Hearing what notes are being hit

[EADG mx]

I was just listening to a group of songs that I'm going to be auditioning this weekend and was picturing the notes in my head A, D, C, B (just an example).
Then I thought what if I could play along with others by recognizing the notes they are playing instead of looking at their hands? I can easily hit an A in my head as I have used this for tuning my A string prior to tuning the rest of my string by ear. I can't believe that I haven't thought of this earlier but maybe it was because of the genre that I had been playing.
I would like to be able to hear a song playing on the radio and be able to identify "ah,, that is G, C, A" (no bass in hand). Is this a common aquired talent or is this something that is difficult to master?
Any suggestions, experience, practice exercises, etc would be greatly appreciated.

Ear training.

First of all I'd say you're going about this the wrong way. When approaching Western tonal music, it's infinitely more valuable to be able to identify the intervals between pitches and how they relate to a tonic note, as opposed to identifying pitches one at a time based on their frequency.

For ex., instead of thinking "that is G, C, A", you'll ultimately want to be able to think "that is V, I, vi", etc. The key is usually irrelevant since you can transpose anywhere on the neck (can't you?)

So get started on intervals and chord progressions. Fortunately for a bass player, the note you're looking for is often the root of the chord anyway.

 

[steve4765630]

I think it's something that you're born with. It might be able to be learned, but mostly it's genetics. I have perfect relative pitch and can often shoot out the name of a note at random, but I don't have perfect pitch in the "freak of nature" theme. Those people are amazing, but I'm sure are tortured every time they hear a piece of music. For that reason, I'm glad to say I don't have perfect pitch. Saying that, I can usually tune a guitar or bass without a tuner. The other thing I can do is listen to a song on the radio, a CD or TV and be able to learn it without ever having my bass in my hands. It also helps with writing out charts. Any time I do a gig with a new group, I get a recodring of them and write out charts. It helps me get the changes in my head and gets me into the song structure. I can't tell you how nice it is to be able to just listen and write the chords as you go. For more difficult stuff, I do keep my bass in hand for reference. I've always been this way and am not bragging by any means. All I'm saying is that it would be a very hard thing to learn if you didn't have it naturally. I saw an ad that said, "Learn to have perfect pitch." I think it used to be in bass player. Maybe someone did come up with a formula to teach it. All I know is that I sucked at math and no matter how much my friend Sean tried to beat it into my head I still wasn't good at it. I tried to get him to pick up on music and he was horrible at it no matter what we tried. I think we all have things we're good at and bad at. That's how it should be. He's an engineer and I'm a musician. Circle of life, giftings, and all that jazz.

 

[Green Mind]

This thread reminded me of those cheesy magazine ads.
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[steve4765630]

This thread reminded me of those cheesy magazine ads.
Invalid Link Removed

That's the one! That face, I'll never forget it.

 

[Michael Case]

He looks like he's about to jump out of that add like something out of a horror movie.

Has anybody ever tried that perfect pitch course? How is it?

Q. What do you call perfect pitch?

A. Throwing a banjo into a dumpster at 30 ft. and hitting an accordion.

 

[Mike151]

Getting off topic but I thought this was funny.
That ad reminded me of an old John Travolta movie.

 

[pin_head_47]

Ear training.

First of all I'd say you're going about this the wrong way. When approaching Western tonal music, it's infinitely more valuable to be able to identify the intervals between pitches and how they relate to a tonic note, as opposed to identifying pitches one at a time based on their frequency.

For ex., instead of thinking "that is G, C, A", you'll ultimately want to be able to think "that is V, I, vi", etc. The key is usually irrelevant since you can transpose anywhere on the neck (can't you?)

So get started on intervals and chord progressions. Fortunately for a bass player, the note you're looking for is often the root of the chord anyway.

Exactly.