Almost any music student can hum a note struck on a piano keyboard by matching it because the ear and the voice are synchronized. However, when these students are asked to reproduce that same note on an instrument, it takes about three, four or more tries to match the note. The reason is that the ear and the instrument are not as synchronized as the ear and the voice. The student must identify which one of the 12 notes of music has been played before he can reproduce it on this instrument.
Likewise, a student may be able to identify the quality or type of chord, scale or melodic fragment that he or she hears. Incidentally, when students are asked to play it on their instrument, they will have a problem identifying which of the 12 notes they heard. The ability to hum or remember, whistle, or sing, a vast number of tunes is not uncommon, but ask students to duplicate them on their instruments and the same problem will occur. Not to worry.
To become a professional musician, a student must acquire as much facility for reproducing melodic lines on his musical instrument as he is able to reproduce with his voice. Further, an improvising musician must be able to reproduce melodies originating in his or her imagination. In order to achieve instrumental facility and a smooth flow of melodic lines either as reproductions from memory or original tunes from the imagination, and in order to hear sounds and then play them on their instruments, all major and minor scales or musical dialects, with their respective chord progressions should be memorized.
This takes practice. Practice doesn't have to be a dirty word. In fact, practicing can actually be fun, when done in moderation. Here are a few tips shared by fellow musicians and teachers.
Here is an idea for combatting
