Improving your ear ...

guitarblaster

Hey guys. I've on a massive learning kick at the moment. 

Last few months I've bought an online course 'The bullet proof guitar player' which I would recommend for theory and recently Steve Vai Vaideology book. I've also taken an Skype lesson with Rick Graham (very nice guy). 

I knew I needed to improve my ear, but from my lesson with Rick it became apparent I really do and this is what's given me a kick up the bum! 

I don't have a natural musical ear, can't sing. Honestly, I feel this way about my playing, I feel I'm decent with rhythm and touch on the guitar, I naturally play with my thumb over the neck and seem to take to learning Jimi Hendrix songs and all the RnB style fills fairly easily. That aspect of my playing is what inspires me to keep playing, but I do feel like I'm cheating in a sense because what I play is basically all memorised from shapes, knowing what chords belong in a key, but I can't HEAR the chords. 

I know there is no quick fix to developing the ear, I've tried before but I'm more motivated that ever now just to make some progress on my ear so it's not completely non functional. 

At the moment I'm just trying to identify intervals of the major scale. 

Does anyone have any success stories on this? Would love to hear from someone who classed themselves as not having 'an ear' to identify intervals/notes etc and what you did to develop it a bit.  Would also love to hear from a pro who knows how they've helped people in the past to improve their ear!

Thanks a lot guys. 

octatonic

Transcribe songs and use ear training software/sites such as https://www.teoria.com

fastonebaz

You basically need to start humming more and singing along in the car.  And him along to lead lines you play. 

The rest will follow

guitarblaster

Thanks fellas, hah about to do an hours drive now. I’m gonna try singing on the way! 

Thanks for the site recomendation, I’ll explore that! 

EricTheWeary

What's that film with Jimmy Page in? He can't sing a note but his ear was okay so that's not much of a barometer.

Mine isn't great but when. I was trying to work out songs for a band it got better. Nothing deeply technical in my case just chord progressions and key riffs. Take a simple sounding song and chasing the bass note until I'm confident I've got the basic progression then working out what is major or minor. Possibly the easiest place to start is with 12 bar blues where the chord changes are clearly laid out and it’s very repetitive.

And structured listening seems helpful to me. Sitting with a pen and paper and working out how a song goes Intro, Verse, Verse, Chorus,etc,etc, even the lyrics. Anything that makes you listen hard so when you come to the guitar parts it’s already in your head. 

VimFuego

what kinda works for me is to 1st get the rhythm down, just playing on a single note and as has been said, humming it, then working out the intervals. I don't worry so much about the key initially (though I confess that a lot of what I play is in 1 of two keys, playing in the right key is the last thing I work out. 

EricTheWeary

VimFuego said:

what kinda works for me is to 1st get the rhythm down, just playing on a single note and as has been said, humming it, then working out the intervals. I don't worry so much about the key initially (though I confess that a lot of what I play is in 1 of two keys, playing in the right key is the last thing I work out. 

I think of it like a jigsaw so it’s whatever piece is easiest is easiest to start with, then it’s the tricky bits of sky then the last pieces should fill in the gaps. But harder to do if you haven’t had a good look at the picture on the box. 

Rocker

Listen to the ‘whole’ and repeat until you can hear the song in your head. Then study the guitar part: first the key, then the chord structure and the riffs and note how the riffs and guitar parts fit into the song. There are remarkably similar elements in music, music that on first listen sounds completely different from what you know or heard before. My advice is to get to ‘know’ the entire song first before breaking it down to it’s constituent parts. 

viz

One great exercise that will soon become 2nd nature is just to name the chords as the music flows by. Or if you are singing along, put up the number of fingers for each chord. Don’t worry about whether the chords are major or minor or diminished or have inversions or extensions, unless you’re already able to. Just name the chord number, like 1 5 6 4 for Since You Been Gone for example. 

Lestratcaster

Its about keeping the last thing you heard in your head and then replicating it. If you can sing it you can play it, as well. 

For riffs its rhythm based so more than anything get the rhythm and timing right. For years before I started playing properly I wouldn't learn riffs correctly.

For notes its about trying to match the pitch, so singing along and trying to find the note on the guitar is how I do it.

For chords its just come from me being able to play over 1000 songs and just basically training my ear to know if a chord is major/minor and in a particular key.

