I need help on ear training....

suitlandkid2005 · #1 10-21-2008, 01:57 PM

Does anyone have any really good tips on ear training? I look a lot of tab hear and there, and I am trying to teach myself theory; but I can't pick out a bass note in a song worth a damn. It is like I know how the bass goes in the song but it is hard for me to duplicate it on the bass. I would really appreciate any tips. I don't want to keep cheating with tab.

Muusers · #2 10-21-2008, 02:04 PM

http://solfege.org/

just download that software, practice like 15 mins each day and with 2 or 3 weeks you'll notice big difference. does that sound like homeshopping or what? :P

mimaz · #3 10-21-2008, 02:08 PM

www.good-ear.com

This site has some good exercises that you can work with just about anywhere you have 'net access.

kraigo · #4 10-21-2008, 02:40 PM

Turn the radio on to your favorite station and try to play along for a half an hour or so everyday. Through the commercials, everything. The more you do it the better you get.

It's funny: I'm not an incredible bass player or anything. I might not be able to tell you what that interval is but when I'm playing along and my fingers will land in the right place (then I can tell you after the fact what the intervals are). Just do it.

Most songs are in E, G, A, C or D. Those are guitar keys. Find the first note and the others fall into place with a little trial and error. The radio is nice because it throws you a mystery song every time. It's also nice to pick songs you like and learn them note for note.

It might actually be more valuable to have a quick ear than it is to know a lot of songs, but both are pretty valuable commodities. The good news is that you probably already have everything you need to develop your ear. Just dedicate the time to it.

KO

standupright · #5 10-21-2008, 02:44 PM

in for later

DocBop · #6 10-21-2008, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kraigo

Turn the radio on to your favorite station and try to play along for a half an hour or so everyday. Through the commercials, everything. The more you do it the better you get.

It's funny: I'm not an incredible bass player or anything. I might not be able to tell you what that interval is but when I'm playing along and my fingers will land in the right place (then I can tell you after the fact what the intervals are). Just do it.

Most songs are in E, G, A, C or D. Those are guitar keys. Find the first note and the others fall into place with a little trial and error. The radio is nice because it throws you a mystery song every time. It's also nice to pick songs you like and learn them note for note.

It might actually be more valuable to have a quick ear than it is to know a lot of songs, but both are pretty valuable commodities. The good news is that you probably already have everything you need to develop your ear. Just dedicate the time to it.

KO

+100

Jim Carr · #7 10-21-2008, 05:38 PM

I advise singing.

suitlandkid2005 · #8 10-21-2008, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Carr

I advise singing.

I like to sing the songs I listen to; but I don't know if I can sing well. How does singing help?

BassChuck · #9 10-22-2008, 05:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suitlandkid2005

I like to sing the songs I listen to; but I don't know if I can sing well. How does singing help?

You don't have to have a great voice, just sing on pitch the part that you are interested in. So, if you're trying to learn the bass part, sing that.

suitlandkid2005 · #10 10-22-2008, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BassChuck

You don't have to have a great voice, just sing on pitch the part that you are interested in. So, if you're trying to learn the bass part, sing that.

I'll try that. Thanks and thanks for the other responses guys...

bassbully · #11 10-22-2008, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kraigo

Turn the radio on to your favorite station and try to play along for a half an hour or so everyday. Through the commercials, everything. The more you do it the better you get.

It's funny: I'm not an incredible bass player or anything. I might not be able to tell you what that interval is but when I'm playing along and my fingers will land in the right place (then I can tell you after the fact what the intervals are). Just do it.

Most songs are in E, G, A, C or D. Those are guitar keys. Find the first note and the others fall into place with a little trial and error. The radio is nice because it throws you a mystery song every time. It's also nice to pick songs you like and learn them note for note.

It might actually be more valuable to have a quick ear than it is to know a lot of songs, but both are pretty valuable commodities. The good news is that you probably already have everything you need to develop your ear. Just dedicate the time to it.

KO

+1 I did this when i first got into bass playing. Nice thing about bass is you can cover every style of music on the radio when you spin the dial. A hard rock tune on a station no problem, country..yep ,jazz ...uh huh...on and on down the dial. You can learn alot of diffrent song structures and styles training your ear all the while.

For learning band songs thou i strongly suggest you go out and get a tascam bass trainer. This box really gets your ear training advanced quickly IMO.

Jim Carr · #12 10-23-2008, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassbully

...I strongly suggest you go out and get a tascam bass trainer. This box really gets your ear training advanced quickly IMO.

Tell us how you use it. Sounds interesting...

Jim Carr · #13 10-23-2008, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kraigo

Turn the radio on to your favorite station and try to play along for a half an hour or so everyday. Through the commercials, everything. The more you do it the better you get...
...Most songs are in E, G, A, C or D. Those are guitar keys. Find the first note and the others fall into place with a little trial and error. The radio is nice because it throws you a mystery song every time. It's also nice to pick songs you like and learn them note for note.

