Working out a song by ear

[Coeball]

Recently I have tried to work out the baseline by ear with no success can anyone suggest method for doing this?

[JimmyM]

Not that can be explained in a few sentences on Talkbass. Ear training can take a while to learn.

[tswd]

One basic idea is to first figure out the root of each measure. After you have that, start adding notes here and there. Eventually you'll get the whole thing. It helps if you know the chord progression, though. That'll give you a hint as to what notes other than the root might be used.

For individual notes, it helps if you can accurately sing the note. If you can do that, then hum the note while you try to find it on the fretboard. Once you get good at it, it won't take as long.

[pstyle]

totally depends on the song too... some songs I can figure out in 5 mins.. others are near impossible.

[TheBassBetween]

I agree with what was said above. Identify the root notes of each chord in the song. That will start the outline, and once you're comfortable with the chord changes, you can start listening for the fills and bass melodies inside each bar. When you know the chord, it narrows the note possibilities down significantly, making it much easier to identify the other notes.

[Johnny Crab]

Never really thought about HOW....but the above posts are correct.
It's the only way I figure stuff out......since 1960's...

After doing it for a while, you can predict what "most' players will do next.
You SHOULD also be able to play thing you hear almost instantly by then.
The EXCEPTIONS to that are what make life fun and interesting....the ones that play a non-pedestrian bassline.

[PaulMacCnj]

I'll give another +1 for learning the roots first. Get to know exactly where the chord change occur and play along just getting that timing down. Then listen for whatever else is being played... Root-5th? Root-3rd-5th? These are the next common basslines.

[anon_6j591b0]

Simple: Sing the part.
If you can sing it accurately then it'll be solidly in yer head and if it's in yer head you'll be able to figure it out on the bass pretty easily.

[BassmanDk]

+1 for learning the roots of the chords first. The more music you know the easier it gets. Try to identify if you heard the chord shift before. For ex. G going to E - maybe you heard it in "every breath you take" or "Stand by me". And then you also know that the E is a minor - G > Em. If you know some basic songs you'll see that a new songs changes probably already exist in another song.
If you don't know any song with the same changes then either you don't know enough songs or it's a new set of changes ( and it's nearly allways the first ). But if you can't remember it then you have the information that it's probably NOT G to Em. Search and try: G to E(major), G to Eflat or E to F. You see? Either it's inside the box or outside!
And then you can add notes in the chord - major/minor third, major/minor seventh; perfect fivth or 11 or 13...
Hope it helps

[ashbory]

Setup
- Make sure your music player has an easy way to navigate around the song, particularly a quick method of rewinding to the beginning of the part your working on
- Make sure you can really hear the bass, headphones can make picking out the bass part easier. Through speakers, turning up the volume usually brings out the bass.
- The balance between the volume of your bass and the recording can make a big difference. Try to find the point where you can just hear yourself enough.
- Reducing the lows on your bass or using the bridge pickup can help with the mix - don't worry if your bass sounds thin, you're just learning the song.

Process tips
- You need to get the notes in your head before they can get to your fingers. Listen to the song as much as you can stand before you start learning.
- As others have mentioned:
a) Sing or hum the part your working on, I do this in my head (otherwise I would learn everything flat)
b) learn the root notes first so you have a chord progression as a framework. If the bass is hard to hear, try to match the guitar chords (or other instruments).
- If you get stuck, just work on each note one at a time. If you just can't find the next note, try them all. There are only 11 notes, minus the one you're already on, that makes 10. This is where the quick rewind comes in handy.
- If you've almost got a part but it doesn't quite sound right, try playing it an octave up, this can make the melody easier to hear.
- If something is obscuring the bass part (like a guitar), figure out what the guitar is playing. That may give you a hint to the bass line.

Other stuff
- Learn at least basic theory. You can find this stuff online. An hour of reading and you can figure out what notes and chords go together in each key. This will give a huge boost in your ability to learn songs.
- The more you do it, the better you'll get. Start with parts of songs where the bass stands out. Learn stuff that sounds like it would be easy to play, but keep in mind its sometimes the exact opposite.
- If you are stuck move on to another song, come back to it in six months when you've improved your listening skills.
- Only look at the notation after you've given it your best shot. But keep in mind that a lot of tabs on the Internet are wrong.

