Learning by ear

[JPBass]

Wondering if anyone has routines they'd like to share in regards to practicing away from your bass? When listening to music, it's cool to codify your ears using a number system in place. The key center of a song is known as the ONE, or the tonic center. Often times songs are based off a moving pattern associated with scale degrees. Here's a popular pattern; I VI II V..... So in the key of G major this translates to G E A D... in the key of Bb this translates to Bb G C F...

 

next to 12 bar blues, this I VI II V harmonic pattern is second in popularity...

 

Then there are variations such as I VI IV V... The 3rd chord IV is used as a substitute for the II..... If relating harmony to your ear in this fashion is new, let this be an introduction. Interested in hearing about your experiences with developing your ear to hear harmony and root motion. For bass players this is a key ingredient to your ability to hear songs and play accurate chord patterns supplying solid root motion to songs; of course always with a tasty groove!

[WRGKMC]

I took 2 lessons from an older guy when I first got my first. The first lesson he showed me the C and G cord. By the time the next lesson came about a week later I had mastered those chords and found three others yet didn't know their names. The teacher was impressed and showed me the other remaining basic chords and so ended my first formal lessons. From there I was able to tune my guitar and play along to albums and write out the lyrics and chords being played. I also bought guitar books which showed the chords.

 

About a year later I took about 5 lessons to learn how to finger pick. I was taught how to read tab and in the process I was shown how the thumb would play the bass part and the other fingers would do the melody and harmony. This produced 3 distinct voices occurring the same time within the range of the 6 strings.. I concluded those lessons being able to play ragtime tunes which encompassed 12 frets using many inversions, walks and turn around's and a simple lead scale that included all 5 fingering positions.

 

From there I discovered the box system on my own, before I had known it had already existed.

 

The box system consists of 5 positions on the neck with the sixth beginning to repeat itself an octave above the first position. All the same notes can be played within these 5 boxes and the boxes can be moved up or down the neck like a slide ruler.

 

If you can find the root note on the E strings, you can begin your first box there and move up through the boxes in a positive direction moving to positions 2, 3, 4, 5 then back to 1 OR you can move down from the first box from 1 to 5, 4, 3, 2 and back to one.

 

Once you memorize all five positions, you can move from 1 to 4 to 5 depending on the chord changes occurring.

 

Once you understand how vertical movement on a neck follows chords, you can then expand that to horizontal movement.

 

If you start on a D note on the 5th fret and move directly over to the higher string, its the same as moving up 5 frets. In numerology that's a move from I to IV. If you move horizontally down one string its the same as moving from the 5th fret D note to an open A string or in numerology, a move from I to V.

 

To understand the numerology you must understand the Round of 5ths wheel. https://www.google.com/search?q=round+of+5ths&biw=1680&bih=906&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=UrzxVNn7B4y3oQTbgIKwDA&ved=0CCwQsAQ

 

This can help you understand how a 12 note scale works. I learned it very young and always related it to the 12 numbers on a clock. Each note relating to a note in a scale and you can substitute any note out of the twelve we use in the west as the first #12 position on that clock.

 

This wheel can help you memorize the flats, sharps, naturals in a particular scale and is essential if you want to learn to read music and understand the flats and sharps on a scale. You can then get even more confused when reading a C Clef for bass which is actually just part of the G Clef scale separated by some invisible lines. You can essentially walk up the staircase beginning with the C Clef up right into the G Clef if the instrument has enough notes (like a piano) You can also play notes in both Clef regions using two hands (again like a piano) one playing bass and one playing chords/melody or harmonies.

 

This is by far the shortest route to learning to play best. Learning to read and play at the same time and its the first method I usually suggest others follow because all other methods have their shortcomings and dead ends.

