learning by ear tips

[Danny1969]

The good old fashioned way is just to play along to songs, again and again and again ... etc. After a while your brain starts to remember what it sounds like when you change from a G chord to a C chord for example, and it stores it up for when it's needed. The trick is to start simple, as simple as possible. Start with a song that use's just strummed chords rather than riffs to begin with. Find the first chord, by listening and trying one, and then restarting the CD if you got it wrong and picking another chord. If music was a exam then it would be multiple choice, as there's only so many chords to choose from. So it won't be long before you get the first chord ... and then you work out the second one, again by listening, trying one and then another until you have it. After a while you will automatically reject most of the wrong options, which will speed up how quickly you find the right one. You might not get the voicing spot on all the time, as the same chord can be played in many different positions on the guitar, but for now it's only important to reconize the correct chord to get through the song. If you complete the process, and want to get the exact voicings then the biggest giveaway is open strings in the chords. Open strings ring out longer and sound fuller, so you quickly begin to reconize the sound of an basic E chord for example when you hear it, cos you can hear the bottom open E string and open top E ringing to create certain voicing. Power chords containing just root, fifth and octave are also easy to spot, again cos they have a certain sound.

Lead \ single notes and riffs is much the same thing, start with older stuff like Shadows etc rather than Vai \ Malmsteen as the notes on slower stuff are easier to digest and copy exactly. As you do progress however you will probably notice that there's an awful lot of cliches in guitar solo's, and it's these cliched double stops, bends and hammer ons that make playing the faster stuff a lot easier than you think.

I'm not knocking people who use tab and \ or slowing down software but I would say the less props you use the better your ear will be in the long run. You don't need to spend any money at all, just get you guitar, a bunch of songs and really listen.

[jason morris1]

When trying to pick out "non-standard" chords, I choose a single note to concentrate on and nail; then build up my own version of the chord, note-by-note. Be pepared to be flexible as to which string each note is on, so as to get both the voicing and fingerings as close as you can.

[clare_bear2]

You must all have the patience of saints! I'm frustrated before I've worked out the first few chords :roll:

I will persist though - thanks for all the advice, it is helping a lot.

[Nas]

You must all have the patience of saints! I'm frustrated before I've worked out the first few chords :roll:

I will persist though - thanks for all the advice, it is helping a lot.

It is frustrating but think how well your ears are getting..

I think it is one of the best skills to learn..

[imported_thomasross20]

Tough love, clare... You've just gotta do it for yourself, and do it LOTS! Not being harsh at all, it's just the way it has to be

8)

[imported_MikeStoner]

No pain - no gain. Try it really LOUD. That always helps.

[imported_thomasross20]

:lol:

[thing]

I find it a bit of a sticking point teaching studes how to play by ear as I was sort of born being able to do it. I never had any problems picking out songs on the piano when I was about 3, I could always nail a melody line. precocious kid/I was a bit of a star turn at family parties apparently\precocious kid.... ops:

So I don't know what it's like not to be able to do it, which makes it bloody difficult to teach, if you've always been able to do it, you don't know how you do it because you've never been through that process.

I find the best thing to do is start with recognition of chord types and how they make you feel. Major chords are bright, minor sad, dominant 7ths are tense and bluesy, major sevenths are relaxed and laid back, that sort of thing.

Then look at the intervals that make up those chords and learn to recognise them by playing the interval and thinking of a song that starts with those two notes to give you a guideline. So and octave would be 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow', perfect 4th would be 'Auld Lang Syne' and so on. You can easily find songs to fit the interval. Then when you hear the interval you can tag it to the song. Eventually you don't think of the song, and the interval just comes naturally. Seems to work with my studes anyway.

I don't know how other teech's find it but I think that although the preponderance of tab and all the other stuff makes learning stuff a lot quicker, I find players' ears very poorly developed these days. I just can't get how any can't hear the difference between a major and minor chord, it's like not being able to differentiate between yellow and blue. Although I appreciate that they can't do it and have difficulty learning.

[Sulphent]

I'm 100% with you thing. When i was younger i used to play keyboard, but i use to pick the melody notes out on there as i was playing, for example someone said play teletubbies so i just worked it out as i played it, albeit always in C major!

I think what would be a helpful step is to think of nursery rhymes or some songs that are really simple musically, and just work on finding the vocal melody out, usually you can hear those very easy in songs. I don't know how well you can transcribe from ear, but one of the easiest you could work out is Hot Cross Buns, then keep doing similiar songs until you can do them fluently, then build up to harder songs.

I also think that knowing the chord progression in the Major and Minor scales will help (Just learn the Major because the Minor has the same chords anyway but in a different order, if the song sounds sad it's likely to be Minor, happy and it's likely Major). There are many reasons this would be beneficial.

[clare_bear2]

Hurrah - I've had a bit of an 'ear training' breakthrough!

Nothing spectacular, but I've just worked out most of the main riff to Muse's 'Plug In Baby' by ear - yay

I did just check it with some tab on t'internet, and it was mainly right, just a couple of notes I couldn't quite get. Got the key right after a bit of messing around (which I'm pleased with), but got the intervals to the notes right quite quickly.

It may sound like a very small thing, but it's quite an accomplishment for me. I'm well-chuffed 8)