[Coeball]

Thanks for all your posts they have very helpfull

[jnprather]

Great responses, some very very helpful stuff so far. I'm always impressed with the responses on TalkBass. If there's been more 4 or 5 posts, it's very likely all of the points I would make have been covered already

I would add a big +1 to Ashbory's point about listening to the song a bunch before trying to figure it out. I always find it more efficient (and less frustrating) to listen to anything I am going to try to learn multiple times before ever touching my bass. The idea is to get the entire bassline in your head, after which it's simply a matter of learning where your fingers go to play that. If you jump into a song, you are doing two things at once (learning it in your head, and learning it in your hands) and I find that it takes longer overall, and is less tedious, to split those two parts of the learning process up.

Obviously there are times you are trying to learn a bassline to one of your favorite songs that you've listened to 4000x and you have the bass part in your head already ...

Also, obviously the better/more experienced you are, the quicker it will be, as alot of things that sound like a flurry of random notes to a beginners ear is "oh, that old lick" to an experienced ear...

I would recommend that you do your best (when you are able to) figure out bass parts down to the smallest fill/accent. This isn't totally necessary for band/covering purposes, but it is huge for learning/growth purposes. You learn from doing things that you've never done before, and alot of times it's the tiniest little variation or accent that a bass player puts in a line that you can get the most out of from a learning perspective. Out of the current 'cover' set of ~40 tunes I have been playing recently, I can think of several basslines that sound like very basic/simple basslines, but to really, really play them right, can be a challenge.

Just the same, in doing so you will be more likely to truly appreciate the basswork of the original bass player, and playing said bassline becomes infinitely more rewarding... Good luck...

[Joe Nerve]

I agree with just about everything that's been said thus far, especially ashbory's suggestions - but I'm not too sure about the figuring the root out thing that eveyone else seems to be agreeing on. If you're brand new to this it seems that finding the root is only going to complicate and confuse the process for you. In simple songs the root will be obvious (it'll be the primary note played) but in more adventurous songs I don't see the point. Like adding an extra uneccessary step. If your ear isn't well trained it may also be frustrating for you to hear the difference between the root, 5th, or whatever.

There are also 2 other things that I don't believe anyone else has mentioned yet that are of etreme importance. The first is that you're in tune with what you're trying to learn. Using a tuner will do the trick 98% of the time, but bands such as greenday often tune down a half step. Some recordings you'll find are also a bit off from perfect tuning for reasons unkown to me.

The other important thing is to practice picking tunes out on the bass itself. Knowing intuitively how the notes relate to one another. To experienced players I think it's something that's taken for granted - but I've watched my girlfriend try to pick tunes out on the bass that I'm sure she knows the notes of in her head. She has a hell of a time finding them on the neck. I think it's important to practice playing things by ear as much as possible. Mary had a little lamb, pop goes the weasle, happy birthday, christmas carols, black sabbath melodies, anything and everything hummable. The more able you are to pick tunes like that out on your neck, the easier learning stuff by ear will be. If you can't relate what's in your ears and head to the instrument, you're working at a big disadvantage.

The most important other thing IMO that people have mentioned is to be able to clearly hear what's being played on what you're trying to learn, being able to clearly hear your bass (the bridge pickup thing mentioned above gets a big +++1 from me), and being able to hum what you're trying to play. If not out loud at least in your head. If you can hear it, hum it, and play nursery rhymes as described above , you've pretty much got all the ingredients.

And it gets much much easier with practice.

[steve66]

Good stuff in the previous threads. I would recommend a audio system with a EQ, a good set of headphones with good bass frequency response and most importantly some free time. I use the tascam bass trainer. Seems to work pretty good. I usually follow the song and create a score, counting the measures and noting where the chord changes are. I then go back an figure out the chords, Once I have an outline of the chords, I play the root notes along with the song a few times. when I have the changes in my head, I play the arpeggios for each chord. Usually from there I can figure out the bass lines. I find it easier to play the arpeggio together with the line in the same tempo. It helps me to get the rythmn of the line and the notes correctly since I dont have to think about playing the arpeggio, I hear can fous on the line. Once the rythmn has been establised, I write out the line using note names capital letters for lower register and lower case for the octave

G g C C# D / GG gg C C# D

[Depth_Charge]

Originally Posted by Coeball

Recently I have tried to work out the baseline by ear with no success can anyone suggest method for doing this?

Try this thread:

Brain Question

Regards,

D_C