Can someone tell me a systematic, step by step, way of figureing out songs by ear, that is finding the notes on the fretboard while I listen to a song? And any tools that I might need like the players that slow songs down.

And also a good way for someone to train pitch recognition?


I can't just pick notes out from a song by ear as it plays and say to myself that's a B, A, or G. But, I can find all the notes on my fretboard and usually tell when I'm hitting a wrong note after I've learned a part of a song from tab.

I'm so sick of tab. I want to get to the level that if someone is jamming I can know what notes I'm hearing so that I can just jump in, as opposed to having to be told what every progression is.

Take a basic theory class at your local community college. You can probably audit it (take it for no grade). That will teach you some basic theory and you'll learn to recognize basic chord changes (which make up 90% of today's pop music). Most bass lines are built using chord tones, so once you learn to hear a 1-4-5, 1-2-6-5, chord progression and figure out that a song is in G, you'll have little trouble hearing and learning songs and basslines by ear.

And keep hitting the rewind button...

my only honest opinion is that you pick lots of simple favorite songs and practice over and over. try different bands and grenres, this way you arent stuck with similar key centers. i think you should have a flexible (not just literally, in a figurative sense too) ear. i consider it exercise just like working a muscle. work the same muscle in different ways so it doesnt conform to one movement, or in your case one style/mode.

practice...practice...patience

Take a basic theory class at your local community college. You can probably audit it (take it for no grade). That will teach you some basic theory and you'll learn to recognize basic chord changes (which make up 90% of today's pop music). Most bass lines are built using chord tones, so once you learn to hear a 1-4-5, 1-2-6-5, chord progression and figure out that a song is in G, you'll have little trouble hearing and learning songs and basslines by ear.

theory is good too, especially since when you really analyze it all, music is all very similar. like those 1-4-5, etc. progressions. you may also want to find a ear trainning/sight singing (ETSS) course.

I start out with headphones on and listen to the song a couple times with out touching my bass but just listening and mentally making notes and then I pick up the bass and run through it that way and it seems to work okay for me.

It's building process. First listen for the chord changes, and sing the roots of the chords. Get the song in your head or the part of a song you are working on. Then use your bass and find the key song is in. Then then find the roots of the chords, your previous singing will help. Then the quality of the chords, have to know a little theory or play a chordal instrument. After then listn to the bassline and learn to sing it. Once you can sing the bassline you can start trying to pick off notes. Singing the song and process of transcribing will get your ear to where you want it.

This is another area that you just have to do it to get better. Try to transcribe something everyday, even if only a couple bars or a riff.

There are a number of websites that have ear trainer to practice with.

Here's a good one to start with:

Good-Ear.com (http://www.good-ear.com/servlet/EarTrainer)

More advanced:

I Was Doing All Right (http://www.iwasdoingallright.com/)

Can someone tell me a systematic, step by step, way of figureing out songs by ear, that is finding the notes on the fretboard while I listen to a song?

It is pretty simple, but takes a lot of practice (years) to get very good at it. Here's what you should do.

1. LISTEN to a short section of the tune you want to learn. The shorter the better. Maybe just on bar.

2. SING the bass line you just listened to. You should try to sing it note for note and with the correct pitch.

3. PLAY what you are singing. Break apart what you are singing into individal notes. Search the fingerboard for the note you are singing.

This seams like a lot of work, but it is the only way you'll ever get good. After a while you won't need to sing anymore. You'll just be able to hear something and play it. Of course this is harder to do with more longer and more complex pieces, but it works.

Good luck

I've been playing about 7 years now, here's what I do.

1. Try to "hear" the chord changes. Get the basic root note movement that is happening. Don't start trying to learn complicated riffs, just the basic tempo and changes.

2. I don't sing, never have. No reason to imo, just use the notes on your bass.

3. Learn basic minor and major appegios / pentatonic scales. A lot of stuff is played just using these basic shapes.

4. Keep trying over and over. You'll get something that sounds good, it doesn't have to be exact. Of couse, if you want exact basslines you'll have to do the extra work to figure it out.

5. Learn to mentally seperate the part you want to learn from the rest of the music that's going on. If you want to cop the bass part, you'll need to learn to focus your ear on that part without getting confused by sounds that the guitar or other melody part is playing over the top. This takes focus and a good ear. Unless you're crazy good and play a bassline with your left hand and a melody line with your right hand, you'll have to pick one or the other. Most times, you'll want to learn the bass part.

