fingers on the piano so that your brain would know how to process it without you knowing. (Just like how you know Red+Blue=Purple without actually painting it out)

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Melody Intervals (13 In Total) – Ascending Major Interval Reference Songs And Exercises (8) Okay, by now we should have developed a good understanding that each note following another note in a song’s melody is either… the same, higher, or lower. Before we start, let me point out that most intervals from one note to the next note in song melodies is within the octave range (meaning that if 1 note of the melody is C, the following note should be any note within the C in the next octave inclusive). So this means we have 13 intervals in total to master (12 intervals based on half steps + The same note interval). For example, the interval from C to C (same note) is 0 half steps because it doesn’t move up nor down; C to C# is 1 half step, C to D is 2 half step… C to C (octave above) is 12 half steps. Ok, once you have all that knowledge warmed up in your head, the next step is to be able to instantly recognize the EXACT intervals from one note of a melody to the next note of the melody using the properties of the major scale and the natural minor scale because we have just learnt that all melodies are formed by the different variations and combinations of these same 2 scales however in different keys.

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To put this in the most simple words (without going through the other music theory rules of “Perfect” intervals yet)…. As easy as it may sound…for Major key melodies, using the easiest C Major scale – CDEFGABC (this applies the same way to all other major scales), I will be teaching you how to properly train your ear by using reference songs and exercises to be able to INSTANTLY identify that… We are firstly going to go through all ascending intervals (one note that goes UP to the next) (Make sure you play these following examples for yourself to allow your ear to hear and understand the similarities.) C to C (same note) is called Major 1st (0 half steps) As shown for the 2 notes in the diagram below (Red = 1st note || Green = 2nd note ) [In the same way where Ab to Ab (same note) for Ab major to sound similar because of the same interval distance between the notes but just in a different key scale.]

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Reference Song(s) for Major 1st Old Macdonald Had A Farm - Traditional (C Major Version): “CC”CGAAG… and with the corresponding lyrics “Old Mac-“ Donald had a farm…

Listen to the song here (Eb Major Version): “Eb Eb” Eb Bb C C Bb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z26DWJKwBHU

-and-

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Happy Birthday - Traditional (C Major Version) “GG” AGCB… and with the corresponding lyrics “Hap-py” birth-day to you…

Listen to the song here (G Major Version): “DD” E D G F#... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCJSNMqub8g

C to D is called Major 2st (2 half steps) [In the same way where Ab to Bb for Ab major to sound similar because of the same interval distance between the notes but just in a different key scale.]

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Reference Song(s) for Major 2nd

Do A Deer (C Major Version): “CD” ECECE… and with the corresponding lyrics “Do a” deer a female deer…

Listen to the song here (C Major Version – I happen to find a version in this easy key): “CD” ECECE… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_U_l0oyvOs

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C to E is called Major 3rd (4 half steps) [In the same way where Ab to C for Ab major to sound similar because of the same interval distance between the notes but just in a different key scale.]

Reference Song(s) for Major 3rd When The Saints Go Marching In (C Major Version): “CE”FG… And with the corresponding lyrics “Oh when” the saints…

Listen to the song here (F Major Version): “FA” Bb C… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opyYud1uuic

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C to F is called Major 4th (5 half steps) [In the same way where Ab to Db for Ab major to sound similar because of the same interval distance between the notes but just in a different key scale.]

Reference Song(s) for Major 4th Wedding Song: Here Comes The Bride – Wagner (C Major Version) “CF” FF… And with the corresponding lyrics “Here comes” the bride…

Listen to the song here (F Major Version): “F Bb” Bb Bb… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgh9XTkQTDI

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-andAmazing Grace (C Major Version) “CF” AGFA… And with the corresponding lyrics “A-ma-“ zi-ng grace…

Listen to the song here (Bb Major Version): “Bb Eb” GFEb G https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDdvReNKKuk#t=50

C to G is called Major 5th (7 half steps) [In the same way where Ab to Eb for Ab major to sound similar because of the same interval distance between the notes but just in a different key scale.]

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Reference Song(s) for Major 5th

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (C Major Version) C”CG”GAAG… And with the corresponding lyrics Twin-“kle twin-“ kle little star…

Listen to the song here (Db Major Version): Db “Db Ab” Ab Bb Bb Ab… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCjJyiqpAuU#t=19

-and-

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Moon River (C Major Version) “G…D”C…BAGFG… And with the corresponding lyrics “Moon…ri-“ver… wider than a mile…

Listen to the song here (F# Major Version): “C#...G#” F#... E# D# C# B C# https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7SI7N22k_A

C to A is called Major 6th (9 half steps) [In the same way where Ab to F for Ab major to sound similar because of the same interval distance between the notes but just in a different key scale.]

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Reference Song(s) for Major 6th My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean (C Major Version) “GE” DCDCAGE… And with the corresponding lyrics “My Bon-“ nie lies over the ocean…

Listen to the song here (E Major Version): “BG#” F# E F# E C# B G#... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pmLG6I1d3c#t=8

-and-

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Hush Little Baby (C Major Version) “GE” EEF… And with the corresponding lyrics “Hush lit-“ tle baby …

Listen to the song here (F Major Version): “CA” AABb… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOCx4D7KoGo#t=14

C to B is called Major 7th (11 half steps) [In the same way where Ab to G for Ab major to sound similar because of the same interval distance between the notes but just in a different key scale.]

