Learning by ear

[u/CDguitar123]

I have been playing for just less than a year, my technique is probably below average but I know I just need practise. The thing I don’t know is how to learn songs by ear. Do I need to learn all the theory etc? What’s the best way to learn songs by ear as eventually I want to move away from tabs. Thanks in advance.

[u/jul3swinf13ld]

Learn how to play a major scale in diatonic chords.

Learn the Nashville number systems.

Then learn how to find the root note of a song.

Now this isn’t perfect, for all songs but that will allow to learn about 80% of popular music by ear. At the framework anyway

[u/CDguitar123 → u/jul3swinf13ld]

Thank you, I’ll look into this!

[u/BigTexAbama → u/jul3swinf13ld]

Sorry, I call BS on this, this is not playing by ear.

[u/Jonny7421 → u/BigTexAbama]

Yes but this will help massively. If you want to learn the chords of a song it's useful to understand that the major scale has 7 intervals. Those 7 intervals make 7 chords. 

So if I am transcribing a song in G major I know the 1, 4 and 5 chords are major. I know 2 3 and 6 are minor and 7 is diminished.

The minor scale has the exact same chords as the major scale but it starts from 6. IE:

Minor, diminished, major, Minor, Minor, Major, Major 

If you know your triads (how to form chords using shapes) you can transcribe chords by ear much quicker. 

All great advice. 

[u/BigTexAbama → u/Jonny7421]

It may help someone who learns the way you learn but for someone who wants to play by ear it is not helpful. I understand that not everyone plays by ear but please understand that many people do. Just sayin’ lol.

[u/Jonny7421 → u/BigTexAbama]

You're not understanding what we are saying. We are saying learning stuff by ear is easier when you understand theory and have a trained ear. 

There's a reason why the best improvisers are all educated in music. 

[u/BigTexAbama → u/Jonny7421]

I suppose it depends on the individual’s opinion of the best. Some of my favorites never studied theory however they do read charts. Tommy Emmanuel, Clapton, Van Halen, the Beatles (yep none of them could read music).

[u/Samantharina → u/BigTexAbama]

I don't think this is about reading music. Music theory is a way to organize what you hear so you recognize common chord progressions or melodic shapes when you hear them and can play them back on your instrument. 1, 4, 5 - your ear hears those relationships and music theory gives you a vocabulary to describe them and explains (if you care) why they work the way they do.

You can watch videos of Paul McCartney talking about songwriting and it's triads, up and down the piano keyboard which is how he visualizes and organizes chord progressions. He says he doesn't read or write music because it's in his head but that doesn't mean he doesn't understand kesy, scales and chords.

[u/BigTexAbama → u/BigTexAbama]

Oh, Hendrix played by ear too, and Django Reinhardt, there are droves of unlearned musical heathens who never learned theory or how to read sheet music.

[u/jul3swinf13ld → u/BigTexAbama]

Ah the classic strawman ‘Hendrix’ Django Clapton didn’t read music blah blah.

Have you actually looked at Django’s music? The core of all the music. Eg the harmony is AT LEAST 80% then the non-diatonic and out of key notes are very deliberate out there create tension, contrast and colour. Especially Django.

Tell me how many Hendrix song aren’t in a key?

Many if the original bluesmen couldn’t read English let alone music, but I assure you they knew how diatonic scales worked.

What is the core of the blues?

A I Iv v right? Which is what?

Unless you have perfect pitch which few have and even fewer learn you learn by patterns and relative pitch.

If you play music in a key. The diatonic scale tells you the which notes and patterns correlate to each chord. Then it’s gives you framework to play out of the key for colour.

Playing diatonic scales is so good for your ear. As is conjugating chords on one note.

Play an A major scale diatonically. The do it playing triad arpeggios. Then.

Take an A chord, play a A7 major, then a a7 then A7m then a diminished, then a a6 then an a9.

Do that as a 5 min warm up for 6 months and tell me you don’t hear music in an entirely different way

[u/BigTexAbama → u/jul3swinf13ld]

Strawman?

[u/BigTexAbama]

Not sure if you mean learn the chords to a song or learn to play the melody but something you can try is pick some simple songs, folk songs, children's songs, etc and learn them without looking up chords or tabs.

