learning to play by ear

[mrniceguy715]

any pointers? I have some software to slow the tempo and I'm learning all the notes on the board. but does anyone have pointers to make it less painfull lol

[Poop-Loops]

No.

I have been trying, but it sucks hard. I guess we just have to keep practicing.

[Fontaine]

listen to alot of music and be aware of all chords and how they sound on bass, but u gotta know the tuning of the song aswell. But all i can say is just listen to the music and try and start playing something that sounds like it, after a while you should have it dialed in.

[xan]

Using Fretboard Warrior for bass may help. Check it out:

http://www.francoisbrisson.com/fretb...rior/bass.html

[WillPlay4Food]

Originally Posted by xan

Using Fretboard Warrior for bass may help. Check it out:

http://www.francoisbrisson.com/fretb...rior/bass.html

Oddly enough the guitar version is free while the bass version costs $15. I'd say to get the free guitar version and pretend it's a 5 string bass with the B string in the wrong spot.

[xan]

Yep thats one way to do it. Its actually a pretty good program. I paid $15 for the bass version and spent 20 minutes a night with it for 2 weeks and now know my fretboard

[HooBass]

Two quick bits off the top of my head that worked well for me:

1. Divide and conquer -- Take a section of the song a time, focus on it, and sometimes it makes things that seemed overwhelming quite easy. Whether it's a bar at a time, or (if you're like me and you didn't know what a bar was) some logical, repeating "chunk" of a song.
2. Get out a pencil and paper and write out the structure of the tune -- Better if you know musical terms, but I used to do things like label each "chunk" something I'd remember like "chorus riff" and then I'd write out a schematic to illustrate how many times each chunk is played, and and in what sequence. You'll notice a lot of music follows similar patterns.

Using the software seems like it'll be a big help. [BEGIN old man voice]In my day, we didn't have software to bend the pitch, slow things down, or repeat a verse until we got it or puked. We put the needle back a bit ealier on the record, or rewound our cassette tapes, and we liked it.[END old man voice]

Of course, learning as much as you can about music theory (I didn't do that) seems quite wise. I wish I had. But in addition to that, keep at learning real songs by ear and using what you hear in your head to translate to what you play.

HooBass

[Kronos]

I just kept doing what HooBass said. I kept rewinding the tape and playing it until it sounded right.

[Bottom Feeder]

Early on in my playing, I did what Hoobass said. Broke it down into chunks. The problem wasn't so mauch keeping up with a pattern but, tying those patterns together at a change without losing the tempo. Being able to make those changes is a crucial aspect in maintaining the flow and drive of any tune.

[JimmyM]

I think that instead of playing by ear, you should probably use your hands.

Sorry...anyhow, learning to play by ear doesn't happen overnight. That's the problem with people nowadays...they want instant gratification. They buy software that they expect will turn them into geniuses instantly.

Unless you have perfect pitch, learning to play by ear takes quite a while to learn. You have to learn the notes on the fretboard, what different chords and intervals sound like, and stuff like that just doesn't happen quickly. So be more patient and quit looking for instant answers.

[K2000]

Learn songs you already know like the back of your hand. If you have to start out right off the bat, attempting a song that's brand new to you, learning to play will be harder than it needs to be.

Pick EASY songs, then pick songs that are easy with one or two hard aspects (cool riff or whatever), etc. In other words, build up the difficulty over time.

If you are attempting rock music, learn the so-called "blues scale" as a huge majority of songs use this scale. Also learn the major and minor scale. If you are really learning to play by ear, concentrate on learning the intervals (know what the 5th sounds like, etc). You need to internalize the intervals.

I would encourage you to learn to read music, too. Why rule that aspect out...

[thewanderer24]

Like Jimmy said, it takes lots of practice. The more you do it, the better you get at it.

Find a piece of software called Transcribe. Free trial for a month then $50 to buy. You can slow down or speed up, change key, analyze notes, loop sections, etc.

Very easy to use, and you'll never run out of uses for it if you keep playing.

[Kronos]

Another thing I learned while learning by ear is to make sure you're in the same tuning as the band you're trying to play with. When I first started out, I did this by hearing their lowest open note, tuning my E string to it, and then tuning the rest of my bass accordingly.

[paulodumb]

Learn to play a lot of songs, and you'll start noticing that they really only use a handful of chord progressions. Once you have a good vocabularly of progressions, you'll start hearing them in songs and thinking, "Hey, that's a lot like that other song I know," and then all you have to do is figure out one note to know what key it's in.

[patrickj]

Personally, I think this is the worst thing you can do to build up your ear. Your constantly changing your point of reference to what you think an E sounds like (or a D or A or whatever) so you get no familiarity with the character of the pitch in relation to the string.