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Reference Song(s) for Major 7th Don’t Know Why (C Major Version) “CB”GGEDCC And with the corresponding lyrics “I wait-“ed ‘til I saw the sun…”

Listen to the song here (Bb Major): “Bb A” FF DCBb Bb… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO4dxvguQDk#t=10s

-and-

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Take On Me (C Major Version) “C..B…”C… And with the corresponding lyrics “Take…On…” Me…

Listen to the song here (A Major Version): “A…G#...” A…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914#t=53s

C to C (Higher) is called Major 8th (Octave) (12 half steps) [In the same way where Ab to Ab (higher) for Ab major to sound similar because of the same interval distance between the notes but just in a different key scale.]

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Reference Song(s) for Major 8th (Octave) Somewhere Over The Rainbow (C Major Version) “C….C” B G A B C… And with the corresponding lyrics “Some…where” over the rainbow

Listen to the song here (Ab Major Version): “Ab…Ab…” G Eb F G Ab… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU

-and-

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I’m Singing In The Rain (C Major Version) “G G…” EDCA… And with the corresponding lyrics “I’m sing-…” ing in the rain…

Listen to the song here (Gb Major Version) “Db Db…” Bb Ab Gb Eb… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ZYhVpdXbQ#t=65

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Melody Intervals – Ascending Natural Minor Interval Reference Songs And Exercises (3)

After Mastering Major Key Melodies… …we move onto minor key melodies! And just as you have predicted, I am mostly going to demonstrate the concepts using the easiest A natural minor scale– ABCDEFGA But before we start, let me point out that for these specific intervals in the natural minor scale that is the same to the major scale: ☑A to A (same note) [Is the same interval as the MAJOR scale C to C , so it is also called Major 1st] ☑A to B [Is the same interval as the MAJOR scale C to D , so it is also called Major 2nd] ☑A to D [Is the same interval as the MAJOR scale C to F , so it is also called Major 4th]

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☑A to E [Is the same interval as the MAJOR scale C to G , so it is also called Major 5th] - and ☑A to A (higher) [Is the same interval as the MAJOR scale C to C (higher) , so it is also called Major 8th]

And therefore, this just leaves us into learning how to distinguish between the…

Other 3 Intervals That Are Different: (1) A to C is called Minor 3rd (3 half steps) [In the same way where C to Eb for C natural minor to sound similar because of the same interval distance between the notes but just in a different key scale.]

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Reference Song(s) for minor 3rd Greensleeves (A Minor Version) “AC”…DE…FED..BG… And with the corresponding lyrics “A-las”… my love… you do… me wrong…

Listen to the song here (A minor version) “AC”…DE…FED..BG… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZDrg7-tv_I#t=49s

-and-

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Georgia On My Mind (C Major/A Minor version) “EG”…. ED…. And with the corresponding lyrics “Georgia”…. Georgia….

Listen to the song here (G Major/ E Minor Version) “BD”… BA…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRgWBN8yt_E#t=15

(2) A to F is called Minor 6th (8 half steps) [In the same way where C to Ab for C natural minor to sound similar because of the same interval distance between the notes but just in a different key scale.]

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Reference Song(s) for minor 6th Go Down Moses (A Minor version) “EC” CBBCCA… EE G#G#A… And with the corresponding lyrics “When Is-“ rael was in Egypt’s land, let my people go…

Listen to the song here (G Minor version): “D Bb” Bb AA Bb Bb G… DD F# F# G… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUX23oYtwSM#t=9s

-and-

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She’s A Woman – Beatles (C blues version) “EC”… Bb F..GEbC… And with the corresponding lyrics “My love”… don’t give me presents…

Listen to the song here (A blues version) “C# A”… G D.. ECA… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMaGlX3Rhnw#t=10

(3) A to G is called Minor 7th (10 half steps) [In the same way where C to Bb for C natural minor to sound similar because of the same interval distance between the notes but just in a different key scale.]

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Reference Song(s) for minor 7th Somewhere – Westside Story (C Major Version) “G…F…” E C A… And with the corresponding lyrics “There’s… a”… place for us…

Listen to the song here (Eb Major version): “Bb… Ab”…” G Eb C https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BQMgCy-n6U#t=25

-and-

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The Winner Takes It All – Abba (C Major Version) G “G F” F EE… And with the corresponding lyrics The “win-ner” takes it all…

Listen to the song here (F# Major version): C# “C# B” B A# A#... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92cwKCU8Z5c#t=127s But wait… you may ask 8 Major intervals + 3 Minor intervals is only 11. Where is the other 2 to make up the total 13 intervals that we need to learn? Don’t worry, the following section would teach you about those 2 special intervals.

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Melody Intervals – Ascending Chromatic & Tritone Interval (2) We have learnt the 8 Major-scale intervals (same note interval included), the 3 minor-scale intervals, and now we have 2 more. I left these 2 intervals last because they can be confused or mixed up with another interval when you are processing your melodic thoughts because the 2 intervals does not belong in a Major scale, or a minor scale. These 2 intervals are the… -Chromatic 2nd interval (some people call it the minor 2nd, but it may be confusing because it is not part of the minor scale, so let’s call it chromatic because this word has the same meaning as its’ interval length – it means and represents 1 “half-step”) -The Tritone interval Tri means 3 just like how tricycle has 3 wheels, triangle is a shape that has 3 angles, triathlon is an event that has 3 sections. Tone means full steps (or 2 half steps) Thus Tri-tone literally means “3-tones”, which means that the interval is 3 whole-steps or 6 half-steps apart.

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The specific melodies of famous songs which corresponds to these two specific intervals are as followed… (1) C to C# is called chromatic 2nd (1 half step) [In the same way where Ab to A for Ab Major to sound similar because of the same interval distance between the notes but just in a different key scale.]

