Four Reasons Pastors and Musicians Prefer Play By Hear…
Mouse Over Each of the 4 Pillars Below

BEGIN PLAYING IN CHURCH WITHIN 30 DAYS!
Our easy to learn system makes it easy for complete beginners to begin playing at least one song in their church within 30 days!

5 LEVELS OF LEARNING FROM BEGINNER TO PROFESSIONAL
We have a proven teaching system that makes our site ideal for beginners through professionals who want to improve their skills. If you’ll bring desire and discipline, we’ll give you a step-by-step process making it easy for you to play your favorite gospel songs quickly… even if you’ve never played piano before.

NUMBER SYSTEM AND CIRCLE OF FOURTHS
Your jaw will drop once you discover how amazingly easy it is to play almost any modern and contemporary musical piece you want with these two sets of chords! You’ll bless family, friends and church members with your newfound skills.

OUR MEMBERS GET EMPOWERED WITH A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF MUSIC
Members tell me they’ve often left other piano membership sites because we not only showed them what to play, but we help them understand what they were hearing, and how to reproduce it!
Get an Inside Look at How Others Have ‘Leveled Up’ Their Playing Skills…
Our Proven 5-Prong Approach Helps Anyone 'Play By Ear'!
MUSIC THEORY is the science of understanding and creating music. It takes longer to play with this approach, because the focus is more on understanding. We offer this for the complete beginner, but if you want to play quickly, we recommend studying the NUMBER SYSTEM first.
We have several levels for you to choose from: Beginner, Easy, Intermediate, Advanced, Professional, and Organ. We’ll help you identify which works best for you.
Playing “by ear” is often thought of as something that “special” people are “born with”. Well, I make a living debunking that myth. This section is designed to open your ears and initiate you into our club. Are you ready?
We offer several levels of ear training tutorials to help you learn a skill that will allow you to “play by hear” for years to come!
The absolute #1 thing holding most people back on the piano (NO… it’s not music knowledge) is lack of finger coordination or DEXTERITY! Our “Fingers that Fly” exercises are designed to help you strengthen weaknesses you probably don’t even know you have.
“NOTHING affects how fast you progress musically than your EMOTIONS and MINDSET. Optimize them in our Music Psychology Blog: “The Encouragement Corner”.
What Our Students Are Saying
We love our students and want to share their love of music with you.
Come hang out with us on our dime for 14 days! Don’t just play, UNDERSTAND!
“I can’t believe it, but i learned this song in an hour and perfected by the end of the week. Thank you for being such an awesome teacher! ”
“Thank you brother for making it easier to understand and play I loved it!”
“I’m in total awe. How are you made it so simple to learn. I thought I knew piano but how do you explained it made me step back and not rush the process but trust the process. I’m taking one day at a time I got a six month subscription and I wonder by God’s grace what is going to sound like in the next six months but right now I’m just taking one day at a time I rate you guys at 10+ in your effectiveness.”
“Hi thank you that’s my first time. I learn the song I give myself away for half day.”
“Hey man I’ve been searching for simpler way to play this song. Thanks you.”
“I’ve learned more in one week than the 40 years of failing because I quit trying. I struggled because of the lack of knowledge. I can follow your teaching with ease. Thanks”
“It is sooo easy to learn the way you teach. Have a great and blessed day.”
“Hey Carl I wanted to give up big time and I got overwhelmed. But there was something that I heard you say you said if you don’t get it you haven’t gone slow enough and I think that happened to me so once this season of six months is over I’m gonna keep going with it because I spoke with my pastor and he’s looking for me to help more in worship with the keys have a blessed one and thank you again.”
“Please continue this, it helped me so much.”
“This is AWESOME!!! You make the complicated so simple. Like you say “It’s not Rocket Science!”
“Play by Hear is amazing! I thank GOD for this program so far. I have paid thousands and I mean thousands on books and programs to learn to play piano for my church over the years and over the last month using Play by Hear I’ve learned so much in every lesson. Not just chords and songs but understanding them and seeing how they work and actually PLAYING them. I’m so thankful to God to stumble upon this program and eagerly look forward to more to come through diligence obedience and taking my time. Compared to other programs Play by Hear is easy to use, organized, lessons for everyone, no secrets, relevant to all church types, short lessons (keeps me focused) ABSOLUTELY PERFECT FOR ME!”
“Hey brother Karl, I just want to say thanks for your good teaching for the last 3yrs. You and your staff have totally revolutionized my playing. Because of your method of teaching, I know the number system and circle of 4ths and many other things that you are teaching. I just played for a funeral on Tuesday. my wife use to laugh my playing but not now! She actually allows me to play for that beautiful soprano voice of hers. I play a lot of people like Milton Brunson Yolanda Adams and many many more. because of your proven method I can understand what others are teaching, Thank you and play by hear for my elevation on gospel music.”
Additional Feedback from Academy Members

