IYO: how hard is...

[sudbury]

on the advice of the board i am kicking my tab habit and trying to learn the bassline to uncle john's band (grateful dead-workingman's dead) by ear. and i was wondering, how hard of a song would y'all rate this? being from a punk/rap background i struggled a bit by i am getting it pretty slick now. how do i rate to the rest of the board?

[rikshaw]

Originally posted by sudbury on the advice of the board i am kicking my tab habit and trying to learn the bassline to uncle john's band (grateful dead-workingman's dead) by ear. and i was wondering, how hard of a song would y'all rate this? being from a punk/rap background i struggled a bit by i am getting it pretty slick now. how do i rate to the rest of the board?

 

that one isn't too bad to learn.

i had to learn that song and 10 or 12 others for a gig once with one or two days notice.

the gig was full of dead heads. my guitard (also a dead head) told me that the best thing about playing a dead song is that you can play whatever you want and noone will care.

 

[PaulyWally]

I think that's an unfair assessment of your abilities.

 

Unless you are born with phenomenal ears, it's tough for just about anyone to learn even the simplest songs by ear (if you have never played by ear before).

 

It's just one of those things that you get a LOT better at with practice.

 

Something that helps is learning to sing the bassline first. Sing it a few times, then try to play it. Singing it helps engrain the rythmn and notes into your head without worrying about what your fingers are doing at the same time.

[Jazz Ad]

Yeah the more you do it, the easier it gets.

A bit of theory like basic understanding of scales, chords and keys helps tremendously too.

Many rock songs share the same structures and progressions.

[bonscottvocals]

As Jazz Ad said, you'll find a lot of patterns. Knowing your intervals and theories, regardless of the first chord, you should start to see repeated patterns after a while. The only way to get good at playing by ear is to play by ear. You might get a wrong note here and there, but as time goes on, you'll get more adept.

 

Great move, and keep on rockin!