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I’m going to get right to it this week.

If you’re struggling to develop your ear, you’re probably not doing the right exercise.

I know this because when I was first learning the piano, I desperately wanted to play music I heard, but I had no idea what I was hearing.

My teacher taught me solfege: “Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do”.

But it was useless…

I still couldn’t recognize what I was hearing.

But that all changed when I did this exercise.

The exercise is different because it teaches you not just to hear melodies.

You’ll hear the key you’re in. You’ll hear the chords as they change. And you’ll hear the melody.

It’s the full package!!

I call it the “Anchor, Row, Cast” method, and you won’t hear this method anywhere else because…

I developed it!

It took me many painstaking years to figure out how to teach myself ear training, and now I want to show it to you.

I’m so excited for you to transform you ears.

I liken “hearing music” to catching a fish.

Imagine that every musical element — a note, chord, melody, rhythm, harmony, passing chord, run, or fill — is like a little fish scurrying around the sea.

And you’re trying to “catch it” with your ear. How do you do this?!

Well, you could stand on the shore, cast your line out, and hope that you catch that scurrying little chord.

Or, you can take a boat out to sea and strategically:

1. Anchor into the general region of the fish
2. Row out to the specific locality of the fish
3. Cast your line

Which method has the higher chance of success? Definitely the latter.

Anchor. Row. Cast.

I strongly believe that the keys to my own success at piano were developing exercises like this to solve my own challenges.

The truth is that for most of my learning, I didn’t have a teacher there, showing me the solution to every problem.

But my best teachers taught me how to teach myself.

And if you’re thinking, “well Jonny, you must have perfect pitch”…. nope! I don’t. If you play a single note on the piano, I have no clue what it is.

I have relative pitch, and I worked very hard to develop it. You can too.

I believe in you.
-Jonny

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