Carl Kenerly
Founder & President
Founder & President
Director of Worship & Mentor to Thousands of Church Musicians for 25+ Years
Carl has been involved with gospel music since he was a small child. He’s skilled in everything from producing, writing, and arranging. He’s developed a reputation for his unique and effective method of explaining complex music concepts in an understandable way. Carl is the recipient of the Dallas Chamber’s Quest for Success Award for 2008.
Carl is committed to helping members of his community honor God and their local church by playing gospel music on piano faster and easier than any other resource online. He’s also the owner of Kenerly Music Studio, located in Forth Worth, TX.
F.A.Q.s
Here are answers to common questions about Play By Hear.
Contact us if you’ve got more questions and we’ll do our best to answer.
There are 4 options to choose from when joining. After the 14-day free trial, you’ll have the following options:
- Monthly: $29.95
- Quarterly: $149.95
- Annual: $299.50
- Lifetime: $699.00
The Online Member Hub is a specifically designed area to help:
- Reduce frustration or confusion when it comes to billing
- Empower our members to help themselves without having to reach out to our support staff
- Allowing members to easily update their info in a confidential and secure online portal
It is an area where you can review your purchases, see your invoices, review current, completed, and cancelled subscriptions. You can even review their personal/billing information and update it as necessary. If the need arises, you’ll be able to pause your subscription.
The Online Member Hub is a part of our shopping cart. When you access it, you will be leaving the Play By Hear site, and going to ThriveCart. Rest assured, ThriveCart uses the highest levels of security to protect your personal information and your money!
To access the Online Member Hub, click the button below:
Yes. Click “Purchase Lessons Individually” in the middle of the “Get Started” page or “purchase lessons” on the navigation bar.
You will receive a series of “Orientation” emails right after you join. Each email gives you a “tour” of a different section or feature of our community. You will also receive a survey to identify your musical ‘gap’. The results will tell us where you are today, and where you’d like to be in 6-12 months. You’ll be surveyed once every three months. Survey answers will help us decide what kind of content is most important to our students. You’ll get the most from your membership by letting your voice be heard!
You’ll be provided a secure login to our online Customer Hub. This will provide full control over your membership in our community, allowing you to pause your membership if necessary. You won’t be charged after pausing or discontinuing your membership.
Our motto Is, “Don’t just play, Understand?” We teach systematic music theory as it applies to Gospel and Jazz music. We also explain the theory behind our “Song Breakdowns”.
We offer monthly and yearly plans to fit every budget. Have every valuable lesson at your finger tips 24/7 for a low affordable price.
We offer a complimentary virtual face to face orientation to each new member in order to customize your plan of action. Members can also contact us at any time to schedule additional live lessons (subject to availability). The discounted member price is $75 for every 30 minutes.
Yes. Click the “Request a Video” link on the home page. Fill out the form. There is a charge for requested videos. It takes approximately 3 weeks to see the video on the site (depending on the number of requests).
WE ARE HERE FOR YOU! GET IN TOUCH
Contact us with any questions and we will be glad to help! From choosing the subscription for you to helping you with any lesson, we want to make learning the piano effortless and entertaining. If you need to speak to us, call our office at (817) 330-3996.