Piano Week 20: Ear training with tracks

Weekly Focus

Week 20 prioritizes ear-led playing with recordings. The goal is to lock phrasing and harmony from what you hear before using charts.

Success this week means you can recover bass/melody landmarks from tracks and stay in time while playing along.

Repertoire & Chord Map

Primary track work is Misty, with My Romance as transfer. Keep chart use delayed until after ear mapping attempts.

Core ear-mapping loop:

Imaj7 | vm7 I7 | IVmaj7 | ivm7 bVII7 Imaj7 vim7 | iim7 V7 | iiim7 VI7 | iim7 V7

Daily map task: identify phrase boundaries and bass movement from recording first, then verify on piano.

Supplementary Listening & Ear Training (Required)

Use this track as the ear-training backbone for “Ear training with real tracks”, then transfer what you hear to piano the same day.

Weekly listening pick:

• All the Things You Are — Charlie Parker

Why this track now: It highlights long-form key modulation tracking, which matches Week 20’s goals.

Ear tasks (10–15 min, at least 3 sessions this week):

1. Listen once without the instrument and name the key center by ear (major/minor/modal). Then verify the key at piano.
2. Find one cadence or arrival point, then play: root + shell ii-V-I (or closest functional equivalent) in that key.
3. Lift a short 4–8 bar fragment by ear, play it slowly, and record ~30s so you can compare your hearing vs. the recording.

Extra challenge (optional): transpose your lifted fragment to the weekly priority ladder when possible (F → Eb → G → Bb → C).

End-of-Week Reflection

Where did your ear-first process work best, and where did you still rely on visual chart memory? Carry one strong listening habit and one weak section into Week 21 transcription work.