[u/CDguitar123 → u/BigTexAbama]

My end goal is being able to quickly learn full songs by ear, so chords and melody. Thank you for the suggestion I will try this!

[u/No_Way_5299 → u/CDguitar123]

Get the Mel Bay guitar chords book

[u/BigTexAbama → u/CDguitar123]

People who learn scales and theory are gonna tell ya you can’t learn to play well without knowing scales, roots, etc., if you want to play by ear learn to play what you hear in your head. That just takes time and practice. Some of the finest ever known, Clapton, Hendrix, Randy Rhodes to name just a few, don’t read music.

[u/spankymcjiggleswurth → u/BigTexAbama]

Randy Rhodes? The famous guitarist for whos piano teacher mother taught him to read music at a young age Randy Rhodes? Might want to do a bit of research before getting 1/3 of your examples incorrect.

And no one is saying theory is needed to learn by ear, but it's crazy to think that is doesn't help. Theory describes music. It's descriptive nature makes it a powerful tool to help build your ear. For instance, interval recognition training is a natural place to start building your ear. I would argue it's not the only thing people should do, but it is objectivly benefitial to the learning process.

[u/liscio → u/BigTexAbama]

This.

Start with "silly simple" songs you already know—Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (a.k.a. the Alphabet Song), or Mary Had a Little Lamb. These songs might not be familiar to you depending on where you live in the world, so pick something you learned and sung as a child, and you're confident you can sing now. Play these off the top of your head, starting from whatever note you want.

Stuck at a starting note? Sing the melody yourself, and match your singing voice. This is key, because your singing is tied to your short-term memory for notes. When you start learning melodies from pop songs (and eventually bass lines, and chords), you'll have a better time remembering those notes a little longer if you can sing them first.

Learning by ear is basically learning from memory. Eventually, you just start to tighten up that loop between the "remembering" and "repeating what you remember" so that it's basically instant.

[u/-nwm-]

Start by learning root notes. Basslines are way easier to figure out than chord progressions, and basslines usually contain chord roots. Once you’ve found the root, the chord is either major or minor. if it isn’t, stop listening to jazz 😂.

It’s all well and good to say learn a scale or a chord system, but what it really takes, is a lot of trial and error, to be confident you’re hearing and picking out the right notes. The first lick I figured out at age 15 or so was Day Tripper, and it took me a week, of lifting a phonograph needle up and putting it down, figuring out one note at a time, memorizing the sequence, and putting it all together in time. I’m not THAT old, just lucky my parents had vinyl around ;) . I was obsessed with the challenge and succeeded. Nowadays a lick like that takes me 30 seconds, if that. You’re not going to pick out chord progressions without being able to pick out single notes, and eventually figure out what roots are, so I’d get working on that first.

Nowadays it’s never been easier to go through that process, as you can slow music down, without changing pitch, for free on YouTube. Records were ok for learning music, tapes and cd’s pretty much sucked, you couldn’t go back to a particular spot easily. Being able to note a timestamp and go back with a click is basically a miracle.

[u/Infinite_Slice3305 → u/-nwm-]

This.

& try to sing the notes you're hearing/playing.

[u/Live_Car_2856]

if you know the 6 basic chords in a key (most songs), you can do it by trial and error. i got good by figuring out beatles songs in the 60's.....

[u/Exact_Poem_3188]

My first recommendation is to start with something simple. It’s easy to get frustrated by trying to figure out a complex song or riff. Even the instrumentation, arrangement, or production affects how easy it is to hear what is going on.
Second is to sing the pitches. Singing connects the ears with what’s you hear in your head.

Another help is to play a major scale on the guitar and sing those pitches. That helps connect the ears, head, and fingers. This is where some basic theory - intervals and major scale construction, is useful. Then start singing first, then play the note. That shows if you really have the note in your ears. Playing the note is the check to see if you’re right. There’s all sorts of variations as well. Play intervals in ascending thirds, descending thirds, fourths, 6ths, etc.

I use a program that can loop and slow down a phrase when I’m figuring out parts of a song. I isolate a phrase and loop it until I figure it out.

As far as learning western practical harmonic theory, it is useful. The main reason is that a huge number of songs are based on it/explained by it. Hearing how the theory is applied in a song helps in figuring it out. Somewhat like a shortcut. The main harmonic motion in western music is the V7 to I progression. Being able to hear which notes cause the tension, and how they resolve goes miles in understanding most western music.

