Let's Just Play it by Ear

 

Here in the Pacific Northwest we are snowed in, with freezing temperatures -- very unusual for us. Since I'm confined at home I thought I would take the opportunity to write a light-hearted post I've been thinking about for a while.

When people are making plans to go somewhere or do something and the plans can't be finalized, they often say "let's just play it by ear." What they mean is that they are going to keep things flexible, see how the situation develops in the moment and be able to respond.

I love that a phrase about music and playing an instrument have become a part of our mainstream language and idioms. When people hear the phrase "let's just play it by ear," they know exactly what is meant, even if they have never actually played anything by ear.

However, playing by ear is not exactly the right analogy for this situation. When you play music by ear, you are attempting to reproduce the actual song or instrumental piece as closely as possible to the written music. If you are playing a melody by ear, you want to get it exactly right; otherwise, it won't be the actual song, but something similar. If you are going to harmonize the songs, you want to get the harmonies exactly right, or very close, though you may have to do it in a simplified way. For example, if the song was from a movie score and it was accompanied by an orchestra, and you are attempting to reproduce it by ear on piano, you can get the harmonies exactly right, depending on your abilities, of course, but, needless to say, it won't sound exactly like an orchestra. You may be making your own arrangement of the song, but you are still attempting to have the song sound very close the actual song, so that your listeners will recognize it.

When you improvise, you are truly making it up as you go along. The best improvisors may never play the song or piece the same way twice. You may be using a previously-written song as the basis for your improvisation, but, depending on your skills, you may embellish the song's melody and harmonies to such a large degree that is almost becomes something else entirely. And, of course, you can do free-form improv, that is, not based on anything except your own musical ideas at the moment.

So when people say "let's just play it by ear," what they actually mean is "let's improvise." Making it up as you go along is more akin to improvisation than it is to playing by ear. And sometimes people do say "we'll just have to improvise" when they realize they can't predict or plan the future.

Either way, playing by ear and improvising are great skills to have, and, as you know if you've been reading this blog, I highly recommend both!