Ear practice help

[MadsBalleby]

Hi Guys.

i had been playing Bass for almost two years now.

But i need to improve my hearing skills,

Does anyone know a easy song to start out, and does anyone know any listing techniques.

Hope you understand what i am trying to say.

Mads

[nuwavedc]

I learned alot when I first started by playing to music. Try any song you really like even if it is corny. I started with "Money for Nothing" when I was about 12 Y/O. I say, pick something you really like that sticks with you. It doesnt have to be that simple, but I think that likeing it is #1. Just MHO.

[DudeistMonk]

Yeah pick something with a prominent bassline that is repetitive and that you can humm/sing (think The Meters, Cake, RATM).

Listen to it, sing it, then try to play it.

Learn it a few bars at a time (it helps if you can loop it and slow it down with some software).

There are like 1,000 threads on this so do a search and you'll find a lot of tips and tricks.

[Stumbo]

Here are some links to check out:
http://www.good-ear.com/
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...lineScreen.swf Test your ear
http://www.miles.be/ Free downloadable ear trainer (basic/advanced) Solfege.
http://www.teoria.com/ Trainers/tutorials. Music theory, ear training, read music, chords, intervals, etc.

All the links have tools to help improve your ear. IMO, the miles.be is cool for improving your ear, interval recognition and harmony. It's an ongoing thing so your progress depends on consistent use over time. I suggest at least 1/2 hour of ear training daily. It's been a great help to me.

Good luck.

[Rudreax]

What I did when I started out (and still do now) is simply watch TV with my bass in hand. Whenever ANY kind of bass line comes up during a show or commercial or whatever, I listen to it and try to play it. Doing this forces me to focus on the music more than usual, since I know I only have a limited time to learn the song before the commercial ends or TV show changes scenes. It also gets me exposed to different types of music, as well as things I know I would probably never listen to or learn about otherwise.

One of my favorite things to do is wait until nighttime and then listen to the bands that play on all the nighttime talk shows and comedy shows (Jay Leno, SNL, etc.). I try to play along with the bands, and learn their bass lines.

If there's a particular song or composition that I want to learn (such as if I'm transcribing a walking bass line from a jazz tune), I listen to that particular song for days and days on end. I even listen to it constantly when I sleep. I do this until the song is stuck in my head, and I can play the song's entire bass line in my head with no trouble. From there, I translate that memory into singing; that is, I sing the bassline before actually playing it. Then, I translate the singing to the bass.