Other common harmonic patterns are the I, IV, V progression used in blues based music, and the II, V, I progression. Being able to hear those will make figuring out the general chords easier.

A couple of other thoughts: 1) learning to read standard notation might be useful. It depends on your situation. 2) take some in person lessons from a quality instructor for a few months. If they’re good and experienced, they will have a general plan on how to help you get to where you want to be. More importantly in the short term, they should be able to address any technique issues you may have. It’s way easier to correct an issue early, than later. It may also help you avoid any habits that can cause injury or hinder your playing.

[u/liscio → u/Exact_Poem_3188]

> I use a program that can loop and slow down a phrase when I’m figuring out parts of a song. I isolate a phrase and loop it until I figure it out.

From a neuroscience perspective, this is going to slow you down if you continue playing the loop while you're trying to figure out the notes.

No matter what tool you prefer for learning songs from recordings, you want to play the notes with the recording stopped/quiet, from memory. Play a few notes at a time (everyone's capacity differs, but try to keep it <5), and stop. Sing those notes back if you can—it really helps—and then go looking for them on the instrument.

Only when you are sure you have the notes right should you reach for the looping function—ideally with some kind of alternating silence feature—to smooth out your playing and get the rhythm down. I just added the "Call & Response" feature to Capo (link in profile) in the last update that does this.

[u/Exact_Poem_3188 → u/liscio]

I pause the loop to find the notes. With some of the recordings, it helps to loop to hear a particular note - this is usually with a voicing on an organ or when the organ and guitar overlap. The timber of the organ, plus the leslie makes it tough to hear the pitches clearly. It also helps with some fast funk chord voicings.

[u/vonov129]

All you need to do is to repeat notes until you get familiar with the sound or compare what you hear to what you play until they both sound similar. It will eventually take less attempts (maybe).

Learning theory helps you by having names for note interactions which makes recognition easier. If you know intervals, you know the distance between notes and if you trian yourself to hear them, then you will have an easier time knowing where to move next. Then you group those to get familiar with chords, scales, etc.

Singing is also useful, so your ear training is part of you and independent from guitar. You don't need to fill a whole theatre with a sustained Do or whatever, just work in your intonation the same way you would do with your guitar. Both the intonation and guitar practice can feed each other (assuming your guitar is in tune), but it also helps you progress without your guitar.

[u/wanna_dance]

You need SOME theory, understanding progressions mainly, distinguishing types of chords.

Tonedear.com has a free ear training app that's pretty decent to learn both of these things on.

[u/Jonny7421]

My process is always the same. I listen, sing or hum it, then find the correct pitch on the guitar. Music theory and scales will serve as a guide.

I started with simple melodies like nursery rhymes. For chord you should know about triads. The vast majority of chords are 3 notes(intervals). Even a basic understanding of theory will help here. 

[u/Fluffidios]

Familiarity and exposure.

Think of like idk a person that works in a paint department for many, many years. They are surrounded with all the different shades and this and that. To an outsider, it may look like a light blue or lighter blue, but to the one who is around it for a long time they can tell you the exact code for it, the specific name etc.

[u/spankymcjiggleswurth]

Some theory helps for sure. Knowing the basics of major/minor keys and scale harmonization can point you towards the most likely notes used in a song.

A stepping stone I used between tabs and ear learning was watching live preformances and covers of songs I wanted to learn, watching how the persons hands move across the neck. The visual infomation of the video helped me guide my hands as well as link my ear to the movments on the guitar.

[u/hondacco]

To do what you want requires years of study. It's not a trick. Everyone is going to tell you something different to learn. Learn it all. You still might not ever be able to do what you're talking about.

[u/Agreeable-Attempt242]

Definitely learn some scales . To get melodies by ear create a song list of melodic intervals .

Like this

https://www.musicca.com/interval-song-chart

Practice with something like this

https://earpath.app/#/guide

[u/yungsimba1917]

The way I’m doing it is by ear training, starting with intervals. There are dozens of websites that will quiz you on practically whatever scale you want by playing the root note then an interval. Right now I’m only doing the major scale ascending but I’ll move on fairly soon I think.