Learning by ear

TGMax
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Tue Jan 01, 2019 10:08 pm

Hey guys, I want to get a feel for how comfortable people are learning by ear vs. tabs/chord charts etc? Do any of you ever learn licks/solos by ear?

As somebody who plays professionally I have found over the years that this is an invaluable part of advancing not only your ear training, but also your guitar vocabulary. When I look back at all the struggles I went through in learning how to play by ear I smile because of how difficult it was at the time and how it has gotten substantially easier over the years. If anybody is up to it, I have a bunch of really cool tips for diving into this often intimidating topic. Let me know if anybody is even interested in this, or if I'm the only ear-training nerd here.

Happy New Years everybody!


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jcrocket
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Wed Jan 02, 2019 8:41 pm

Hi Max -
I’d definitely be interested in hearing your tips on ear training; it’s my preferred way of learning songs, licks and solos.
Thanks
Jeff


tombo1230
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Thu Jan 03, 2019 1:31 am

Hi Max, I think it is vital to learn by ear. I have dabbled in it a bit. Music is not a visual medium but an auditory one and the more you tune your ears in the better you hear progressions etc. It is easy to become a prisoner of tab and get stuck there. In short, I am interested. :)


Tom N.


abiliog
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Thu Jan 03, 2019 9:11 am

Hi Max,
Yeah, one of my main goals always postponed over time.
I've tried but possibly something is wrong with my vestibulocochlear nerve :-)

So, I'm very interested in getting this nerve working :-)

Abílio


TGMax
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Sun Jan 06, 2019 6:17 pm

I'm excited to see some enthusiasm in this area because it's truly a very important aspect in becoming a competent musician. There are a ton of ways to go about learning how to play by ear and improving your relative pitch abilities but here are a few:

1. Sit down with your guitar (or a piano is even better) and play a C on the 5th string 3rd fret. Then take your right hand and without looking tap your finger somewhere else on the 5th string. Obviously you'll have a feeling for whether you're higher or lower on the neck than the C you started with, but can you name the exact note? Once you feel proficient at this on the 5th string try switching to other strings. This will stretch your ear to hear notes above or below an octave from the starting note. On piano you can do this by playing a C with your left hand and then taking a pencil and without looking playing a note higher or lower than that C. Since you can't feel the key with your finger, you'll have to use your ear to see if you can guess the pitch. Once proficient at this, start using two or three pencils and see the challenge magnify.

2. For learning songs/licks by ear I recommend starting with simple, one-note melodies and not chords. Chords can be intimidating and difficult because there are multiple notes you'll have to hear. A really useful tool is using Quicktime 7, it's a media player that you can download for free on either Mac or Windows (make sure it's version 7). Open the mp3 you want to learn in Quicktime 7 and go to the "Window" menu and select A/V controls... you can actually slow the audio or video down to 1/2 speed. This is incredibly useful in learning licks, solos or riffs by ear. You can also increase/decrease the treble and bass so you can really customize what you hear and how fast it's playing. I still use this every day when I learn music as it is very helpful for things that might be too fast to hear accurately when played at the original tempo.

I really can't stress enough how important it is to do this. You'll soon discover that the speed at which you can pick up licks begins to rapidly increase. You'll also expose yourself to a much larger guitar vocabulary because you can actually learn the "language" of blues, jazz, rock etc. by figuring out the notes on your own. In addition you will be forced to find comfortable ways of playing the notes you are learning by ear. As we all know there are many different positions in which you can play the same lick, so figuring out licks by ear will make you select the most accurate and effective way of playing that lick, in context of the lick before and after (if one lick is up on the 9th fret, it makes no sense to play the following lick on the first fret if it can be done closer to the 9th).


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daryl
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Sun Jan 06, 2019 6:30 pm

Hey Max, Here's a thought where you can maybe kill 2 birds with 1 stone.....

How about you play a 3 note blues lick without showing the neck of your guitar and let those who want to develop their ear (and learn a blues lick at the same time) try to figure what you are playing. Then try a 4 note lick, etc. Maybe even use a 10 second backing track to put it in context. Just a thought.


kannarummo
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Sun Feb 24, 2019 9:58 pm

This is something I have come to believe it is a waste of time if the ear is not developed. I have spent years learning, and then forgetting songs. The last several months, I have been using a website that randomly plays notes, and the user is to answer with interval between them. I take it a step further. I make my guess (by humming the solfege), which has improved drastically and at an accelerating pace, and match it by playing the notes on the guitar. Then, I match them with my voice, using the tuner app until I get it spot on. I still can't sing...lol...but I've improved from tone-deaf to tone-hard-of-hearing. It's an improvement in the right direction. I also hear things differently than before. It's life-altering (well, within the task of playing guitar, anyway).


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