My thing, just start listening to a lot of music. Get obnoxious with the amount of music you listen to. And put variety into it so you're not listening to the exact same thing over and over again.

NOW, while your listening, focus your point of listening on just the bass guitar line. You don't need to know what the notes are, but you want to train your brain to conciously identify what you're hearing. It takes a lot of practice, but eventually it will become 2nd nature. Basically, just like you learn to sing along to a song by listening to the lyrics, you want to do the same thing but with the other instruments. Lyrics and vocals are easy though because they communicate with the same language.

Try to sing the bass line (even if it's a different octave). Now, while singing, find the corresponding note on the bass. Do that a lot. This why i really think the previous suggestion isn't a good one. Singing and finding/playing (and makeing it standard and repeatable) really helps build up your awareness and ear training.

Above all, just practice a lot.


(damn I'm tired - horrible grammmmar)

Originally Posted by Kronos

Another thing I learned while learning by ear is to make sure you're in the same tuning as the band you're trying to play with. When I first started out, I did this by hearing their lowest open note, tuning my E string to it, and then tuning the rest of my bass accordingly.

[seanm]

A few things that helped me.

1. I joined a jam session playing songs I didn't know. It forces you to really concentrate but was fairly low pressure. You have to have good rhythm though or you'll screw everybody up and not get asked back.

2. I used internet radio to tune in to some old time country. They tend to have simple three and usually four chord sequences. Then I played along to the songs. This is much like the jams, I found being forced to keep up really helps the ear.

3. Unless you are sure of the key, stay away from open strings. Or at least make sure you can play it without open strings. It seems almost every song I learn for the jam, they change the key. Make sure you know the chord changes and not just finger positions.

4. Hardware/software to slow the tempo, change the pitch, and loop easily really helps. I have a Tascam BT-1 I used a lot. I know mainly use a patched version of audacity.

5. When you learn the song, first learn it in the recorded key *even if you known that is the wrong key in advance*! You can get a lot of subtle hints about where the musician is playing and it can help in picking out the song. Unless the song is dead simple, I find it saves time in the end to learn in the recorded key and then transpose.

[bassbully43]

Originally Posted by paulodumb

Learn to play a lot of songs, and you'll start noticing that they really only use a handful of chord progressions. Once you have a good vocabularly of progressions, you'll start hearing them in songs and thinking, "Hey, that's a lot like that other song I know," and then all you have to do is figure out one note to know what key it's in.

I agree. Until i got in a classic rock cover band i was not so good of an ear player. After i had to learn about 60 songs in a few months i discovered how many songs were alike or used the same scales or note progressions. Ex.blues scales etc. Now since i have alot of these patterns in my head i hear the notes and my hands go there or close to it easyer that ever before. You find out alot of rock music is just the same chords changed around and with diffrent timings etc...the mind follows the fingers once it knows the places on the neck these notes (sounds) are.

[Kronos]

Originally Posted by patrickj

Personally, I think this is the worst thing you can do to build up your ear. Your constantly changing your point of reference to what you think an E sounds like (or a D or A or whatever) so you get no familiarity with the character of the pitch in relation to the string.

My thing, just start listening to a lot of music. Get obnoxious with the amount of music you listen to. And put variety into it so you're not listening to the exact same thing over and over again.

NOW, while your listening, focus your point of listening on just the bass guitar line. You don't need to know what the notes are, but you want to train your brain to conciously identify what you're hearing. It takes a lot of practice, but eventually it will become 2nd nature. Basically, just like you learn to sing along to a song by listening to the lyrics, you want to do the same thing but with the other instruments. Lyrics and vocals are easy though because they communicate with the same language.

Try to sing the bass line (even if it's a different octave). Now, while singing, find the corresponding note on the bass. Do that a lot. This why i really think the previous suggestion isn't a good one. Singing and finding/playing (and makeing it standard and repeatable) really helps build up your awareness and ear training.

Above all, just practice a lot.


(damn I'm tired - horrible grammmmar)

YMMV. It worked for me, and I can play just about anything by ear, even down to correcting tablature.

[kenlacam]

Blues is a very easy style of music to learn playing by ear, as most of the progressions in various songs follow a simple pattern. I would listen to a lot of blues songs and try to play along with it. It can be tedious, but the rewards are great.

[bassbully43]

Originally Posted by kenlacam

Blues is a very easy style of music to learn playing by ear, as most of the progressions in various songs follow a simple pattern. I would listen to a lot of blues songs and try to play along with it. It can be tedious, but the rewards are great.

Very true i do this all the time...suffles, 12 bar and changing the tempos... good practice and my #1 warmup blues scales and vamps.