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Trying to develop my ear to learn songs by ear...


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Posted

Please need help and advice.

I have NO IDEA on how to do this.

What are some basic tips you guys can offer, BESIDES slowing down the song, I'm already doing that.

 

I'm trying to transcribe alot of classic rock solos/licks, metal riffs/solos with harmonizations.

 

How should I go about doing this?

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Posted

I stick to this.


I have zero ear skills, what is a good way to start with it ?

 

I was thinking of Ludovico and Beethoven's 9th. :facepalm: That would end all my ear training needs :facepalm: with lots of the old in-out in-out passionate music ;)

 

yea i just watched the movie this week :facepalm:

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Posted

 


How should I go about doing this?


 

 

Work on transcribing basic stuff one note at a time at first. Eventually, you'll be able to hear several notes in a series.

 

Melodies are generally easier to hear than chords. Unless they are chords you're very familiar with.

 

Have patience. Do it a lot. Like any skill, you'll get better at it as well as faster with time.

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Posted

 

Jasco - what excercises do you recommend for working on chord recognition? I agree that transcribing chords is much harder than melodies.

 

 

Some things to work on:

 

- Try to learn to identify chords by number by ear. Then you can listen to a group of chords and hear them as a "I IV V" or a "ii V I" or whatever.

 

- Learn to identify chord qualities - major, minor, dominant, diminished, augmented. If you can hear the low note and high note of a chord, along with the chord quality, you're 90% of the way there.

 

- Play random "two note chords" and then sing both notes from memory low to high. Then do the same thing but sing high to low. Then do this with 3 note chords. Then 4 note chords.

 

 

 

 

Often times chord voicings played on guitar are easier to figure out than chord voicings from a key player or horn section because many guitarists tend to stick with a limited number of standardized voicings.

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Posted

mcmurray - Okay I understand the do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do pattern and the how it can be moved around to different parts of the Major scale to form the different modes.

 

I don't understand how I'm supposed to use this to transcribe...

Are you just saying that I should just sing/say those solfa syllables when i play guitar and after time magically Ill recognize them in music i'm listening to?

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Posted

 

Jasco how basic you recomend us to start??


mary had a little lamb basic?? the man who sold the world basic??


thanks

 

 

I can't really answer that because everyone has a different skill level and I don't know what yours is.

 

For some people, it might be so basic as to where they just play one note on their instrument and practice singing it.

 

For a lot of beginning level students, what I'll do is record some short TV or movie theme melody that they are familiar with during the lesson. Then they take the CD home and try to figure out as much as they can by next lesson. It will be an unaccompanied melody, so no chords or other instruments to get in the way. I'll record it at slow, medium, and normal speeds for them. And I'll usually give them a clue like "this whole melody is played on the high 3 strings between the open and 3rd frets".

 

I also let them know that I'm not judging them or grading them on how much they do or how accurate they are, so they don't feel pressured. The object is just to spend some time trying it.

 

As a general recommendation, try to pick something that is challenging, but not difficult to the point of frustration.

 

Hope that helps.

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Posted

 

I don't understand how I'm supposed to use this to transcribe...

Are you just saying that I should just sing/say those solfa syllables when i play guitar and after time magically Ill recognize them in music i'm listening to?

 

 

Yes, that's basically the idea. There are only 7 notes in one key, singing the syllables will get you to hear the function of each note (i.e. the sound of each degree of the scale). Sing scales, arpeggios, basic melodies etc. Focus on the major scale and the natural minor scale first. Yamaha does this with the children's piano course, and it works. I've seen 4 year old kids play melodies by ear once familiar with solfege. I'd recommend supplementing this with a decent book on ear training/sight singing.

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Posted

 

Yes, that's basically the idea. There are only 7 notes in one key, singing the syllables will get you to hear the function of each note (i.e. the sound of each degree of the scale). Sing scales, arpeggios, basic melodies etc. Focus on the major scale and the natural minor scale first. Yamaha does this with the children's piano course, and it works. I've seen 4 year old kids play melodies by ear once familiar with solfege. I'd recommend supplementing this with a decent book on ear training/sight singing.

 

 

What are some decent books, and elaborate on the Yamaha children's piano course?

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Posted

Learn as many songs as you can (by ear).

 

Start with some easy ones then challenge yourself.

 

Also, practice, practice, practice.

 

After that practice some more.

 

Stay away from the tab sites.

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Posted

 

What are some decent books, and elaborate on the Yamaha children's piano course?

 

 

I'd recommend this one: http://www.amazon.com/Fanatics-Guide-Training-Sight-Singing/dp/189094419X/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250470594&sr=8-8

 

As for the Yamaha course, it involves teaching the kids to link their ear to the keyboard using solfege. Yamaha has made lots of simple tunes that focus on singing one or two syllables per song. The idea is to do the exact same thing, but link your ear to the fretboard instead of the keyboard.

 

Here's all 12 scale positions in solfege which may help you;

 

 

 

I'll add the 3 note per string scales in there when I get home. Then you'll have all bases covered. Just work on one position to start with, an easy one like the 2nd position I've listed.

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Posted

remember the one note at a time.

 

Think of the way we remember what people say to us. Can you repeat what has been said to you ?

 

can you repeat a musical phrase that you have heard ?

 

If not why not ?

 

It is an act of concentration, for speech we learn it in childhood.

Some people learn it for music as well.

 

So start small

 

Good luck !

  • Members
Posted

 

Please need help and advice.

I have NO IDEA on how to do this.

What are some basic tips you guys can offer, BESIDES slowing down the song, I'm already doing that.


I'm trying to transcribe alot of classic rock solos/licks, metal riffs/solos with harmonizations.


How should I go about doing this?

Just do it!

 

When I started out, there were no slow-down software, just my cassette player. Spend hours daily, and it will become easier with time. I eventually stopped writing down tabs, and started to memorize, same with lyrics and melodys. It

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Members
Posted

 

Work on transcribing
basic
stuff
one note at a time
at first. Eventually, you'll be able to hear several notes in a series.


Melodies are generally easier to hear than chords. Unless they are chords you're very familiar with.


Have patience. Do it a lot. Like any skill, you'll get better at it as well as faster with time.

 

 

for me, i find it fairly easy to find the chords and key of most songs in popular music.....i am just now starting to try and "hear" or transcribe melody or single note lines.....

 

Generally I can find the key and then figure out if the pentatonic works at that fret or 3 frets down from it and from there i can find things that sound good against it....but i've never been real good at picking out the note for note lines.

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Posted

The whole solfege thing looks like something that could just be a wonderful tool, or it could be making it all much more complicated than it needs to be...

 

for me, reading about it and never having tried to use it, it does look like "wow, why would I bother with all this, transcribing by ear is not that hard?"

 

how basic you recomend us to start??


mary had a little lamb basic?? the man who sold the world basic??

 

I have a feeling that basic doesn't have to mean kindegarten tune, but rather avoid some things that make it hard.

 

"Basic" to transcribe lines have

 

- very clear individual notes

- no bending, or harmonies, or sluring

 

Nowadays, with slow downers available, speed itself is not a problem. Blurry hard to hear notes are a problem.

 

So for example, Plug In Baby is a wonderful thing to transcribe... it is quite fast, but if you slow it down you can hear every single note crystal clear what note it is. Just do them one at a time and there you are: you have all the notes.

 

(the next challenge with PIB is figuring out what fingering to use, but that's a different topic ;) )

 

GaJ

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