I start out with headphones on and listen to the song a couple times with out touching my bass but just listening and mentally making notes and then I pick up the bass and run through it that way and it seems to work okay for me.
Nice... this is the same method I use for new material. I don't mess with tabs at all, so its all "by ear". The mental imaging/note taking works quite well for me as I'm sure its a 'tried and true' method of reverse engineering a tune you have to learn.

+1 for the last two posts. I use this tool extensively to learn new songs (can slow down mp3s, change pitch etc.). Just plug in your bass cord into a 1/4" to 1/8" converter, plug it into the computer, turn on the software, put on the headphones, and play along.

http://renegademinds.com/Default.aspx?tabid=46

So far, there's been lots of great advice to helping you train your ear. There simply is no more important part to being a musician than training your ear.

The preliminary steps:

1. As mentioned previously, knowledge of musical theory really does help here. I don't know your knowledge or skill level, so pardon me for certain assumptions. You'll want to know the basic scales, which I would include as major, minor, pentatonic (blues), and maybe let's say mixolydian. Have an idea about how chords are constructed, and know your major, minor, and 7th chords. Practice these, as when you do, you'll be training your ear to hear certain sounds.

2. Chord progressions are often systematic and have some semblance of standardization or sense to them. People play certain things over and over because they make sense and the sound good. Actually looking at chord charts for popular songs, (find a songbook at GC), could be helpful. Certainly not every song will follow rules, and simply looking at chord charts isn't going to teach you how to play a song, but you'll begin to see certain patterns of resolution.

3. The Blues. What's great about the blues is that it's based off of very simple chord progressions, almost always based out of the I-IV-V mold, or some variation thereof. I strongly suggest and encourage, and when I teach it is always the device I use, to start with the blues. Somebody else here mentioned it and I strongly suggest it.

So, let's say you've chosen a blues tune to listen to and learn, and you have some good ideas about how chord progressions in the blues work, (generally nothing more complex than I-IV-V anyway), and you have practiced chords and scales semi-regularly and you are ready to learn a tune.

Here's a systematic approach:

1. First, choose a song where the bass is audible in the recording. You certainly don't want to frustrate yourself with a song that has a bad mix or where the guitar drowns out the bass.

2. Listen to the song 3 full times, from start to finish, without touching the bass. This will help you identify repeated patterns and the like. Just listen. Listen attentively and with focus, and don't think about where the note might be, just listen to the line that is being played. Can you hear when the chord/root changes? Can you hear a chorus pattern, a verse pattern, the bridge? Can you hear and identify these differences in the song? If you can't, keep listening.

3. Make an outline of the song. It can be something as simple on a piece of paper as identifying that there are three basic parts to the song, which would probably be verse, chorus, bridge, and you could call them A, B, and C, and just right something down that looked like: A A B A A B C B B. Or, it could be something as complex as writing how many bars are in each section, and noting the intro, verses, chorus, bridge, outro, with details about the number of bars in each, and any changes to the bass pattern. Of course, if you're using a blues tune, they don't have verse, chorus, etc. generally. Generally, they're a repeating 12-bar pattern. If that's the case, right out on a sheet of paper 12 bars, then makes notes or checks or some indication of possible shifts in the chord or root tones.

So, thus far you've developed a visual component, to complement what your ear is hearing. This will help ground you, make the song seem less obscure and more approachable. If something intimidating is deconstructed, it is more easily understood, and loses much of its intimidation.

4. Now you've listened to the song and have an idea of the song's structure. Let's say you've still got the blues tune, listen for the beginning of the 12-bar pattern, (so ignoring the intro for the time being). All you're going to do now is try and hit that first note. I'm betting money that the first bass note of the first bar of the 12-bar pattern will be the root of the first chord, (and, incidentally, the key as well). You know, sometimes it's just a matter of playing a note to try it out, see if it's right. If it's not, then rewind and try another. There are only 12 notes. Yeah, it seems wacky to just hunt and peck, but that's part of the learning process. You see, as you do this arduous process, you dont' realize it, but you're building the tools and skills that will make it easier. If you keep training your ear and learning tunes, you will be able to one day just pick up the bass, listen attentively, and begin deconstructing and learning the tune without charting or nearly as much hunting and pecking. Your ear will learn when a new chord is coming up, and with enough training, you'll be able to anticipate the next chord. This goes back to the idea that songs use certain patterns or progressions repeatedly. Anyway, you're hunting and pecking and you find the root note that they're playing. Congratulations, most of the work is done. You've done enough preparation to this point, listening and deconstructing, that the rest will be easier, I promise.

5. Listen for the next chord change. You don't have to figure out what the bassist is playing for all the notes during the first several bars. Listen to the song to hear when that root changes to a different root. Do the same thing and learn that.

