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How can i play by ear?
- Thread starter furkancit
- Start date
What I like doing is putting on a playlist of songs I like a lot which I don't necessarily know well and then putting it on random play so I never know what's coming. Then just do my best to play along without ever stopping the music. I think it's great fun and great for improving the ear.
Buy a Tascam GB10 Bass trainer. Best $99 I've ever spent on any device to help me figure out songs. I've played since I was a preteen , but with this GB10 you can slow the song down, change the key, without it slowing the song down in real time. It holds a SD card and plugs into your computer or phone . You can adjust the balance and play right along and over the song you wish to practice . its a good little rig to have . You can practice with headphones on and not bother anyone else in the house. I've used it while my wife slept next to me. I just had to be easy on hitting the strings to not wake her. It's about as big as a tv remote . It helped me a lot. And is a lot of,fun to have on the go too.
It also,has a built in tuner and some effects , which I just use the tuner mostly .
To play by ear.... Start with a song you know and like. Then, LISTEN, Listen real good to the verse. Remember the sounds and the pattern, and play it back once you match up the notes on your guitar. Play along if possible. Keep repeating until you learned how to play the verse. Then do the same to learn the chorus.
madbass6
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- Jan 13, 2009
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Can't really learn that skill!
That's the type of thing you're either fortunate enough to have
or not! 
Can't really learn that skill!
That's the type of thing you're either fortunate enough to have
I strongly disagree with that statement! Ear training is a fundamental "music 101" skill that any (non-deaf) musician can (and should) learn.
I do certainly agree with you that everyone learns at a different rate. It's taken me years to learn certain things that my friends can pick up in weeks. I used to think I was "tone deaf" until I spent a semester working with a professor who teaches ear training all day, every day. Because he was an expert on the subject who has taught thousands of students, he was able to find the right exercises and work with me at my own pace.
If your teacher is primarily a bass teacher, and hasn't been able to make ear training "click" for you, then I highly recommend to take a few lessons on the side with an ear training specialist.
It's kind of like going to the gym: most beginners will instinctively do lots of bench presses and curls, because it gives the quick reward of making their strong muscles even stronger, but if you work with a good trainer, they will help you target your weaknesses, and that is when the real progress begins.
There's also a logic to it. Remember this basic, if amazing fact: There are only 12 notes. That's it. Period. There's only 12 of the things. From there, there are obvious places a song will go, from one chord to the next. You will learn this as the repertoire of songs you know increases. Your ear will be trained along the way.
As they say, you're never more than a half step away from the right note.
I know some who can play with their teeth, also some who can wrinkle their ears.
But I never heard about someone actually untilizing that ability to play an instrument.
Now that would be a sight!
Seriously though:
Listening!
Basically..... and practicing playing along to what you are listening to.
A lot of practice will get you more familiar with the notes on the fret board, so that you end up instinctively and by intuition knowing where to move your fingers to get the notes you are looking for.
But I never heard about someone actually untilizing that ability to play an instrument.
Now that would be a sight!
Seriously though:
Listening!
Basically..... and practicing playing along to what you are listening to.
A lot of practice will get you more familiar with the notes on the fret board, so that you end up instinctively and by intuition knowing where to move your fingers to get the notes you are looking for.
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I disagree. Play by ear is just listen to some music, and try to reproduce it on your instrument. I learned to play music "by ear" without any knowledge or skill.
I just have the chance of this innate thing that makes me recognize the note when i'm searching it on the neck, or keys, or any way of produce a note.
I like that kind of comments, and here is the reason.
When babies are still with their Moms, the babies' forming brains are already LEARNING Music!
When your Mom is listening to or singing a/any song, you are LEARNING Music.
I don't want to engage in a conversation that is "a priori" is faulty.
Just one thing.
How many BILLIONS of children - EVERYBODY - learned to speak FIRST before they learned how to READ and WRITE.
They LEARNED by EAR FIRST.
Yes, but, we are not children and the older we get the harder it becomes. As to that innate thing; few of us have it. I have played with one or two that have perfect pitch and it can be a curse. They don't fit in with we mortals and keep telling us we are out of tune. Relative pitch, now that is great, for those that have it. I'm not one of them.
It's like reading, SN and reading by ear, is something you must do every day or rust develops.
Now that and $2.29 will get you a cup of coffee in East Texas.
It's like reading, SN and reading by ear, is something you must do every day or rust develops.
Now that and $2.29 will get you a cup of coffee in East Texas.
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And so don't need to have a lot of knowledge or theory, styles, to play by ear. I agree that all this knowledge improve the skill. Like learn to read and write improve children skill.
Listen is the key. And relative pitch is a real bless too. I don't know if i'd play music today without this bless.