Reference Song(s) for chromatic 2nd Jaws – Movie Shark Theme

Listen to the song here: “EF” “EF”…etc (The suspenseful repeated bass notes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvCI-gNK_y4#t=0s

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“Pink Panther” Theme Song

Listen to the song here (E minor version): “C#D” “D# E” “F#G”…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhHwnrlZRus#t=2s

(2) C to F# is called Tritone (3 tones/6 half steps) [In the same way where Ab to D for Ab Major to sound similar because of the same interval distance between the notes but just in a different key scale.]

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Reference Song(s) for Tritone “The Simpsons” Theme Song

Listen to the song here (C Major Version): “C..F#...G...” And with the corresponding lyrics “The…simp-…sons…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqog63KOANc#t=2s

-and-

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Maria – Westside Story

Listen to the song here (Db Major Version): “Db G Ab…” And with the corresponding lyrics “Ma-ri-a…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpdB6CN7jww#t=40s

Congratulations, you have now developed your first set of melodic systems, when used effectively… it will let you quickly work out the notes and intervals of a melody so easily... like as if you didn’t even have to try! The main reason why this system is SO IMPORTANT because it gives you the EXACT tricks and tips, the EXACT songs for each interval that brings you straight to the finishing line, instead of incorrectly and blindly guessing and checking music notes without knowing the actual music knowledge behind it.

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You do not want to be like Andrew, who is a classmate I knew from Highschool mathematic class. When the final exam came, he jumped straight to doing practise exam questions… guessing and checking the answers at the back without knowing the theory behind it because he slept all day in class. In the end, it was slow, ineffective, and it was a waste of time because he still failed the exam. This is the same concept as what my music systems in this book will do for you. The tricks and systems learnt will be embedded into your mind due to exercises remembered through emotion and motion, so that it will allow you to subconsciously use it in music without even trying… you don’t need to blindly guess your way through music! So remember to go through these ascending intervals throughout these past few chapters over and over again because that way you will develop strong “emotional” connections for each and every different type of intervals. You can further enhance the emotional connection for each interval’s reference song by applying “motion” to each interval. This means motion in terms of “doing it”, singing out loud and over playing it on the piano in all different keys for each song so that each interval would become extremely easy to identify. When every interval is easy to identify, then it would be a piece of cake when applying these processes to actual song melodies because your mind is subconsciously identifying the intervals using your strongly developed emotions and motions to each interval through my reference songs and exercises.

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Melody Intervals – Descending Interval Reference Songs Now that you have engraved all the ascending (going up) intervals into your mind using my reference songs with the help of your emotions (aurally listening to it) and motion (practical application by playing it on the piano), we move onto descending (going down) intervals. Also, as we are going to fit all 12 intervals (yes not 13 because we don’t include the same note interval as it is the same) reference songs in this ONE chapter, I am only going to tell you the exact I want you to challenge yourself and learn all of them with patience, and move onto the next interval reference song ONLY when you have fully familiarised with it using both your emotions (listening) and motions (singing/playing). Is that ok? If you have this face below, then you are ready to continue!

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Chromatic 2nd Interval (Descending) (Red is 1st note, Green is 2nd note, red box is the range of this demonstrated section)

Reference Song: Fur Elise – Beethoven

The melody on the right hand at the start forms the descending chromatic 2nd interval with the notes: “E D#” E D# EBDCA… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQTTFUtMSvQ#t=0s

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Major 2nd Interval (Descending) (Red is 1st note, Green is 2nd note, red box is the range of this demonstrated section)

Reference Song: Mary Had A Little Lamb - Nursery Rhyme

The first two notes “Ma-“ and “-ry” in the word Mary forms the descending Major 2nd interval with the notes: “AG”FGAAA… and with the corresponding lyrics “Mary” had a little lamb… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq-MtHpRhVk#t=11s

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Minor 3rd Interval (Descending) (Red is 1st note, Green is 2nd note, red box is the range of this demonstrated section)

Reference Song: Frosty the snowman

The notes “Fro- “ and “-sty” in the first word Frosty forms the descending minor 3rd interval with the notes: “F…D” Eb F Bb… and with the corresponding lyrics “Fro-sty” the snowman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvc9f1lB7fk#t=7s

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Major 3rd Interval (Descending) (Red is 1st note, Green is 2nd note, red box is the range of this demonstrated section)

Reference Song: Summertime - Gershwin

The notes “Sum-“ and “-mer” in the first word Summertime forms the descending major 3rd interval with the notes: “F#D” F#... And with the corresponding lyrics “Sum-mer-” time… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIDOEsQL7lA#t=77

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Major 4th Interval (Descending) (Red is 1st note, Green is 2nd note, red box is the range of this demonstrated section)

Reference Song: Oh Come All Ye Faithful

In the first line, the two notes “Come” and “All” forms the descending perfect 4th interval with the notes: G “G… D” GA…D and with the corresponding lyrics Oh “come… all” ye faithful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcJYW1oN6fw#t=16s

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Tritone Interval (Descending) (Red is 1st note, Green is 2nd note, red box is the range of this demonstrated section)

Reference Song: Blue Seven

Right at the opening solo instrument, the first two notes form the descending tritone interval with the notes: “D Ab…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPTBuxw0vdQ#t=12s

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Major 5th Interval (Descending) (Red is 1st note, Green is 2nd note, red box is the range of this demonstrated section)

