Learn How To Play Guitar & Guitar Accessories

Question: How do you learn songs by ear on the guitar?

(Posted by: stevieboy on 2010-03-10 02:35:12)

I just can't do it. I listen to what it is I want to play over and over again and when I go to play it, I have no idea where to play those notes. The same goes for improvising, my guitar teacher said that when you improvise you have to listen in your head to what you want to play next then play it. I know exactly what i want to play but I have no idea where to play and what frets to hit.

Posted by: sseth672 on 2010-03-10, 02:38:43

You must learn the ways of the douchebag. The path is treacherous, but the gains and personal growth you will acheive are well worth it. First, you must wear your hair like our holy savior, the lord Jesus. Next, play your guitar in public. If people tell you to stfu up, they're just jealous, play louder.

Posted by: Helen S on 2010-03-10, 02:45:25

This is very complicated... you have to do it 1000 times until you get it, so don't give up! You have to have all notes in your head, know how every note sounds, i know that sounds very difficult but once you know it, it would be easy for you... If you hear a song, try to find the first chord that is used and then it will be easier to find the other ones. If you want to improvise, you can not play every chord you want because it won't sound good for example: if you beguin with the G chord, then you can use this ones to make sure that it will sound well : D C and Em (in the order you want) I hope it helped :)

Posted by: GibsonEssGee on 2010-03-10, 02:50:08

Listen to some simple songs in your CD collection and try and follow the bass line (ok you're probably playing 6 string but that's unimportant) using single notes. Once you are comfortable following the song try and add extra notes that complement the song. You can then get adventurous and try chords. If you get it wrong, what the heck, who hears you in your bedroom? Playing by ear is a knack which tends to be learned by trial and error but is darned handy once you've mastered it. I've had a situation playing bass guitar where I've had to follow a left handed "open F " tuning acoustic guitarist and if I couldn't play by ear I'd have been all at sea.

Posted by: Thorgrim on 2010-03-10, 02:52:39

Learning after year is difficult if you don't know some basic theory, trust me, it will go a long way. Try searching for tabulatures and take some guitar lessons using a course. I really recommend buying the eMedia Guitar Methods. They are easy and teach you a lot of songs and chords. I can't write a full review here, but eMedia Methods are worthy of money and they are quite cheap. Check emediamusic.com Good luck

Posted by: TommyMc on 2010-03-10, 07:07:30

You've really asked two different things: how to learn by ear, and how to improvise. They're both related, but approached differently. In both cases, scales and chord theory are going to help you. When I started learning 45 years ago, nobody told me this. Of course, I absorbed it all over the course of time without putting a name to it. You can save yourself a lot of time by jumping right into it. What scales and chord theory do is to help you make educated guesses as to what notes or chords might go together. You see, music follows rules, and it also is repetitive. Although there are hundreds of chords and possible combinations of notes, very few of them will occur in any single song. Knowing those notes is like finding the corner pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. In fact, learning a song by ear is very similar to solving a puzzle. It works best if you approach it in a logical progression. Even before you understand the reasons why, you'll probably observe that there are chords that commonly go together. If you're playing a song in the key of G, it's a good bet that the other chords will include C and D, and perhaps an Am or Em. The more you play, the easier it will be to recognize these relationships. A good exercise is to play different forms of a chord and learn to recognize them: A - Amaj7 - A7 - Am, etc. Learn to recognize a major chord when you hear it...as opposed to a minor chord or seventh. This is important ear training. Let's say you have a recording that you want to learn. The first thing to establish is the "key " it's played in. This will go a long way in defining what potential chords you'll be working with. A lot of music follows standard "chord progressions " and with some practice, you'll be able to recognize them. In 90% of popular music, the bass plays the root note of the chord. So listen to the bass. Play every note on your low E string until you find the one the bass guitar is playing. Chances are good that you've found the chord. The opening chord to a song is frequently...but not always....the key. Listen to the chord progression and try to determine where the cycle starts and ends. There will be a chord that the music seems to resolve on. That will be the key. Use the "follow-the-bass " method to find other chords. Now that you know the key (and some chord theory) you can make some educated guesses as to which chords to try. Yes, there's a lot of trial and error. To figure out a lead or riff, you need to know what chord it's being played over. The notes will almost certainly be contained in the scale of the chord. This is why scales are important.....they help you make more educated guesses. This brings us to improvisation. There are two methods I use when I improvise. The most basic is to use scales. If you know what chord is being played, any note in that chord's scale is fair game. You may not create a work of art, but you won't play any sour notes if you just stick to the scale. You can play random notes in the scale, try to pick out a melody, or play arpeggios. The other tool I use in improvisation is what I call my "bag of licks. " As you learn songs, you'll come across little riffs that might be useful in other songs. I'm showing my age here, but listen to the intro to Johnny B Goode. Then listen to Roll Over Beethoven, Fun Fun Fun (Beach Boys) and you'll recognize similar licks. Variations of that lick are used in hundreds of songs...learn it and put it in your bag-of-licks for future use. Eventually you'll have a small library of standard riffs that you can dig out, mix, and assemble into improvised leads. Your music teacher's advice is good. Unless you are thinking ahead of your fingers, you'll always be playing catch-up to the music. Be thinking of the next chord and what riffs you know that can be played with it. There is probably a lot more to improvisation and learning by ear, but the elements I've outlined will get you headed in the right direction. I've been doing this for over 45 years, so a lot of it is going on at a sub-conscious level which makes it hard to articulate. That's exactly how it should be, and will be for you too: automatic and sub-conscious. Just keep practicing and everything will become easier.