It might actually be more valuable to have a quick ear than it is to know a lot of songs, but both are pretty valuable commodities. The good news is that you probably already have everything you need to develop your ear. Just dedicate the time to it...

Good advice, though I have a couple of things to add.

But first, let's hear it for practicin' in the Kitchen using Mom's AM radio! I did a lot of that and remember it fondly.

I certainly did this for hours as a teen, and it was very good for my ears as well and expanded my idea of what goes into a bass part, especially for hit songs that got played several times in the course of 3-4 hours.

And that is one of the problem's, too. One can't often learn the whole bass line in one hearing, unless you have been at it for a while. Instead what you usually end up doing is a lot of fishing for chord roots, which, BTW, is a good thing to do a lot of, but is not the end of ear training, though it is a decent beginning, IMHO.

BTW, other common keys are F, Bb, and Eb major and their relative minors. This is because those are horn friendly keys.

bassbully · #14 10-23-2008, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Carr

Tell us how you use it. Sounds interesting...

No diff then playing to the radio in a way except you are playing to MP3s or the older model (Cds) of music you enjoy or want to learn. You can transpose keys, loop hard parts for quick playback and even slow parts down. It made me able to hear bass parts i normally couldnt hear by radio etc by using the headphone and dialing in with the bass track. I then could drop it out and play along to the song, improve whatever. My ear developed way quicker since i could repeat the music and get muscle memory of chord progressions ,scales etc used in alot of songs used over and over with variations.

DudeistMonk · #15 10-23-2008, 10:59 PM

The Amazing Slowdowner does the same stuff as the bass trainer (minus the multi-effects) and is a computer program for 50 bucks

Someone also posted a thread here awhile back about a free dictation program for secretary's that did the same stuff free. Search that up ( I didn't try it cause I already had slowdowner)

If you have the money the bass trainer will make it easier to mix your bass into the song though.

short_steve277 · #16 10-23-2008, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Carr

BTW, other common keys are F, Bb, and Eb major and their relative minors. This is because those are horn friendly keys.

+1...

very true..played trumpet for 5 years

Martin Bormann · #17 10-24-2008, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suitlandkid2005

Does anyone have any really good tips on ear training? I look a lot of tab hear and there, and I am trying to teach myself theory; but I can't pick out a bass note in a song worth a damn. It is like I know how the bass goes in the song but it is hard for me to duplicate it on the bass. I would really appreciate any tips. I don't want to keep cheating with tab.

Get MacGamut. It's for both windows and mac, I think it's the best. Next sing scales over and over again. 16 Major scales per day with solfege and 16 Natural Minor 16 harmonic minor and 16 melodic minor ascending/natural minor descending scales. I know it sounds like a lot but through repetition, you'll develop your ear. Also get a pitch pipe to make sure you're singing the right pitches. And use proper solfege. Find a site with all the different syllables for the pitches.

That should keep your busy for a while. Also work on taking songs on CDs in to dictation. Just go through your cd/mp3 collection it doesn't matter which songs. although I'd recommend easy songs at first. You'll first want to write down the chords as you hear them in the progression. then write in the bassline and then the top voice. Then work your way in to the mids. The more you do it, the better you'll get.

BruisedOoze · #18 10-24-2008, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Carr

BTW, other common keys are F, Bb, and Eb major and their relative minors. This is because those are horn friendly keys.

I never really though about that. I remember wondering why all the stage band scores we were using were nearly (maybe all of them, can't remember!) always in these keys...

Well that was my FYI for the day, time to stop doing work

JTE · #19 10-24-2008, 08:47 AM

SING everthng you play. If you're practicing arpeggios, scales, bass lines, etc. SING them, and sing the note before you play it. That's been the single biggest help to my ear training ever. It directly involves your ear with what your fingers are doing.

Also, break stuff down to dirt simple elements. If you're trying to figure out a bass line, find one note. Then listen to the next note. It can only be one of three places. It's either the same note, or it's higher than the first note, or it's lower than the first note. Figure out that. Then try a note. If it's right, then move on. If it's wrong, the ask is the note you tried too high or too low of the target?

That'll take care of the pitch. On many things you'll find yourself hitting the right note, but it still sounds wrong- that's why you need to understand the rythym too. Again, singing the line will help a LOT here.

Repeat as needed. Being able to slow down the passage helps not only with giving you time to figure out the exact pitches, but allows you to get the rhythm accurately too.

Plus, you gotta understand that it's a learning curve. It takes time AND it takes consistency. Like sight-reading, if you don't use your ears regularly you skills atrophy.

jte