Reference Song: Feelings

The first two syllables in the word Feelings in the melody “Fee-“ and “lings” form the descending perfect 5th interval with the notes: “B E….” EF#GE “B E…” and with the corresponding lyrics “Fee-lings…” nothing more than “Fee-lings” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyBcHUe4WeQ#t=9

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Minor 6th Interval (Descending) (Red is 1st note, Green is 2nd note, red box is the range of this demonstrated section)

Reference Song: Where Do I Begin – Love Story

The first line singing the two notes “Where” and “do” forms the descending minor 6th descending with the notes: “Db F” F Db Db… and with the corresponding lyrics “Where do” I begin… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxEazBfPVFg#t=20

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Major 6th Interval (Descending) (Red is 1st note, Green is 2nd note, red box is the range of this demonstrated section)

Reference Song: Man In The Mirror – Michael Jackson

The first line in the chorus of the song singing the two notes of “I’m” and “Star-“ in the word “starting” forms the descending Major 6th interval with the notes: “B...D” EGAB…A…GGA… and with the corresponding lyrics “I’m…star-“ ting with the man…in…the mirror… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivWY9wn5ps#t=67s

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Minor 7th Interval (Descending) (Red is 1st note, Green is 2nd note, red box is the range of this demonstrated section)

Reference Song: An American in Paris – Gershwin

The first two notes in the melody line at the start of the song forms the descending minor 7th interval with the notes: “CD”E… “CD”E… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWzlivSzpJM#t=0s

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Major 7th Interval (Descending) (Red is 1st note, Green is 2nd note, red box is the range of this demonstrated section

Reference Song: I Love You - Cole Porter

The first two notes in the melody line forms the descending major 7th interval with the notes: “CDb…” Bb A Ab…A… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuLmjCNl44Q#t=11s

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Major 8th (Octave) Interval (Descending) (Red is 1st note, Green is 2nd note, red box is the range of this demonstrated section

Reference Song: Willow Weep For Me – Etta James

The two notes in the word “willow” for “wil-“ and “low” forms the descending perfect octave interval with the notes: “EE” F# AF#... and with the corresponding lyrics “Wil-low” weep for me… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KyIEe1B450#t=73s

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P.S. All these descending song references acts as supplements if you are FULLY familiar with the ascending system because all you need to do is to reverse the descending interval in your head and work out the interval based on your familiar ascending intervals. However, more knowledge and examples doesn’t hurt because it only makes you better!

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How To Apply My Melodic Recognition Methods Into Actuals Songs You Hear Okay, the best way to understand what we have learnt so far is to actually go through an example together. Let’s use our lovely “See You Again” song again. So far if you remember, we have the chords and their notes using the major-minor chord system. For this song it is the 4 chord cycle of Gm – Bb – Eb – Bb What we are missing is the melody… Now I will guide you exactly HOW and WHAT you have to do in order to figure out the melody of any song using this “See You Again” example as a template which applies similarly to other songs. Here is the link to the first part of the verse we are going to go through together https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgKAFK5djSk#t=9s And here are the corresponding lyrics for the song melody that we are going to work out: “It’s been a long day, without you my friend, and I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again.” (For now, we are going to ignore the small decorative improvisational notes/runs/adlibs that singers like to add, we will

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save that for another course of mine which specifically teaches the more advanced improvisational techniques) For the first note of the song “See You Again” (and with any other one that you want to work out), with the lyrics “It’s”... firstly play any note on the piano, lets say the F-key and sing that note (so you have a reference note that you already know). Sing that F-key note followed by what you hear for the note corresponding to the word “it’s” so you can form an interval. Using our song system for working out intervals, you will come to work out and agree with me that the F-key to the 1st note corresponding to the word in the song lyrics - “it’s” - forms an ascending major 4th interval (same from the reference song “Amazing Grace”), and thus the note for “It’s” is a Bb. Mark it down! (Always mark your thoughts down because this is the fastest way to help your mind process) “It’s” = Bb

After working that out, listen to the interval between “It’s” and “been”. You will work it out to be an ascending major 3rd interval (because it is the same as the interval in the reference song “When the saints go marching in”), so since “It’s” is a Bb-key (from what we worked out),

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then “been” is a D-key (mark that down too). “been” = D

Repeating this interval process for “been” and “a”, their interval is an ascending minor 3rd (Greensleeves Song), so “a” is F-key. “a” = F

For “a” and “long”, their interval is an ascending major 2nd (Do A Deer Song), thus “long” is a G-key. “long” = G

For “long” and “day”, their interval is a descending major 2nd (Mary Had A Little Lamb or Reverse “Do A Deer Song”), thus “day” is a Fkey.

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“day” = F

For “day” and “with-“ (only the part “with” in the word without because “without” has 2 notes… one for “with-“ and one for “-out”.), their interval is a descending major 5th (Feelings Song), thus “with-“ is a Bb-key. “with-“ = Bb

Using this same chain of thought… we will figure that “-out” (ascending major 2nd from the previous note “with-“) is a C-key. “out” = C

And quickly continuing this process to save some time (and let you practise as well), here is the rest of our working example.

