How can I play piano by ear? (piano magic or rhythmic patterns?)?

I've been playing piano for about five years. I'm fairly decent at sightreading and have been trained in piano traditionally. I'm looking for something more though. I want to be able to play by ear. I want to get more out of the piano then just playing sheet music. I've looked at different programs online such as rythymic patterns (playpianotoday.com) and pianomagic.com. They both claim to teach you how to play by ear. Are either of theses programs good? Should I invest in one of these? Is one better then the other? Or can you recomend another method? Thanks for the help.

I have often asked guitarists how they learnt to play by ear and they all said the same thing "by doing it". ie. they would sit down and attempt to play a piece they heard on the radio or a CD. The more you practise this the better you get.
I don't think there are any shortcuts for playing by ear.

check this program out,I think it's pretty good.It's $120 something but the free trial is for 21 days,here's the link,just copy and paste it on the website area,http://www.download.com/EarMas... Report It

yeah. I've only been playing piano for a few months but I'm already playing very advanced music. And i play by ear. thats how i taught myself. for my first piano lesson I played mozart, because I listened to the song over and over then played it over and over until it was just right.

well, what you can do is just start off with an easy piece. listen to it a few times. then try playing along with it. Usually, let the song play through only a few notes, try finding them and playing them, and keep going. I know this sounds repetitive and boring, but it works! You just go through the whole piece like that. just play along with it. and it helps if you play more than one instrument( i play 10 different instruments), or if you have good ears-that really helps. i've had many people tell me I had perfect pitch because I could listen to a song then play it back. But i do not have perfect pitch, just good ears. =] i mean, its hard to explain. i just listen to the piece of music, take the key, and either play it, or make up my own version.

hope this helped!!

feel free to email me if you have any more questions!!

I was asking that same thing not long ago. I've tried one or two of those programs. No doubt you can learn things there but it's my opinion now that time and effort are the most important. I have discovered that the easy sheet music may be best because you can learn the basic lines and then start to improvise and from there you can come to some ear playing.

When i want to play something that i hear on the radio on in a movie, i try to figure out the melody first. When you've got the melody down, it should be easy to get the underlying chords and chord progressions. Another way is to find the key of the music, then it will be easier to find the chords. I've been playing for about twelve years so i guess it is sound easy for me but maybe not for you, but i believe that if you keep practising you will get it!!

good luck! hope this help!!