Hear and Now: Play by Ear, Improv and Jazz

Want to drive certain people crazy, just say it, just say play it by ear and watch them cringe. I am one of those people! I work well with check lists and plans. Someone once told me I couldn’t be spontaneous and I fired back I can plan to be spontaneous once a week. But this is my issue, the expression play it by ear is all wrong. In music, there are people who can read music and people who play by ear. To play be ear is to is to be able to play a song without the music. However, this is a song, a melody, a tune if you will. But no, we’ve butchered the term and now the definition to act spontaneously can be googled.

Going out without a plan is not playing by ear. It’s more like jazz and improvisation, going off and exploring seeing where you end up and figuring out how to get back. A jazz riff is probably a more accurate definition of what people mean when they say play by ear. Like, you’re going out for dinner, and you need to end up there, but how you get there and if there are a few sour notes or wrong misguided flows, it’s ok. 

This afternoon, I played by ear. I saw a yoga video and tried to do it without instruction and the ability to slow down what I saw. This is what I called improv. It was not the same thing, but the concept, kind of, sort of followed. For my purpose it was ok. If I was successful, I would have said I played by ear. If it was close, I could say improve and if I did something that made you scratch your head, well that’s jazz. Have a great week no matter what tune you play.