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…”you” is a C-key (same note as “-out”)

…”my” is a Bb-key (descending major 2nd)

... “friend” is a D-key (ascending major 3rd)

…”And” is a D-key (same note as previous)

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…”I’ll” is a F-key (ascending minor 3rd)

… “tell” is a G-key (ascending major 2nd)

… “you” is a A-key (ascending major 2nd)

… “all” is a G-key (descending major 2nd)

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…”a-“ is a F-key (descending major 2nd)

… “-bout” is a D-key (descending minor 3rd)

…”it” is a C-key (descending major 2nd)

…”when” is a C-key (same note as previous)

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…”I” is a Bb-key (descending major 2nd)

…”see” is a C-key (ascending major 2nd)

…”you” is a C-key (same note as previous)

…”a-“ is a D-key (ascending major 2nd)

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…”-gain” is a Bb-key (descending major 3rd)

And VIOLA! If you have marked it correctly, then you will have the melody for the first part of “See You Again” as: Bb-D-F-G-F-Bb-C-C-Bb-D-D-F-G-A-G-F-D-C-C-Bb-C-C-D-Bb If you want to improve more, then try working out the next part in the song. The more you practise this technique, the better you will be, and in no time you will become a master at it if you follow through.

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How To Identify Chords By Voicing Out The Bass Note Just like the stick figure, picking out chords can make you confusingly think sometimes… Should I pick out the highest note of the chord? Or the lowest? Let me tell you, when identifying chords – you should always first pick out the Bass Note. (Voice out the lowest note) In many songs that you hear in the modern days these days, the second thing that is most prominent after the melody line is the BASS line. This is the foundation of the song in which the melody flows on top of and also where the chords are formed on top of it. The BASS part are the LOW notes in a pop song which gives the whole song more depth and support. Scientists have researched that when people listen to a bunch of pitches at the same time, it is easiest to pick out the HIGHEST pitch, followed by the lowest pitch. Therefore, GOOD NEWS, this means with a little bit of my training that I will provide you… you will be more than able to pick out the lower parts in a song, which in most cases, almost always make you instantly work out the chord too! Even though that the following exercises are best executed using my

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video and audio courses and memberships I have online because it focuses more on the listening and singing aspect, I will explain how to do it in words so you can practise it for yourself on the piano. (1) Play each and every interval example you have learnt (all practise examples are shown in the following), but instead of playing the red and the green separately, play BOTH notes held TOGETHER… Then I want you to pitch out and sing the HIGHEST note first followed by the LOWEST note. The reason why I want you to sing the lowest note last is because it will train your ability to potentially work both the melody note and chords at the SAME time in your head because the highest note is usually the melody, and the lowest note is usually the bass note of the chord. Try Pitching Both Major 2nds (and try it in different keys too):

Try Pitching Both Major 3rds (and try it in different keys too):

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Try Pitching Both Major 4ths (and try it in different keys too):

Try Pitching Both Major 5ths (and try it in different keys too):

Try Pitching Both Major 6ths (and try it in different keys too):

Try Pitching Both Major 7ths (and try it in different keys too):

Try Pitching Both Major 8ths (and try it in different keys too):

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Try Pitching Both Minor 3rds (and try it in different keys too):

Try Pitching Both Minor 6ths (and try it in different keys too):

Try Pitching Both Minor 7ths (and try it in different keys too):

Try Pitching Both Chromatic 2nds (and try it in different keys too):

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Try Pitching Both Tritones (and try it in different keys too):

After you have tried out all these lowest note pitching exercises and feel very comfortable about it, try this… (2) Use 1 finger on your left hand (lower note), use 1 finger on your right hand (higher note), without looking at the piano (closing your eyes), press 2 random notes with those 2 fingers, whilst keeping your eyes closed – try pitching and singing out the lowest note. Check your answer by only pressing the left hand finger. Take note! Start off EASIER by making your hands VERY FAR APART because this makes the low note sound a lot different to the high note so it is easier to pitch out the lower note. Once you get better, begin to move your hands CLOSER together and you would find it a lot DIFFICULT because you may confuse the higher notes for the lower notes and vice versa.

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The One Trick To Distinguish Between Major And Minor Chords By Ear

Now, I will teach you how to distinguish between the Major and Minor Chords using one simple trick that I use all the time when I am processing chords in my head whilst playing a song by ear. Most of the time in the songs that you hear… 90% of the time, the only decision that you need to make is to decide if the chord is Major or minor, the other 10% of the time is the other more advanced and complex chords (which is actually formed as variations from the major and minor chords but I would go through in another book because that is beyond the scope of this book at the moment). Anyway, you might be asking – what is the main differences when we are listening and distinguishing between major and minor chords? The answer is the “3rd” degree in each of the chord, and here is why… Do you remember the formation of the basic major and minor chords being 4-3 and 3-4 respectively? Here is C Major and C minor, I want you to look at it and tell me what is THE SAME, and what is the difference within these 2 chords?

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C Major Chord:

C Minor Chord:

If you look at it close enough, the similarities between C Major and C minor is that the lowest note and the highest note is the same. The only difference is that the middle note (3rd degree based on the scale). This means that you can change any key’s major chord into a minor chord by moving the 3rd degree DOWN one half step. Vice versa, you can change a minor chord into a major chord by moving the 3rd degree UP one half step. So, to apply and benefit from this knowledge in order to be able to listen out any major or minor chord, here is what to do:

Step 1: Once you have identified the lowest root bass note (as learnt in the previous chapter), all you need to do is to voice out if the root note bass note interval to the middle note 3rd degree is either a major 3rd

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(4 half steps up) or a minor 3rd (3 half steps up) For example, you have just worked out the bass note of a specific part in a song as Ab, all you need to do is to sing and voice out in your head if Ab forms a Major 3rd to C (using the reference song “When The Saints Go Marching In”), or if Ab forms a minor 3rd to Cb (B) (using the reference song “Greensleeves”). As you can see, there is no guessing, it is just logical processing of knowledge, systems and method that you have learnt from me and activated inside your mind like this: Ask yourself these questions in your mind – Can I pitch out the Major 3rd interval by singing Ab to C using the words “Oh When” from the reference song “When The Saints Go Marching In”? If I can, then I know it is Ab Major simply from the 3rd degree trick we just learnt for distinguishing between major and minor chords, if not we move our thinking to the next and ask…

Can I pitch out the minor 3rd interval by singing Ab to Cb (B) using the words “A-las” from the song “Greensleeves”? If I can, then I know it is Ab minor simply from the 3rd degree trick we just learnt for distinguishing between major and minor chords.