6. Keep playing through the song to the point that you are hearing each chord change, (in a blues song it won't be that difficult, maybe even just 3 chords and changes total), and can play the root for each chord change. Play along. You've pretty much learned the song.

7. Fill in the details. Sure, this will take some time, but if you know your chord tones, start there. Okay, so let's say you've got a blues tune, 12 bars, and you've learned that the roots for each bar are C, C, C, C, F, F, C, C, G, F, C, C. So, you're playing along to the first bar, knowing that the first note is C. Remember, at this point, perhaps without realizing, with the first 3 non-bass-touching listens you've given to the song, plus all the listening it took to hear the chord changes, you've listened to this song about 20 times. So, for the first bar, where you know it starts on C, try other chord tones for C major or C7, like E, G, B or Bb. If that doesn't work, try C minor notes. But start with chord tones. If that doesn't work, then try scale tones. If that doesn't work, you're left with a handful of chromatic tones, (which are probably just used as passing tones anyway).


You're deconstructing the song and listening attentively, using a combination of chord/scale theory and common chord progressions to make educated guesses as to what somebody was playing. (Also remember, especially with the blues, that improvisation is quite often not only okay, but encouraged). Trust me, this process gets easier and easier the more you go.

My method is to first figure out the chord progression(s). Then I get the feel of the bassline by playing along with the recording by playing just the root notes of the chords. This gets me locked into the timing. Then I listen for the accents, fills, etc. and add 'em in. Like as been said, at least a little music theory goes a long way. Knowing scales and progression structures will do a lot towards predicting what comes next.

My method is to first figure out the chord progression(s). Then I get the feel of the bassline by playing along with the recording by playing just the root notes of the chords. This gets me locked into the timing. Then I listen for the accents, fills, etc. and add 'em in. Like as been said, at least a little music theory goes a long way. Knowing scales and progression structures will do a lot towards predicting what comes next.


Yes! Starting simple will make it much easier. And theory will help alot too. If you know what key the song is in, it will help tremendously in figuring out those 16th note runs!

Also, start teaching yourself to match pitch; you can do it a few different ways, or a combination of them, whatever works for you best. Whenever you listen to a cd, radio, music on tv, whatever, just start humming it. Learn to match the pitch with your voice, and before long you'll be able to match any pitch before you even make the sound, you'll just be able to feel it. Also, take your bass, and match every note from one tonic to the next, i.e.- start on a note of your choice, and match every note in between it and it's octave. Having your voice in tune will help with your instrument a great deal.

One especially helpfull tool that works with any of the above methods is audiation; thinking about the pitch and knowing how it's going to sound before it occurs. before you're going to hit that A, or whatever, try to imagine how it's going to sound, hum it, and then hit the note on your instrument for confirmation. This will help alot!

So heed all the advice the other posters gave, it's all good; learn your theory, train your ear, and figure out as many songs as you can, the best way to learn anything is to practice ALOT!

Best tool I've ever bought. Period.
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Tascam-CDBT1mkII-Portable-CD-Bass-Trainer?sku=241256

http://www.tascam.com/Products/cdbt1mkii.html

so simple...

jam with the radio. listen to what you are playing and hear how it fits in with what you are hearing on the radio. jam to stations you like and stations you don't like.

About a week ago i was just sitting by my computer with the bass im my lap and listening to some swedish Reggae/Rock N'Roll mix type of music made by the artist Peps Persson.
Then for some reason i just knew most of the bassline to the song Rotrock. (swedish name)
I had never learned a song by ear. It was kinda awsome..

so simple...

jam with the radio. listen to what you are playing and hear how it fits in with what you are hearing on the radio. jam to stations you like and stations you don't like.

+100

That is a great training tool even if you only pickoff the chord progression. Because you only have one shot at it over time you get real fast at it. Also it is like a lot of gigs. You go in and bunch of tunes you aren't familair with. They understand the first time through the form it will be a rough, but second time thru they expect you to be pretty comfortable with the tune.

Get a keyboard, and learn how to play at the very least the chord shapes, this will help along with all of the other stuff mentioned.

Thanks for all the advice, everyone.

Find the root notes and build.

Transcribe! is a great piece of software.
http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html

It analyzes the waveforms of wavs or mp3s and shows you the notes graphically on a keyboard. It helps sooo much for doing transcriptions--- which can be really frustrating for a beginner.

Work with Transcribe! on your favorite songs and you'll eventually start recognizing muscial patterns that will help you a lot.

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20754 :bassist: