playing by ear problems in school situation

Mohawk93 · #1 03-01-2011, 02:19 PM

im an bassist and i go my first year in an music school. all the pupils ar divided into groups were we have an music teatcher and we learn songs and such. Everything is cool, exept one thing: i have an hard time playing by ear in those situation. i can pickup basslines at home if i got little time on my hand, but in the music group i feel stressed and nervous. one of the hardest thing is when the teacher let the singer sing a phrase and want us to follow with our instrument. i can get it right. do somebody have an idea how i can teach my self this skill on my own at home? thx in advance!

puddin tame · #2 03-01-2011, 02:25 PM

practice

Mohawk93 · #3 03-01-2011, 02:38 PM

how can i practice playing by ear so that i can pickup what the singer sings in my music group?

Mirios · #4 03-01-2011, 02:41 PM

I was 18 fresh out of high school and had a similar experience. Paid gig the night I met my first band that would pay decent. Not much time for rehearsal. I must say I looked the fool. I kept playing with these guys and learning everything by ear.

Now my ears pick things up rather fast. Trial by fire was good for me.

First things first, relax. Being tense won't help you pick things up any better.

Mirios · #5 03-01-2011, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mohawk93

how can i practice playing by ear so that i can pickup what the singer sings in my music group?

Are you trying to mimic the singer through your bass lines?

Also try doing it to songs on cd. I did it with John Coltrane songs. Helped my ability to pick things up from other instruments.

Mohawk93 · #6 03-01-2011, 02:52 PM

thx im 17 and im pretty tense cause the other guy pick it up real fast, but i have only played for 2 years. but i will try pickups the melodys from other instruments.

DiabolicLow B · #7 03-01-2011, 03:00 PM

Practice alone by singing something yourself and try to figure it out on the bass, the real key is practice.
I have been working on my ear training for over 20 years and while I have gotten pretty good I am no where near the level of the guitarist in my band or others I have met.

Mohawk93 · #8 03-01-2011, 03:03 PM

somehting i notice is that its hard for bassplayers to hear if they play right on things like this when all the other instruments are higher

azureblue · #9 03-01-2011, 03:13 PM

Sure, you will have to practice and you WILL get it. You need to begin by listening to melody lines solo'd, starting with simple tunes. Start with a blues, then play a song you know and listen carefully to how your bass part works with the vocal line. Pay attention to the chords, then look for another tune you know that has a similar melody, but slightly different chords, and pay attention to how that sounds. And, when you do not have your bass, try to imagien a melody in your head and pick out the chords, again, in your head.

The tough parts comes when you start to hear chords that fit, but are not what was written. Then it becomes a matter of opinion, and heads will butt.

But for now, you just have beginners' nerves, so don't worry about it. You'll get it. You're not the first, you know..

Mohawk93 · #10 03-01-2011, 03:17 PM

thx for the kind words im an more aggresive rytmic bassist but i must be a better melodic player. and get better ears.. eventually

chadhargis · #11 03-01-2011, 03:39 PM

I'm a very heavy ear player. I have a singing background so my "ears" (it's really your brain) have come to recognize patterns in music. I can guess the next note with pretty good accuracy, but some songs will go a direction you least expect.

The cool thing about ear training is that you can do it without your bass. I drive around listening to my iPod or the radio and I hum the bass line. The next step is to get your scale intervals down cold so you can associate the note on the bass with the note in your head.

I find that if I can't hum the bass line, then I can't play it. It's got to be in my head first before it can come through my fingers. I'm working on reading music so I can play from a chart. That would make things exponentially easier when I have to learn a song I'm not familiar with.

puddin tame · #12 03-01-2011, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mohawk93

how can i practice playing by ear so that i can pickup what the singer sings in my music group?

the best way is to just try figuring things out by ear. try just playing along to any music, but maybe start simpler. you'll eventually get a feel for the most common chord progressions and will be able to predict the music when you recognise the movements

M0ses · #13 03-01-2011, 03:58 PM

Music school is tough. Shouldn't you be taking a class specifically devoted to this skill? I am in my second semester of it, and it's tough, but an incredibly valuable skill. It seemed impossible at first but I picked up on it and it's not so scary anymore.

MalcolmAmos · #14 03-01-2011, 04:43 PM

Yes to taking some lessons at the school you are enrolled in now.

Melody - hear it and play it. Start with Mary had a little lamb, then Somewhere over the rainbow - then one new tune every day.

A New Tune A Day for Bass Guitar - Book 1 by Steve Kershaw. All bass clef standard notation. For $9.95 (US) IMO well worth the money.

Mirios · #15 03-02-2011, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mohawk93

somehting i notice is that its hard for bassplayers to hear if they play right on things like this when all the other instruments are higher

I'm actually quicker picking things up on piano then bass. I'm horrible at piano too. May be all the years I took as a little'un though.

AlexLeow · #16 03-24-2011, 08:55 PM

Mohawk

I have been 25 years in the Playing Music By Ear industry.

Practicing and trial by fire is good. However, understanding can help you a lot.

In playing by ear, you need to use your feelings a lot.

I suppose you know the I IV V chords, right? Have you ever observed what feelings the create when these chords are played? In C key: C is somewhere in the middle/finished/settled feeling; G(7) creates a weak and usfinished feeling?; and F creates a strong and pushy feeling? Test it out and see.

Using these fundamentals, if you listen to a song, you can roughly guess which chords goes where. You might like to test it out on Happy Birthday and see what I mean.

BTW, it has nothing to do with notes direction. Notes moving up does not mean strong or pushing feeling (IV); and notes going down has nothing to do with V. It will become apparent when you play Happy Birthday.

Try out these fundamentals first. Once you are ok, you can later learn the feelings of II, III, VI and VII.

Understanding these, then practice and "trial by fire" will help you a lot.

If you still don't understand, PM me.

Alex