Learning by Ear: Actually Listen!

[Dr. Cheese]

For years, I thought my ear was faulty, but it is clear now that I tend to play with songs too soon instead of listening longer. Over the years, I have been in many situations where I told to listen a bit more, but I tended to be hard headed. What really hit me was when Julia from Thomann just mentioned that she listened before she tried play anything so she would not miss parts.

Tonight, during the Gonzaga/UCLA Final Four game, I decided I would work on Chic’s Everybody Dance. I have been playing along with this song most of my life, but tonight, I listened and realized I have been playing stuff wrong for decades! As with so many things about the bass, I wish I had learned this lesson at least forty years ago, but better late than never.

 

[foal30]

Listen
Sing
Listen
Piano
Listen
Bass
Listen
Pencil and Stave

 

[VerryBerry]

This Hal Galper video is almost 13 minutes long, but he drives home the point of listening in the first minute.
Lots of gold here and well worth listening to the whole thing. Just fantastic.

 

[Dr. Cheese]

This Hal Galper video is almost 13 minutes long, but he drives home the point of listening in the first minute.
Lots of gold here and well worth listening to the whole thing. Just fantastic.

I will check it out.

 

[WrapRough]

Aimee Nolte has a video where she shows her method of learning a song a week.

Day one is listening. That's it. Listen to the song over and over and over.

 

[VerryBerry]

Aimee Nolte has a video where she shows her method of learning a song a week.

Day one is listening. That's it. Listen to the song over and over and over.

She's got great content -- a little deep for me at this point, but I hope to work toward understanding and utilizing it.

 

[LBS-bass]

It's so true. A few days ago I was playing along with a song I used to play and sing 30 years ago. I always just did a simple version of it, but as I was playing along this time I started noticing things in the bass I'd never even thought about including. I stopped to really give it a close listen and realized that the bassist I'd thought was on it was probably not playing, but instead I recognized it as almost certainly being a different bassist- one of my favorite bassists. Sure enough, that's who is credited.

So I'm now relearning that song and listening more deeply to capture what that bassist actually did. My passable version of it was passable, but this guy took it to a way different level.