Tone Deaf - Playing by ear.

[bellis1]

Okay, so the title was a joke. Sort of. I believe i'm a bit tone deaf. I've been playing bass for 6+ years now, and 1) I can't hum a tune close to the right key.

But recently, I've been trying to learn songs, for a cover band I play with, by ear. Any advice that would help me play by ear better?

My uncle, who's a musician, said to get on a piano, hit every key (knowing what note is what) and sing each note. Any other suggestions?

[puddin tame]

just practice working stuff out by ear

[bellis1]

Easier said than done!

[VanillaThundah]

Play along with the mp3s on your computer...noodle around until it sounds right, and if you still can't nail it, look up the tabs to give yourself an idea of the neighborhood that it's in. Done it for a few years now and it's helped me a lot in a band setting...don't have to fumble around as much to see where the guitarists are on the fretboard. Now if I could do the same for singing...lol

[puddin tame]

Originally Posted by bellis1

Easier said than done!

I don't see what's hard about it, it just takes a little time. eventually it gets really easy

[camiloochoa]

if you enjoy music, and enjoy playing an instrument, then you're definitely not tone deaf.

on the other hand, singing on a piano is really good, sing scales, arpegios, melodies, etc; try to do it EVERYDAY, being really conscious of what you're doing (a practice of 10 to 15 minutes is enough otherwise), and if you fell that you're not really focused stop and do continue later.

[David1234]

Start with a musical friend and play the game "higher and lower" : get them to play 2 notes on an instrument and you have to say which is higher and lower. Keep going til you're 99% accurate.

If you can't do this, you quite probably won't be able to graduate to controlling your voice finely enough to sing scales.

If you *can* do this, then you should also start 'singing' the notes you just in your head then walking up to the instrument (piano, guitar whatever) and finding the 2 notes your friend played. These are the rudiments for ear training. Then do all the normal things: learn to sing major scales in any starting key, which leads to being able to hear intervals etc

[thomashawk]

A Tascam Bass Trainer or similar product will be a tremendous help. You probably need to relax as well. It improves with practice and patience. However, if you are in fact tone deaf, then you will need to find some stylistic compensation to gain any form of wide success - maybe you're a drummer.

[bwv1013]

i've played for about 17 years, and i too was awful and transcription for a long time. it just wasn't part of my practice routine.

then i started teaching music and a good chunk of my job was to transcribe songs for students. it was a chore at first, but definitely gets easier with time. like any other technique, consistent practice was the key.

[Clark Dark]

learn your circle of fifths and circle of fourths, then your major /minor patterns.

[MonetBass]

+1 to the piano suggestion. Learning to hear different intervals would go a long way at helping you to learn songs by ear.

[bellis1]

Thanks guys. I'll start working on those suggestions.

[dvh]

Originally Posted by Clark Dark

learn your circle of fifths and circle of fourths, then your major /minor patterns.

+ 1, learn some theory and you won't have to learn by ear alone

[mjl422]

One of the things that helped me was sitting at the piano, playing 3 note chords and trying to sing the middle note. Then try to sing all the notes while holding the chord. If you're not having any luck, play the notes seprately (so you can hear them clearly) and sing each note. Then play the chord again and sing each note in the chord.

I'm still working on it but, this helped me a great deal.

I think singing is the key to developing your ear.

[bobba66]

There are some good interval trainers online. Goodear.com and others. Life is long, try to get a little better every day.

[darkstorm]

Play every fret on every string and listen. Get one of them note charts for fretboards. Play every E note on the fretboard and listen to them. Repeat for every other note. Learn the sound of the notes on your instrument. If you want to use a keyboard, use a organ or other sustained note synth sound. Piano isnt good choice imo as they dont allow for held notes like organs and synths can play. Also get one of them plastic recorder flute things they use (or use to use in all early grade school classes). Again listening to every note as you play them.

[ExurKun]

I'm in the same boat as you OP, semi tone deaf haha
What I try to do, sometimes succesfully, is hum out the resolution in my head, find out what note it ended on after much effort, determine major or minor, and then it narrows down the note choice by about half.