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Now, if you want to be more advanced and be able to identify the chords even quicker, then here is what you can do… If you think about it, any basic major chord in the form (4-3) actually contains the interval of a major 3rd from the 1st note to the 2nd note of the major chord (counting upwards of course)… and a minor 3rd interval from the 2nd note to the 3rd note of the major chord. Likewise, any basic minor chord in the form (3-4) actually contains the interval of a minor 3rd from the 1st note to the 2nd note of the minor chord… and a major 3rd interval from the 2nd note to the 3rd note of the minor chord. Check it out… C Major has C to E in the red bracket pitched using the major 3rd reference song of “When The Saints Go Marching In”, and E to G in the blue bracket pitched using the minor 3rd reference song of “Greensleeves”. (As you see below)

Vice versa… C minor has C to Eb in the red bracket pitched using the minor 3rd © 2015-2016 Amosdoll Music & Best Piano Method. All Rights Reserved

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reference song of “Greensleeves”, and Eb to G in the blue bracket pitched using the major 3rd reference song of “When The Saints Go Marching In”. (As you see below)

After you have comfortably mastered this process using the piano… Do It All Over Again! But do it by listening to it in a DIFFERENT instrument with a different tone colour (timbre). Why? Because most songs are not just piano instruments, there is different kinds of male and female voices, guitars, string instruments, brass, woodwind, and many many more electric synth instruments… And if you don’t practise training your ear to use this process for different kinds of instruments (which is always the case for modern electronic music), then it is not very practical isn’t it? You may say, “BUT Amos! I have no other instrument!” I will say… DO NOT WORRY! You can use the power of technology now by getting the “Garageband” app available on smart phones, iPhones, iPads and computers.

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Click into the instrument selection tab > choose keyboard > then click on sound chooser from the scroll-down (and this would let you choose a lot of different sounds and synths to train your ear for all kinds of instruments) Additionally, you can also use Garageband string instruments or guitars and…

REPEAT this entire process again, because listening to chords in a different instrument means… listening to it in a different timbre... meaning that your ear will adapt to all kinds of sounds, and therefore will open up your ears even MORE to hearing each note being sounded in a chord!

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How To Identify Chords Fast Using One Simple Trick With Scale Degrees In order to ensure that you will be identifying chords MORE accurately, FASTER and resulting you in being able to play the songs you like to play by ear – we must learn one more simple trick. One trick that will improve your accuracy and quickness when identifying chords because what good would it be if we cannot make the chords sound right even if we have the melody fully correct? Right? The trick we are going to master is to master the sounds of the “1 3 5 Degrees” from the Major & Natural Minor Scale. The first step in being able to master the ability to listen out by ear for both the melody and the chords of a song at the same time is… You must first get your mind to fully understand the connection between a major chord in respect to its’ major scale, and the connection between a minor chord in respect to its’ ‘natural’ minor scale What this means is that you have to familiarize yourself with the sounds from each Major and Natural Minor scale of all different keys, then understand that the 1st 3rd and 5th degree (1st 3rd and 5th notes) of each scale forms the respective Major or Minor chord. So this is where we bring out what we have learnt before and use our 2-2-1-2-2-2-1 formula for working out all major scales, and 2-1-2-2-1-2-2 formula for working out all natural minor scales.

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This is what you should practise pitching out for each scale (and since we only need the 1st 3rd and 5th degree, we actually only need the 1st 5 notes from each scale for these following exercise): Pitch out C Major Scale 1st 5 Notes (using formula):

Pitch out C Major Chord based on 1st 3rd and 5th degree from C Major Scale:

Pitch out F# Major Scale 1st 5 Notes (using formula):

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Pitch out F# Major Chord based on 1st 3rd and 5th degree from F# Major Scale:

Pitch out A Minor Scale 1st 5 Notes (using formula):

Pitch out A Minor Chord based on 1st 3rd and 5th degree from A Minor Scale:

Pitch out D# Minor Scale 1st 5 Notes (using formula):

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Pitch out D# Minor Chord based on 1st 3rd and 5th degree from A Minor Scale:

Of course, after you try these examples above, it is best to go through all the other keys using the same method as above because that is beneficial for your ear.

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My One Secret Technique To Knowing Exactly Where Each Chord Is Positioned With The Melody Okay, the best way for me to teach you how to properly line up each chord with the correct melody note is by aurally and visually from my audio and video courses, but as this is a book, I will try my best to describe the entire process in words and visuals. The best way is to gets hands on onto a real song example that we have learnt. Let’s use the song “See You Again” to demonstrate my process (because we have both the knowledge of the melody and chords already). If you remember working out the melody of the song “See You Again”, it is this: Bb-D-F-G-F…Bb-C-C-Bb-D…D-F-G-A-G-F-D-C-C-Bb-C-C-D-Bb… and with the corresponding lyrics It’s been a long day… without you my friend… and I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again… And we also know that the chords is the 4 chord cycle of Gm, Bb, Eb, Bb…

