Really learning songs by ear

[Joe Nerve]

And I mean without a bass in your hands.

I can do this with some real simple songs (so long as I know the first note), and songs I've been hearing my entire life, but I'm wondering. For those who can do this with more complex songs, what techniques if any, do you thnk can be used to sharpen this skill? I often find myself listening to CDs of songs I need to learn in the car and I'd love to be able to just go back into the house (or to a reharsal) and be able to play them. Really learn by listening only.

Right now I've started giving my best guesses while in the car, writing them down, and then seeing how far off I am. Figuring that's got to help some, at least.

Anyone else interested in getting better at this? Anyone who does do it have any tips? All thoughts welcome.

[Russell L]

I can do it. Sometimes there is a spot I can't get, but I do pretty good at learning stuff while driving. I like to know what key it's gonna be in when I play it at a gig, though, so I can be imagining my fingering. I've learned songs this way that I've never played before and gone to a gig and performed it just fine. It's just a result of having listened and tried to pick things out since I was a small child. I think those who started playing music and hearing a lot of music during their pre-school years of life do best at this sort of thing. I'm not sure how to say to practice it to get better at it other than to say, just keep on keeping on at it. You're bound to get better over time. You might want to study some on identifying intervals by ear. Tha has helped me sometimes. Also, being able to sing scale tones in order to lead you to a chord change can help identify harmonic movement. I dunno. It's an interesting gift to have. But really, it's more of a craft. It can be learned, but it's easier the younger you are, I guess. I was lucky to have always been so involved in music from a young age. Oh, and it wasn't from having lessons. No, I started all by ear only and taught myself to play as a child. So, see, that's a lot of ear training. I'm interested to hear what some other folks have to say about it.

Cheers.

[jumbodbassman]

car for me too. some simple parts for sure but arrangements even more.

[Joe Nerve]

I too have had a pretty good ear since I was a little kid. I can learn songs pretty quickly and accurately now too. I think a key in doing it without an instrument lies in learning to distiguish intervals.

A while back some accomplished bassist said something like it's impossible to improve your playing or learn without an instrument in your hand. Was probably Jeff Berlin. This is sooooo untrue in my experience. I've had enormous amounts of practice behind the wheel of my car. Learning arrangements as Jumo said, but also going over tunes. If I just learned a song I can visualize my playing while listening, and I believe think it helps me remember better than if I actually have a bass in my hands. I have to really know each note.

Anyhoo... just want to bump this thread. I'm making this a mission of mine. Really want to hone this craft.

[Skitch it!]

I've had to do a lot of away from the instrument stuff in the past purely down to time constraints. Non-diatonic stuff can be difficult but pop songs, standard stuff in a diatonic key I'll get a lot of the fills too just through common diatonic phrasing's, standard lick's or varients thereof.

Structure is a different matter, organising that in the head needs a system of your own type shorthand, that's what I concentrate on the most when just listening to stuff outside of intervals/lines etc, mapping the structures.

[jgroh]

I can do it too and Ive had a pretty good ear since I was young, probably even before I actually played bass. I took formal bass lessons for the first three years I played, but I consider the next 10 years figuring out bass lines (mostly Rush songs) by ear to be my real education. I can tell what key its in most times and the fingering too. If its a song I really like it seems to come to me quicker than just some song on the radio.

[Georynn]

Breaking it down to the simplest form of the notes, and learning the intervals between them is great training for picking out chord changes. I know that's the VERY simplistic view of learning songs, but it is the root of the skill...

Try your hand at some of this and see how good your ear is at picking the interval, and see how well that translates...

Here is a tool (it's geared towards kids, but still useful) a friend of mine suggested some years ago...

Interval Ear Trainer

[GLEN18INCHSPICA]

I'll eq my amp with strong midrange, with less treble & bass overtones to distinguish that I'm not a half step off on quicker passages, I tend to play with fairly strong mids anyway. Listening in the car is a good idea, I might play a song different for awhile without listening carefully & then realize I've been playing it differently than the original, occasionally I like my part better & keep it. I played with Flatwound chromes for awhile, while they are not my choice of regular string they were useful for making correct note choices when sussing out a new song. "Sussing" that's a word for our Brit Bass players.

[fourfinger]

Originally Posted by Georynn

Breaking it down to the simplest form of the notes, and learning the intervals between them is great training for picking out chord changes. I know that's the VERY simplistic view of learning songs, but it is the root of the skill...

Try your hand at some of this and see how good your ear is at picking the interval, and see how well that translates...

Here is a tool (it's geared towards kids, but still useful) a friend of mine suggested some years ago...

Interval Ear Trainer

+1 to ALL this

[kawika5150]

I learn by ear as well. I picture how my left hand will be on the frets on certain parts, but I also listen intently in the car for constant visualization. I once learned how to play "Moonlight Sonata" on the piano just by listening to that piece and breaking it down into segments. I've never taken a music lesson in my life.

[ILIA]

1) Make transcriptions (lead sheets to fully notated orchestrations) of recordings.

