Easy Piano Songs By Ear

[The Chosen Few]

I just started piano and I love it too no end.

I want to learn songs by ear for it's a different approach then I took when I learnt my guitar by script.

Can anyone suggest to me an AUDIO CD that has a compilation of easy Piano tunes. It could be specifically for learning , or just a top 15 list that happens to be easy. Really want to sing along with it so please keep that in mind.

Thanks for all your help

[D Charles]

Okay, you play donk a chinga, donk a chinga, donk a chinka, donk a chinga (C, Am, F, G) and the person to your right plays the melody; ding ding ding, ding danga danga, ding, ding ding ding, ding, danga danga ding, ding, dong, ding dang a dang dong ding........ ;-D

 

Sorry, late night here.

[rasputin1963]

Of course, I could suggest a CD of children's nursery rhymes. Or Stephen Foster ballads. Or Christmas songs. No, I'm not being facetious here. That's probably the easiest thing to get started with. Almost without exception they are Western diatonic melodies, do not change modes or have too much syncopation. Most will be instantly familiar, and most have predictable rhythm and rhyme schemes which lend themselves to easy commitment to memory.

 

Next step up from that: an anthology of 1950's and early 1960's rock 'n' roll tunes. Still easy. Here, the basic diatonic feeling will be augmented somewhat by adding some syncopation and the sound of the blues scale.

 

Then, a step up: an anthology of the Beatles' hits. More challenging. These are great, great, interesting songs which start to explore modes, modal changes, more unusual tonic keys, metrical changes, more adventurous harmonies.

 

Eventually you will want to obtain a JAZZ REAL BOOK, which is full of so-called "standards".

 

And then? You're into Bebop territory. If you're speaking the idiom of Western Afro-American music [Rock, Pop, Jazz, Rap, Reggae, Bossa Nova, Country, Broadway, etc.] , then "all roads lead to Bebop".

 

I suggest you also buy a CD of black African tribal music, whether from Ghana, Congo, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, South Africa. Teach yourself pop rhythms by going all the way back to the motherland source, as it were. Dance around the room to authentic African drum and voice rhythms, until you can stay in strictest groove with the musicians on the record.

 

There are other folks here on this forum who can suggest a "Classical" path for your learning, if that's what you seek. In that avenue, you'd probably start with Czerny.

[The Chosen Few]

Okay I'll start off with a 60's Rock CD. I'm already looking forward to learning some Beatles on the piano, Thanks Rasputin

You've helped me out twice now

Good man !