What does it feel like? A lot like hearing a song on the radio and singing along with it. Most people can relate to that, even if some are better than others.

What does it feel like? A lot like hearing a song on the radio and singing along with it. Most people can relate to that, even if some are better than others. It feels very natural with your voice because you've been making sounds with your vocal cords for your whole life, so it is second nature. I think the main reason a musical instrument feels less natural isn't that it's a unique and different category of thinking. It's just that you have way less practice. If you can work things out slowly and you have any amount of intuitive feel for it, I'd say you probably just need more practice. Though ear training ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_training https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_training ) can be really helpful. You can get software to drill you on intervals. And some people find it helpful to remember the sound of intervals by famous songs they occur in ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_recognition#Reference_songs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_recognition#Reference... ). For me, it has been a gradual process. At first it was nearly all trial and error. Then I could pick out 1 note in a lot fewer tries than random chance. Then I could play little segments of melodies once I had figured out the keys. Then I could play the whole melody in near real time. Now finally after gradually getting more comfortable over the years, I can guess chord progressions reasonably well. All these things came months or years apart depending on how big of a jump it was and how much I practiced. Incidentally, I am an amateur pianist, and I have virtually no natural talent. When I started, I could not play anything at all by ear. If I can do it, anybody can.