There's apps like Earmaster, MusiTheory.net and another one I can't recall the name of to help too.

guitarblaster

Thanks guys, I’ve taken on board all of your advice and playing today was quite different, I tried working out songs by ear and humming the major scale! I think I’ve been going overboard on learning theory and this is quite a refreshing change even though it’s hard!

carlos

How are Rick's fingers and tendons doing? I heard he was going through a bad patch

guitarblaster

Hey Carlos, I didn't ask him anything about it but he was playing effortlessly and at warp speed without trying or realising. 

Danny1969

viz said:

One great exercise that will soon become 2nd nature is just to name the chords as the music flows by. Or if you are singing along, put up the number of fingers for each chord. Don’t worry about whether the chords are major or minor or diminished or have inversions or extensions, unless you’re already able to. Just name the chord number, like 1 5 6 4 for Since You Been Gone for example. 

This is what I did for years ..... I used to listen to stuff on the radio,  try and guess the progression like 1, 6, 3, 7 etc and then see if I was right when I got home and could pick a guitar up. I got pretty good at it after a while. I visualise musical intervals like inchs ......... Am to C progression is an inch and 1\2 ....... Am to D is 2 and a half inches   

viz

Danny1969 said:

viz said:

One great exercise that will soon become 2nd nature is just to name the chords as the music flows by. Or if you are singing along, put up the number of fingers for each chord. Don’t worry about whether the chords are major or minor or diminished or have inversions or extensions, unless you’re already able to. Just name the chord number, like 1 5 6 4 for Since You Been Gone for example. 

This is what I did for years ..... I used to listen to stuff on the radio,  try and guess the progression like 1, 6, 3, 7 etc and then see if I was right when I got home and could pick a guitar up. I got pretty good at it after a while. I visualise musical intervals like inchs ......... Am to C progression is an inch and 1\2 ....... Am to D is 2 and a half inches   

Nice

carlos

guitarblaster said:

Hey Carlos, I didn't ask him anything about it but he was playing effortlessly and at warp speed without trying or realising. 

Great to read that. 

mixolyd

@guitarblaster ;

Have you heard of functional ear training?  It’s been developed by a guy called Alain Benbessat.
It’s about learning to recognise how the different functions feel relative to a well defined home key, rather than learning intervals from arbitrary notes as is done traditionally.  I’m finding that this approach chimes perfectly with how I perceive tones and I’m correctly identifying tons of intervals whereas I really struggled to make progress the usual way.

https://advancingmusician.com/functional-ear-training

There’s a desktop program and an iOS app, both free.  The iOS app is really very nice to use, though the desktop version seems to have a chord identifying exercise that is yet to make it into the iOS version.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/functional-ear-trainer/id1088761926

viz

I think this is a great little app. 

guitarmangler

mixolyd said:

@guitarblaster ;

Have you heard of functional ear training?  It’s been developed by a guy called Alain Benbessat.
It’s about learning to recognise how the different functions feel relative to a well defined home key, rather than learning intervals from arbitrary notes as is done traditionally.  I’m finding that this approach chimes perfectly with how I perceive tones and I’m correctly identifying tons of intervals whereas I really struggled to make progress the usual way.

https://advancingmusician.com/functional-ear-training

There’s a desktop program and an iOS app, both free.  The iOS app is really very nice to use, though the desktop version seems to have a chord identifying exercise that is yet to make it into the iOS version.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/functional-ear-trainer/id1088761926

I’ve just downloaded this and tried it out. It’s fantastic! Thanks for the heads up. Will read up on functional ear training, too. 

mixolyd

@viz @guitarmangler ;;

Glad you guys like it.  I’d been thinking about trying so make some sort of exercise for myself since I’d noticed that while my normal interval training was going nowhere fast I was much better at recognising tones in a real musical context.  This app solves that problem and then some!

There is an android version of the app also I see.  In one day I’ve apparently mastered the major scale, onto the minor!

Catthan

What was suggested to me by a pro bass player friend was to come up with any melody in my head (that's where you really "hear" it when you play)  and then try to play it and sing it at the same time. 

What comes out of your mouth may sound awful and that's ok. Jazz guitar players don't seem to mind and you are not trying to fix your vocal range or pitch. 
Somehow singing reinforces that link and improves playing what you hear vs relying on muscle memory. 

Check out George Benson (although his voice is great too..)

My friend initially did it to break out of shapes and licks and build on his improv and melody creation skills so you get a lot from doing this - improve your ear and your melody creation ability