Improving your ear, where to start?

[stupid newbie]

I acquired a bass over a year ago, but every time I start practicing I can't keep it up for more than a couple of months, before I get discouraged and slack off, partially because I'm lazy, but significantly because of frustration when it comes to improvement in hearing/understanding the music, rather than just getting better at moving my fingers around the fretboard. Basically, the problem is, while I'm not actually tone-deaf, my ears are horrible, to the point that I have to completely rely on an electric tuner, as I just cannot relative tune, or tune to another source (say a piano or an (already identified) note off a record), as no matter how close it is, it always sounds completely off. Even when listening to people play scales and such I'm lucky if I can even tell 'that's higher' or 'that's lower' rather than just 'that's not the same note they just played.
It gets frustrating when I hear about transcribing (even poorly) to improve your ear when I'm lucky if I can even identify that a scales a scale, and not just a collection of random notes.
So, how does one improve their ears when the baseline (hooray for horrible puns) is so low to begin with?

[ibnzneksrul]

Do you have the same problem with hearing notes in a higher register, such as 6-string guitar?

[stupid newbie]

I find it slightly easier, but still run into the same problems.

[cmmcm]

Don't worry..I have the same problem...and I have been playing for 13 years...the last 2 have been espesically hard as I now play Acoustic Bass..the best thing, I have found, is buy a keyboard, and learn on that, and try matching your voice to each pitch...there is an old Jazz saying..."If you cant sing it, you can't play it"

[ibnzneksrul]

Originally Posted by cmmcm

Don't worry..I have the same problem...and I have been playing for 13 years...the last 2 have been espesically hard as I now play Acoustic Bass..the best thing, I have found, is buy a keyboard, and learn on that, and try matching your voice to each pitch...there is an old Jazz saying..."If you cant sing it, you can't play it"

That is good advice. As you get to 'know' the notes an octave or so above the bass register from playing the keyboard or 6-string guitar, then you will begin to 'feel' the notes down low as you play bass. It just takes time. The fact that you can hear when things are a little 'off' lower down means your ears are in the process of learning to pick out the notes. Keep at it, you'll get there.

[snappytom]

I used to be horrible at playing stuff by ear. If you continue to work at it and don't slack off, it will get better.
What has worked best for me is to select a tune I am familar with and just try to play along. Go for the roots first and don't go any further until you have that cold. Then try and figure out what else is going with the bass in the song. Is is a major or minor chord, is it inverted, etc. Play the song more, working thru what you can.

If I get stuck, finding a tab or chord chart can help, and it also can verify the assumptions already made.
Do not go for the tab or chart too soon, take the time to work your ear.

Having done this as an exercise 2-3 times a week for the past year with songs I will never play with the band I am currently in, I finally realized that my ear is getting pretty good.
Do this with songs from a variety of music; rock, pop, funk, whatever.

I do not read music (I can decipher and then play it), and realized long ago that for the bands and situations I jam in, being able to hear and play along is far more important. I still use a tuner, but now have a much greater awareness of when I need to re-tune.

[pocketmonster]

Piano/keyboards are absolutely the best thing in the world for teaching pitch because of the visual interface. My son started piano lessons in the most basic book you can buy for kids, and my wife started working through the books with him. Her innate ability to differentiate pitch is comparable to yours based on your comments. I was surprised that within 3-4 months her ability to sing on key improved enough that I noticed. You might consider starting with these primer books and go from there.

Also, after 4 months of lessons my son started figuring out how to play songs he knows from church or school or CDs without any help. See if you can start to play the melody lines of some simple songs you know on the piano as you get familiar with it. Listen to the song in the car for a whole week (as long as it takes), sing along, really get to know it inside out. Then bring it in to the piano.

[labgnat]

my ear is pretty much horrible. i've been trying to improve it using
www.musictheory.net

click trainers then go down to interval ear trainer.

i started spending time just familiarizing myself with the sound of the maj. 3rd then after getting a feel for that i added maj. 2nd and get good at differentiating between those then add another interval, do that until ur good at all of em.

[AmazingGracePlayer]

Best way to improve your ear is to start singing.