Playing by Ear/ ear training and my situation

[symphonyofdream]

I'm in a frustrating situation in that i can play pretty much anything i want, but my ear is extremely novice. from the from the very beginning i dived in somewhat complex material and always was able to progress my skills. Issue is i always used tabs and now i have a serious imbalance where i'd struggle to pick up the easiest stuff by ear and would be completely lost when figuring normal stuff i listen to or play

 

I wish i would've done things the way the old timers did where you build your ear and skills at the same time by being forced to listen to learn new stuff instead of tabs. Any comments or words of advice?

[GreenAsJade]

Start now?

 

Pick a new song to learn, and learn it without TAB...

 

GaJ

[Jed]

It sounds to me like you just answered your own question. What was it that the "old timers" did to develop their ears? Are you familiar with "The Stupid Song Game"? It's about learning to play dirt simple melodies all over the neck in various positions, keys and fingerings. Related exercises involve arpeggios or scales around the cycle of 5th. One of my current favorites is to play the diminished pentatonic scale (1 b3 b5 b6 b7) as eight notes in 12/8, with 2-notes per string while changing chords every measure. It's proven to be quite the workout for my ears, hands and brain.

 

cheers,

[mosiddiqi]

Yep, just get started!..get "Transcribe!" or whatever you prefer, pick a simple song you like and get to work!..now if you already know how to play a lot of the simpler songs we might suggest starting with (anything from the first 4 or 5 Sabbath albums if you're a metal guy)...maybe try something like the live album version of something like "Victim of Changes" by Judas Priest..technically simple enough riffs and solo's but learning the intro harmony guitar part will give your ears something to work on for sure.

[jeremy_green]

Hey, First off stop using tabs - just do it. Pretend they dont exist for a while.

 

Actually I did a blog entry on this. Maybe it will help you

 

http://sixstringobsession.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-learn-to-play-by-ear-great.html

[JonR]

I agree with all the above.
Take Jed's "Stupid Song Game" - how about learning to play Happy Birthday, in any key, anywhere on the neck? Don't look it up! - you know how it goes. You know when you hit a wrong note. Just keep going until you hit the right ones.
It might help to sing it, but if your ear is bad it might not (your guitar is more reliably in tune, and your ear knows the tune well enough).
But try using your voice anyway. As a different exercise, try humming a note and then finding it on guitar - and vice versa.
Play a note on guitar and try singing the next note in the chord or scale.
You may be hopeless at this to begin with, but it's important work. And you can only improve.

[Jed]

 

- how about learning to play Happy Birthday, in any key, anywhere on the neck? Don't look it up ! - you know how it goes. You know when you hit a wrong note. Just keep going until you hit the right ones.

 

 

Later for extra style points, learn how to play it in the same key in different positions and different octaves (which means different fingerings). See how many different ways you can find to finger the same song. There are at least ten different ways to play most songs, exploring each variation will teach you something new about the song, your skills and weaknesses and the guitar and music in general.

 

cheers,

[1001gear]

How's your hearing? Had it tested lately?

[symphonyofdream]

 

How's your hearing? Had it tested lately?

 

 

my hearing is fine, just not good as a musician

 

And to the rest that responded thanks, i'm going to get transcribe and start working on playing by ear again

[symphonyofdream]

 

Hey, First off stop using tabs - just do it. Pretend they dont exist for a while. Actually I did a blog entry on this. Maybe it will help you http://sixstringobsession.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-learn-to-play-by-ear-great.html

 

 

 

Nice article, i liked it alot. One issue i have is i struggle to sing a melody if it's out of my range and i try to sing it an octave lower then played.

[Jed]

One issue i have is i struggle to sing a melody if it's out of my range and i try to sing it an octave lower then played.

 

Welcome to the club. That's challenging for nearly everyone. You just have to soldier through it. After a while you learn to adapt.

[1001gear]

my hearing is fine, just not good as a musician

 

 

I can see where you may lack some "hearing chops" from neglect but JIC you haven't, have it tested anyway. Guitars are very treacherous tools when it comes to ears.

[polishpaul]

You might find these videos interesting:

 

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rob+bourassa+play+by+ear&aq=f

 

 

A really nice guy....Rob Bourasso. There are about 18 parts to this "play by ear" introduction lesson. Worth a look. You would get well into Mary Had a Little Lamb, London Bridge and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!

 

He has lots of other lessons around YouTube.

[JonR]

Nice article, i liked it alot. One issue i have is i struggle to sing a melody if it's out of my range and i try to sing it an octave lower then played.

Like Jed says, join the club.

There's also the option of changing the key of course. (Quite often a melody that's too high at the top end will be too low at the bottom end when lowered by an octave.)

There's no reason why any of us should be able to sing every song in its original key. Everyone's voice has a natural range, and rock male vocals are commonly higher than the average male range.

[ny127]

I think the process of finding your own voice and sound on the guitar is a mixed-up bag for everyone. There is no a+b=c method that you can apply to it, otherwise that would just be too mechanical. Avoid any approach that's mechanical. I think the best rule of thumb is to learn what you are really excited about and don't feel like you SHOULD do anything. SHOULD is the opposite of creative expression and totally confuses the whole process. The guitar is just a tool for expressing something. Dudes like Albert King took 5 notes and created a distinctive musical voice by just doing their own thing. Hendrix and Buddy Guy are other examples of players that just mixed up the sounds they liked into their own unique nasty brew. The key is to find out how to get the guitar to express the feeling you want to put out there. I doubt your ear is bad at all.

[mcmurray]

In this thread, people have told you a lot about what you need to do but not a lot about how to do it.

 

See here;

 

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?2671124-A-tip-for-those-trying-to-play-by-ear...&highlight=

 

, here;

 

http://www.jsguitarforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56336

 

and here;

 

http://www.amazon.com/Ear-Training-One-Note-Complete/dp/1594899363/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1292410837&sr=8-3