Starting Songs on the Piano
Many people start learning to play piano by ear to learn how to play simple songs when they first start out. It’s fun to listen to someone playing, and can also serve as a very valuable practice tool. When people start learning basic songs, there are a few that are well-known enough that they’re a standard practice. One of the good things about beginning piano songs is that you can take the scale patterns, chords and rhythms and make your own songs out of them. All of the songs are old enough so that they’re in public domain and you don’t have to worry about infringement.
One good song to start with is a traditional Japanese folk song called ‘Sakura’. This is a song that’s really simple because you don’t have any accidentals to look for. There’s another song to play on the piano called ‘Fur Elise’. It’s by Beethoven and is more complex than ‘Sakura’. There are more notes to play, as well as a few rather confusing accidentals at times. If you want a song specifically to practice arpeggio runs, you can play the United States anthem – ‘The Star-Spangled Banner.’
If you want a different idea, play TV show themes, music from video games, or any type of music that’s simple, if you feel like it’s possible for you to learn it by ear. All it is is a matter of figuring out the song intervals and mapping it in your head. After that you can transpose to different keys. No matter what song you pick, the method of learning it will always be the same.
If there’s other music you want to learn, try downloading it on the Internet as a MIDI file. The score can be printed out with most programs, and you can use that sheet music to practice. Most people who code MIDIs have a good background in music, so you don’t generally have to worry about the songs being inaccurate.