 

 

 

 

[WRGKMC]

The box system is a short cut that relies heavily on wrote memory and ear training. If someone doesn't want to learn to read music and just wants to play what they hear its at least better then stumbling around in the darkness not being able to predict where they can move on the fretboard and stay out of trouble hitting sour notes. Its not the only method of finger and ear training but it has been used by thousands of musicians with excellent results. It does need to be followed up with some basic training in scales but can get you past the ear training without a bunch of technical jargon like numerology and wheels as crutches and allow you to explore the fretboard on your own.

 

I made this up nearly 45 years ago for guitar but you can simply omit the high E and B strings for bass.

 

This set of boxes include notes for the key of E minor or G major

 

These boxes didn't need to be lettered but since it can be handy finding your position on the neck and finding the root notes they are included.

 

The first thing you want to do is identify the 5 boxes/positions for a given key. I've used Em/G here. We'll consider this to be a minor blues key of Em. It begins with the open strings or E B G D A E. By the way down on this picture is up in pitch on the strings so when I describe this picture a fretboard upright facing you with the first red bar being the nut.

 

The red bar are the open strings and the first set of yellow makes the first box. You can play any red or yellow notes in the key of E minor or G major and not hit a flat or sharp note. ( there are others in that box I'll get to later)

 

The second position is between the Yellow and Blue lines. The third are between the Blue and Green lines, The forth is between the Green and orange lines and the Fifth is between the Orange and Red line. If you move up one more you're at one again Just an octave below the open strings and would substitute the nut being at the 12th string with your first finger.

 

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Now there are notes in between that can be added to these basic boxes. If you look at the first box, F# and C can be added when moving across the box in a minor key. In fact any of the notes can be used when walking up from the bottom of the box to the top of the box. Just use your ears and experiment. You can also find your octaves within that box. Bass is easy because octaves are always two frets up or down separated by a string.

 

You can play along to songs in E minor beginning with open E or in G major on the third fret using this chart as is.

 

Once you've memorized these boxes in one key, you can simply shift the boxes up or down the neck as needed. Say you want to play in A minor. Simply shift the first red line neck by 5 frets. Of course when you do this, Boxes 5, and 4 appear below the 5 fret. Again think of it like a linear slide ruler with the nut and last frets as the limits and simply shift your boxes up and down.

 

You don't have to limit yourself to thinking the red line if your first box either. This is the trick. If you start your first E on the 5th fret of the A string. You can be in either Box 3 using your 4th finger, Or box 4 using your 1st finger. You can think of either of those boxes as being Box#1 if you choose and move up the neck in a positive pitch direction changing positions or down the neck in a negative pitch direction.

 

This kind of thinking is advanced and if you're just beginning to understand the box system, it wont matter for a year or two. Thinking of whatever opposition or box you're within as being the number one position is a liberating thought process that can free you from boundaries and let you think of the neck as a single plan. You can then just jump to any place or position on that plane without thinking about it too much. the intervals of the boxes become engrained in your memory and you begin to naturally make these jumps as natural movements.

 

This brings me up to JPBass's ear training.

 

Its not just ear training. Its also visualizing what others are playing Or what you can be playing based on what you're hearing. If you cant visualize the notes its practically impossible to play by ear.

 

Once you learn these boxes using blind repetition, the finger movement patters begin to be seen as a road map on the neck you can navigate with your minds eye. When you hear someone else playing you can visualize yourself playing those same boxes you use.

 

There may be variations and notes added, they may jump positions and you may have to figure out when and where those jumps occur, but figuring out what others play by ear is no longer a huge mystery anymore. Its just organization, taking small chunks at a time and piecing things together.

 

Like any road map you have alternative routes getting from point A to point B and So long as you are careful taking short cuts and plan ahead, you can drive any place you want at any speed you can muster and never hit dead ends while you enjoy the ride.

[JPBass]

Bravo!!!!!!!!!!! really dig the visualization concept and as you mention so beautifully, it all has to do with how to process the entire "sound" of all the instruments combined..or in a conceptual setting, assimilating what you hear with the possibilities of what you might or might not (tacet) play....excellent feedback here WRGKMC!! standing "o"!