Need Advice on Playing By Ear.

[Rudreax]

When you guys say "sight reading", do you mean being able to read sheet music after looking at it for a good while and going through it slowly, or being able to read the music only a few seconds after seeing it for the first time? I ask this because generally the term "sight reading" refers to the second, while the first is just reading music, and it is much harder to do the second than it is to do the first.

 

[azureblue]

a better way to ear train:
1-learn to sing your bass parts. Pick a simple one, and sing it- doesn't have to be in the same octave or in pitch, just close enough.
2- play a simple triad and sing it. Then move it up a step and sing that one. Move it down a step and sing that, etc.
3- Now do not play, but sing a note. then find it on the bass. When you can do that, then move to singing two notes, finding them, then three, etc.
4- Once you get this far, try to sing an entire bass part, beginning with a verse, without the bass, even if it is something butt simple.

As you get better at this, you will start to recognize bass parts from recordings, and follow them a lot easier. The point is, you can't pick out a part until you can hear it inside your head. This process is called learning to internalize music. This is how orchestral composers can sit with manuscript paper and write out symphonies- they knwo the sounds so well, it is jsut a matter of imagining them then writing them down.

 

[TOOL460002]

you have to know all your scales/modes (diatonic and pentatonic will suffice for most music).

if it sounds happy, try the diatonic 1, 4, and 5 (and sometimes the 2, if its a blues rock thing [they will often move the minor third up a half step to turn it into a 5/mixolydian mode, which may cause confusion]). if its dark, try the 3 and 6. 7 is minor too, though less common, on account of the flat 5.

once you find a fit, you know the key. once you know the key, you can get a hold of the chords and movement and all that.

also, if its one band that youre trying to learn a bunch of songs from, the key will tend to stay within a short range, on account of the singers vocal range. this makes it easier to find a starting point.

key changing and less common scales/modes are another thing, but probably not where you are going to start.

 

[wildhorse]

I've recently gave up on using tabs, because learning to play by ear will give you far more opportunities in the future, but doing so has been quite hard. I was wondering if anybody has any advice on making this easier.

Developing caluses on the ear would help.
And then play along with anything and everything you can.
When you do need charts just write out the chords and improvise...or use the nashville number system if you're a quick thinker.

 

[Zureta]

There are some cool online resources that can help with note recognition and such.

Here's my favorite free ear training tool. Very versatile and might help if you're dedicated enough.

 

[JimmyM]

Ditto! This is how I learned, and I've been playing successfully for over 20 years now. this is the best way to learn to play by ear. You don't HAVE to read music to be successful.

While that's true, the truth behind the truth is that for everyone who learns to play strictly by ear, there are 1000 people who give up on it and stick their bass under the bed for years until their future wives make them sell it to make room for their stuff. I'd be one of them without knowing how to read. And I wouldn't get a lot of the gigs I get. The best paying gigs in my area involve reading, and I get a fair share of them strictly because I can read. So while it's possible to play without knowing how to read, the likelihood that you'll be able to make music increases greatly when you do.

OTOH, having a really good ear is also very important to the gigs I do, so don't let me make it sound like ear training isn't important. It absolutely is.

 

[raymondl3]

I think the things that helped my ear the most were understanding music theory (chord/scale relationships) and transcribing music (melodies, chords, solos, basslines). I'm a decent reader and do reading gigs often, but I don't think that learning to sight read helped my ear that much. However being in bands where I had to learn songs on the fly has really sharpened my ears. I think sight reading is more "left brain" / visual anyway.

 

[Greevus]

Learn all you can. You don't have to read, that's true. It does help to understand some basic theory. I agree with the guys who say 'play all sorts of stuff', ie bass parts, guitar parts, vocals, tv themes, etc. Learn a song you know is absolutely correct and tune your bass by playing those notes in that tune. If you can recognize pitches really close, that's key. Perfect pitch is something most of us dream of anyways. Play along with songs, many of them. My original guitar teacher said "if you can't sing it, you can't play it". I agree with doing it by ear. You have to recognize when pitches go up and down and their relationships to each other. I still have problems with exact notes. I may play a phrase or run correctly, but on the next string over for example. I love learning songs by ear though. I played with a guitarist or two that could do it amazingly accurately, and so I began mimicking them. I loved playing along with records growing up and now I do with mp3s.

 

[steveksux]

Pick songs you want to learn, start with simple ones, listen to them, pretend they're in the key of C and figure out the chord progressions. Then once you think you have it, grab a bass and find out if you were right

Repeat.

Sooner or later you figure out more and more common chord progressions in a couple songs, then you start to recognize them in other songs.
Randy

 

[jarrhead]

Find a Jazz teacher. You'll learn all your scales AAAANNNDDDD..


Wait for it...


Find your first note, in just a few minutes you'll be able to find notes based on the note you just heard. Have somebody play a note in any given Key and you find it.