What does it mean to play "by ear?" Briefly, it means one can listen to and discriminate among many musical elements at once. Musical elements include (but are not limted to) intervals, pitch, melodic direction, register (high, middle, low), tonality, harmony, voice leading, phrasing, balance, articulartion, and dynamics. Of course, many other factors involving having a “good ear,” but we are naming some of the basics.

A very important part the Zinn Piano Program involves teaching listening skills as we believe all students can be taught to play "by ear."  Although some students start out in lessons with a very good musical ear, experience has taught us that most of students need to be shown specifically what to "listen" for and they need to be taught how to recognize each element and apply it to the music learning process. Students have to be taught to play "by ear" in a manner that professional musicians already know; when presented with a musical score (notes), students eventually learn to synthesize and integrate the notes & rhythms, develop an accurate mental representation of them, and transform the sound immediately into what we call "music." All this is done seamlessly and mostly in a non-verbal manner. Unfortunately, we see some students attempt verbal sequential learning style and depending heavily on the notes per se without attending to their sound. When the notes are removed, these students hardly know where to begin! Sadly, making music is what everyone comes to lessons to learn to do, so if students depend on the notes, and not use the musical ear they have, they will not be able to memorize or learn their music thoroughly. They will come to experience music learning as drudgery and, of course, stop lessons due to perceived effort involved in attempting to learn music this way.

Zinn Piano Program trains students to play by ear for the following reasons, all of which are requisite for successful piano study:

• Cognitive representation (extremely important!) involves being able to simulate the sound of every note a the piece and conceptual that piece as a whole from start to finish. Advertisers are keenly aware of this fact, which is why a good ad campaign will have you singing a "jingle" throughout your day, whether you like it or not! Another example is going to the grocery store and hearing your favorite song being played, walking out of the store and still "hearing" the song played in your head, arriving at home and humming the tune while putting your groceries away. Adequate cognitive representation varies children, as it is very amenable to cognitive developmental level. Zinn Piano Program utilizes a variety of teaching tools and techniques to help students learn to mentally represent the music in an accurate and specific manner. The students are then to play it accurately on the piano and the piece sounds "as it should."
• Development of good relative pitch refers to the ability to pick out any note from a given reference point. Having good relative pitch is likely the most useful skill in all music endeavors, contributes to faster and more accurate music memorization. 
• Being able to discriminate among discrete musical attributes (e.g. note duration, rhythmic accuracy, intervalic relationships, tone control), students listen for even tone as well as even notes and solid production is can be established. Once the student is taught proper tone production, the sound can then be molded or shaped. As the student becomes more advanced in piano, their ear is involved in all sorts of dynamic range and subtle nuances involved in the "carving" of sound. The ear controls the entire output of the piece.

Rather than list all of the conceptual parts of what goes into a "good ear," we will summarize by simply stating that we train students to hear all musical attributes, but we do so in an age appropriate manner. The child's cognitive developmental level is taken into account so that EVERY CHILD, regardless of age and apparent 'ability,' can master their pieces and perform them as well as possible.