2) Melodic and harmonic dictation exercises (have someone play a short melody and/or harmonic progression 4 times all the way through without stopping with a little time in between each repetition for you to try to write down what has just been played). There is also software that can do this.

3) aural training exercises on Ricci Adams' Musictheory.net

4) finally, just use your ear on a day-to-day basis in the practice and performance of your art

[Rockmusician]

How long have you been playing? If it hasn't been very long, you will find that as you gain experience, it will come to you more easily.


There are three types of learners:

Visiual- You see it and understand it

Auditory - You hear it and understand it

Kinesthetic - You learn by doing through hands on experience

Most people are a combination of the three but there is almost always one style that we favor whether we realize it or not. You might be more of a visual learner and might find it easier to write the parts out and look at them while listening and playing. You might be more of a Kinesthetic learner in which case, the best way to learn is through repetitively playing the parts.

I am more of an auditory learner. When I hear something, I usually remember it. I have always had a good ear and can learn parts very quickly. I think you are on the right track as far was listening to songs in the car to familiarize yourself with them but I would write the parts out as well and use some of the online bass tablature sites. They are not always accurate but can often get you headed in the right direction.

[Russell L]

A benefit of good ear training is shown by the many times someone has called up a tune at a gig that I have never played, but because I was familiar with the sound of it I played right along, no problem. (Once at a jazz gig, the leader called for Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White. I've never played it, and haven't even heard it in probably 40 years, but I heard it when I was a kid when my mother would play her Perez Prado [sp?] records, so...I nailed it).

When I listen to the radio, I pretty much know what all the changes are in a song. Not always, but 90% of it. If it's guitar music I can also often tell what key, only because I've played a lot of guitar (unless they are using a capo).

[Joe Nerve]

Originally Posted by Russell L

A benefit of good ear training is shown by the many times someone has called up a tune at a gig that I have never played, but because I was familiar with the sound of it I played right along, no problem.

That's part of the reason I want to sharpen this skill. The other is to just be able to be a more efficient learner, be able to nail a set in 2 days if necessary. I've been able to do the above on occasion. First time I think was with Honky Tonk Woman... never touched the song on an instrument, but surprised myself to be able to get through the whole thing without a flub. I like that feeling.

The links I believe are going to be incredibly helpful. Thanks guys. I'm on a mission here. Really put everything I had into a particular song I'm learning for a new band I'm going to be doing some shows with (www.thehappyproblem.com ) . Was off a half step on the key it was in, got through the verse, lost it in the chorus, bigtime. Good news for me is that by focusing on this stuff I can really bang through songs now, even if I don't get them perfectly. Only took me about 15 minutes to get what I was off on. Now I can practice and learn it inside out on my way to work in the car.

[Volk99]

I'm working on ear training a lot, too. There's a book called The Harmonic Language of Jazz Standards by Marc Sabatella. From the title you might not guess it, but he talks a lot about learning to hear the changes for tunes. He talks about practicing this skill by learning songs and transposing them to another key completely by ear.

Here's a link.
The Harmonic Language Of Jazz Standards

[Stumbo]

Simple test to try out:
1) Listen to a tune, sing the bass line (treat it same as learning the melody).
2) Replay the same tune with the bass eq'd out, sing the bass line and record yourself.
3) Play back your recording. How'd you do?
4) Rinse and repeat, as necessary.
5) Once you get that down, sing the bass line and play it on your bass.

You can probably try the same thing with pretty much anything musical.

[Stumbo]

Originally Posted by Georynn

Here is a tool (it's geared towards kids, but still useful) a friend of mine suggested some years ago...

Interval Ear Trainer

Xlnt link.

I like it because you can repeat each interval easily and vocalize along with it making your ear training session into a beginning vocal trainer as well.

Here are a few more links to ear training and slow downer/bass isolator resources:

Test your ear

Goodear.com
Miles.be - Free downloadable ear trainer (basic/advanced) Xlnt program
Teoria.com - Trainers/tutorials. Music theory, ear training, read music, chords, intervals, etc.

1 Slow down
2
3
4
BestPractice-PC based, free, easy to use, slow downer/pitch shifter/looper/vocal remover/bass isolator/ backing track maker

[steveksux]

I pretend everything is in C or Am and go from there. Use the number system so you don't get hung up on the individual notes in a particular key, that way you recognize the patterns quicker, not so easy to recognize A D is same as C F in another key if you remember the note names.

You start recognizing some common intervals. You can hum scale patterns to get from one chord to another if you dont' recognize the interval also. Soon you recognize that interval the next time you hear it. Lots of common patterns too, easy to recognize eventually. Sooner than you'd think.

Just a lot of practice. Anytime you hear a bass line/song, try to figure it out. Take as long as it takes, when you're pretty sure you know it, grab the bass, figure out the key, and go to town. that's the other reason to think of it in the number system, if its not in C its easier to transpose thinking of it like that rather than how to transpose the note names to the actual key.

Randy