play by ear?

stever05 · Newbie Alert Joined: 12 Jul 2001 Posts: 1

im not really a beginning guitarist but i am wondering if ne one out there has any tips or steps to help play music that i hear without having to look at tab.

RutagersDad · Newbie Alert Joined: 28 Nov 2001 Posts: 3 Location: ohio

Sing! Even if you are not a vocalist sing along with what you are listening to, sing in church, and sing every chance you get. It really developes your ear.

Buckwheat · Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2001 7:04 pm Post subject: play by ear?

I learned to play harmonica before I ever picked up a guitar. It has helped me in sounding out melodies.

Harmonica is easy to learn the basics, very difficult to master.

ACfixer · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2001 3:32 am Post subject: play by ear?

Stever05, the way I've found is to learn my pentatonic scales and then as I hear a song I'll move the scale around until I find the key that fits the song. From there everything will pretty much fall into that scale and that narrows things down quite a bit. I know. especially with praise music that once I've figured ou it's in "C" for instance, then I am very likely to have F,G, Am etc.... This will generally get you a good start on most songs and in a short time you will get very fast at figuring out which key it's in.

ACfixer · Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2001 3:37 am Post subject: play by ear?

And yes. RutagersDad is so right. Once I started singing along with my playing and getting past that akward stage where my hand stopped when my mouth started, my playing AND my singing improved immensely both the tone and timing.

jdragon · Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2004 11:36 pm Post subject: play by ear?

hey stever05,

I know it's been a while since this topic was up, but i've been taking a class on perfect pitch. At first i wasn't sure it would work. I thought you either had it or you never would. But since taking it, i am starting to hear it in songs i hear, I can figure out a song a lot faster than i could before, and more acurate. If you're interested i can give you the information about the class i'm taking and you could look into it.

Jay.

Texas Aggie · Newbie Alert Joined: 23 May 2005 Posts: 3

JD: I'd like to know what class you are referring to.

Steve: I hope I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but I think the best way to get better at ear training, song wise (i.e., being able to play whatever song you are thinking of), is to learn the 3 chords (I-IV-V) in as many keys as possible. You can then go through chord progressions in the songs and find a good key to play them in.

When I hear a song I want to play, I first go to the piano and play the melody. I'm pretty good at getting the melody down very quickly. Then, while still on the piano, I add the I, IV, and V chords to the melody, which I can figure out reasonably quickly (though in some cases, its still challenging). If I'm going to be playing on the guitar, I just play quarter note one hand chord prograssions in a couple of keys and transfer that to the guitar, with whatever strumming pattern. Later, I try other chords in that same key (e.g. ii, iii, vi, vii) and see if they add anything to the song. Since I'm a pretty inexperienced guitar player, I might just stick with the 1, 4, and 5.

PunkStar · Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 10:08 pm Post subject:

Also, learn intervals and rhythms. They will help immensely when transcribing melodies and such.

Shaggy · Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 11:53 pm Post subject:

If theres a really simple song, just start playing with it till you hot the right notes. like try doing bass notes over the song instead of chords. then apply the chord that goes with the bass note.
...that could start to help you develop an ear for music........well it might help.

thats how i started playing anyways. I still cant read a bar of music...do it all by ear. ......i think im too lazy to learn how to read music now anyways Embarassed

quackzed · Not So Newbie Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Posts: 9

with alot of songs its as easy as listening to the bass.. it'll usually be playing the root notes of the chords

quackzed · Not So Newbie Joined: 20 Jan 2007 Posts: 9

also, it's helpfull to learn chord theory... that way you know which chords you are likely to run into, and what key they are in...you don't have to do so much searching because you know better what to expect...

dertsa · Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 10:29 am Post subject:

I know you posted this a few years back, but if you're still up for some input, I have some... anyways, when I started out playing, I only learned by ear. But, I took piano lessons for 4 years before I picked up guitar. After that, I played guitar and never touched a piano until about 3 years ago. But, just getting that exposure to the theory behind the music and the way a chord progression works behind a melody helped me so much. As far as learning by ear as well as devolving perfect pitch. I still have no idea. I've been playing guitar for about 8 or 9 year, and sometimes I randomly get it and sometimes I don't... I think it's just something that's developed over time. But yeah, definitely work on the piano for some time... it helped me immensely... God bless
Sam