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Here is how to do it… All we need to do is to circle the words from the song lyrics/notes where the chord is on that specific note [represented in () brackets ] (In real life, just circle it by hand with a pen, circle the melody letter instead because it is clearer like that, and that is what I personally did when I first started off long ago.) And how do we know where the chord is? The answer is “a change in texture”, a change in thickness of sound. Since chords and accompaniment contain a lot more notes (3+ notes played together) than melodies (1 note played at a time), we will know when and where the chords are placed by systematically training our ear to be able to subconsciously ask our mind these questions – Is the texture light because I can only hear the melody? Is the texture thicker because I can hear a bunch of notes played together (chords)? Try it for yourself first, and compare your answer with the following. So like this: “It’s been a (long) (day), with-(out) you my (friend), and I’ll (tell) you all (a)-bout it when I (see) you a-(gain).” Which corresponds to this in note letter form: Bb-D-F-(G)-(F)-Bb-(C)-C-Bb-(D)-D-F-(G)-A-G-(F)-D-C-C-Bb-(C)-C-D-(Bb)

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And since we know the chords for this example, we will write it UNDER the bracketed/circled melody notes like this:

Later on when you get better, there is no need to circle the melody notes because you can directly put the chords underneath each corresponding melody note as you are working out a song. This is what I do nowadays and that is the level you want to achieve too! Take some time to practise this, because..

Reason (1) Sometimes the chord changes are done quickly at some parts of the song… or else it is a fast song in general and you might be unable to match it to the correct part in the melody because your mind hasn’t fully adapted to the systems in this book to a level that can match that listening speed. Remember it takes time for a new system to develop in your mind, just like how you didn’t instantly know how to do multiplication, division and fractions instantly for mathematics without doing some examples.

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Reason (2) Doing this would also simultaneously improve ear mastery and counting skills… by being able to figure out where the main chord changes are.

Reason (3) Some songs may be more difficult to listen to, and might have chords that DO NOT line up exactly with a melody note (it can be in BETWEEN the melody notes)… To mark these in-between chord changes, do not circle any melody note because the chord does not play exactly on any melody note. Instead… This Is What To Do When A Chord Is Syncopated Between Two Melody Notes Situation (i) When there is a chord between two melody notes, draw an up arrow ^ to mark it. Example: The popular song “Skyfall” by Adele has chords in between each long note in the melody at the start. The starting melody notes is: “Eb D CC…. C D Eb DD… CC…” And with the corresponding lyrics

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“This is the end… hold your breathe and count… to ten…” The chords that are lined up underneath the circled (bracketed) note is played ON that specific melody note, and the chords that have an arrow pointing in between the spaces of the melodies means that you have to specifically play the chords by itself without the melody. This is how you mark down the chords when you listen to similar songs like this:

Situation (ii) When there are chord(s) right before the first melody note plays, just mark the chord before the melody (with the optional arrow). Example: The song “Georgia On My Mind” has the chord right before the melody comes in. The starting melody notes is: “B D… BA…” And with the corresponding lyrics “Georgia… Georgia…” And just like how this song starts with the 1st chord before the melody, this is how you mark down the chords when you listen to similar songs like this:

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Make sure you familiarize yourself with this system of matching chords to the melody because this step would be done at the same time whilst you are listening out the chords by ear when you get better and better at this. So both systems of matching chords and identifying chords are EQUALLY as important because your mind would be processing them two systems as one… meaning that you are: writing down the chords that you hear instantly in the correct position that corresponds to the melody. Anyway, here is my handwritten template of what your play by ear process of jotting down your thoughts should look like. This is one of my personal worksheets of a new song WITH proof of date and YouTube Links written in less than 10 minutes… also please excuse my handwriting! P.S. Say hi to my penguin in the picture! P.S.S Yes, my handwriting is very messy, but hey! That’s good right? That’s how I write faster to play any song by ear!

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Song Name: Break My Mind by DA Games Enjoy My Piano Cover Link Posted On The 27th Sept 2015: https://youtu.be/L8KsjKDSo-Q The Original Song Link Released On The 27th Sept 2015: https://youtu.be/xhdNa3iy5rw

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Conclusion: Spark It Up! Congratulations! You have now all the requirements to play any song by ear in the basic form of MELODY on the right hand, and CHORD on the left hand (exactly how I teach my YouTube tutorials and what all my YouTube covers are formed from). However, a lot of you may be asking how do I do all the crazy flying fingers stuff in my covers. How do I “spark up” my playing? Believe it or not, all the fancy stuff that I add in my YouTube covers are actually all “improvisations” formed around everything learnt in this book – where the basic right hand melody and left hand chord elements are to be sparked up to a whole new level. Improvisations are all the decorative extra things that spark up in your piano playing so you can also spark up the interest in your listeners. There are right hand melodic add-on improvisations like specific arpeggios and runs that you can add after the end of a melodic phrase, there are left hand accompaniment improvisational patterns that you can use to make your plain old block chords not so blocky anymore, and a lot more… Do you want to know what the secret it? The secret…believe it or not, is knowing how to break down each improvisation technique to foundational knowledge of music theory. And the only way to do it is with proper guidance, and exactly what exercises you can do to train them.

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Once again, there is no guessing… Think of it as building a dictionary, the more musical knowledge and tools you put into it, the better you will be. This is the true magic for me to be able to add all these advanced stuff whilst playing a song by ear. It makes people think that you have practised a long time for one song, but in reality you really didn’t practise that song much longer than the other ones because it is based on the simplest version of the song with added sparks. (Every song takes me about 20 minutes to work out by ear, and the improvisations are just added along the way during the video recording to make it seem harder) Treat this “improvisation mastery” as an extension to playing by ear. If you have it, then you will play very extraordinary and have the most fun just like what I have every day in making my covers. If you chose to ignore music theory, or not learn it properly, then you simply would always stay at the basic level of playing by ear with the melody on the right hand and chord on the left hand because you just have NO MUSIC KNOWLEDGE to improvise with. I know this might sound cheesy, but really as what Warren Buffet says – “The more you learn, the more you earn”. If you have all these advanced scales and arpeggios, and decorative notes that you know exactly how to apply into your piano playing, then you will be extraordinary. But if you don’t have anything in your musical dictionary, then that is all you have to improvise. NOTHING!

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It is a simple fact with no magic behind it. But I know what you are thinking, you might say… “MUSIC THEORY?!?! BORING!! USELESS!” You are correct in some ways, (SOME)…. The reason that you are partially correct is that MANY MANY music teachers teach music theory, scales, arpeggios etc. with NO APPLICATION into actual real and useful things. And that…. is useless (as what you said correctly). However, the reason why I play like what I do is because I have many many improvisational tools in my toolbox, I can grab them out and use them whenever I want subconsciously because I know when and how to apply it into songs. So unlike many traditional music teachers who teach you music theory without teaching you how to apply it into songs, I will be able to teach you exactly how to apply it into your playing because I can already do it, I preach what I teach every day in my piano covers, so I will be able to teach all my best knowledge to you. But like what I always say, the choice is really up to you… What teacher you follow is what skills and ability you are going to end up with. You can choose to continue learning from traditional teachers who just use sheet music and can’t play by ear or improvise, and you will simply just end up playing songs with the skills and ability of the teacher, which is only by sheet music. Or you can decide to not waste time anymore and follow someone

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who has already mastered the skills you want to learn, someone who does it every day, and someone who is willing to teach you everything that is needed to master music so you can become the same as well. As exciting it might sound, not everyone choses this path because many people is not passionate enough or can’t be bothered to master these musical skills, so they go back and stick to waiting for sheet music to release, learning from sheet music, or use free stuff online, or just continue their super long processes of “guessing” how to be successful in music. You cannot “guess” your way through in becoming a musical master, all successful musicians has mentors or teachers sometime in their life to raise their levels and abilities. I never said it would be a short path to achieve this, but I am here to shortcut your precious time massively by teaching you from ground zero to where I am now. My courses fill in all the gaps you have for music. Believe it or not, but sometimes it is actually the smallest things you are missing that is preventing you from becoming the best you could be. So many times have I had new students who has learnt from another teacher for over 5 years before… where do not know how to properly do all these things that should be mastered in the beginners to immediate levels like counting particular notes, playing particular finger techniques etc. If you follow all courses properly without ignoring any concepts or failing to practise specific techniques, then you will master music by

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grasping hold of everything I know. You must familiarize yourself with all the proper methods, or else it won’t work… Trust me! You can’t just have bits and pieces. Just remember… you cannot write the perfect English essay with only bits and pieces of knowledge from basic spelling and grammar, and you cannot solve complex mathematical algebra by only knowing a few (but not enough for the real deal) formulas. Likewise, without a strong foundation in the basic music concepts, it’ll be very difficult to play effortlessly by ear and improvisation because during the improvisations – you will have mental blanks on the simplest and most basic things that you overlooked during your development of the foundational music concepts. (And as you can picture an music improviser performing to a highlyanticipating crowd of listeners audience… that will not be a good sight) Anyway, let’s bring you back to the mind map as what you saw very early in this book where it shows what is needed to achieve my music mastery.

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Each step is actually a very broad mind map in itself as well where each Step stems out into a tree of musical knowledge like this (please zoom in below to see what you have and what you are lacking):

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Learn All The Steps To The Music Mastery Mindmap As you see in the mindmap, there are multiple of things that you need to train up in order to achieve the ultimate piano mastery. That is why many people give up trying to self-learn because there are just too many confusing things to piece together. (it’s like a jigsaw puzzle without any image) If you want to be taught step by step on how all the musical theory knowledge is pieced together and most importantly - how to actually APPLY IT into your own piano playing, then you can join my premium piano membership where you have instant access to thousands of hours-worth of piano mastery lessons. With this treasure-trove of lessons, you will no longer need to guess how things work for yourself because my step by step lessons are crafted in a way such that even someone with no musical knowledge can learn to master the piano. And for a SPECIAL TREAT for you taking the leap to finish this book to the very end, you can try out the membership for 30 days for ONLY $1 (usually costs $57) with this special link below: https://amosdoll.teachable.com/p/amosdoll-premium-pianomembership/?product_id=294920&coupon_code=EARMASTERY56

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Ultimately I know not all of you would join me in mastering this musical as it takes a lot of consistent and persistent willpower to learn concepts, practice those concepts, then also implementing those concepts into your piano playing. (Only about 2% of all musicians have this mastery fully-utilized) That is why I also have these other following personalized song services for those who just want to learn their favourite songs without the stress of working it out for yourself…

Transcription Sheet Music Service (any song of your choice)

Since I can play any song in the world by ear, and since I am from a classical music background, I can write out the sheet music version of any song by ear too, so you can learn any song in that way. Click the link below for more details: http://bestpianomethod.com/transcription-sheet-music/

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Full Song Video Lesson (any song of your choice)

http://bestpianomethod.com/full-song-video-lesson/

For any further questions, you can ask me personally through: Support Email: [email protected] Facebook Messenger @ https://www.facebook.com/Amosdoll/

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