Training Your Ear

 

As you move beyond the beginner stage on guitar you will, no doubt, want to start learning new songs on your own.

There are many sources for picking up new material including - songbooks, sheet music and online sources. These will all be beneficial to your learning process and we would recommend you explore all the possibilities.

However, the single most important way to truly expand your musical horizons is to learn songs by listening directly to the recording.

By picking out parts that you hear for yourself on the recording, you will be getting deeper into the music than you ever could just looking at the sheet music. As a result you will be training your ear to listen at a higher level.

Eventually the parts and pieces of music that you learn from listening to the recording will trigger new playing ideas and open up doors of new possibilities that will, in time, become incorporated in your own guitar playing style.

Learning a song by listening directly to the original recording may sound a little daunting at first, but after you do it for a while it is really easier than you might think.

The only way to really learn how to do it, is to do it! Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Determine what key the song is in

2. Determine the first chord of the song

3. Figure out the bass notes of the chords in the verse or first part of the song

4. Using the bass notes, determine the actual chords

5. Write down the chords for the verse or first part of the song

6. Repeat process for the chorus, bridge and/or remaining parts of the song

 

Determine what key the song is in - This is the first step and is largely a matter of trial and error in the beginning. Instead of trying to figure out the first chord, it is easier to break it down further and figure out the first bass note (root note). You can do this by playing the first chord of the recording, pausing it, then play around with the notes on your 6th or 5th string until you find the one that matches the recording. Once you find the first bass note that is usually a good indicator of what key the song is in.

Determine the first chord of the song - Once you know the bass note on the first chord then you can figure out what the chord is pretty easily. In most cases it will either be a major chord, a minor chord or a 7th chord. Those are the main ones used in songwriting although you may come across an occasional major 7th, minor 7th or some other variation.

Figure out the bass notes of the chords in the verse or first part of the song- Don't try to learn the whole song at once. Break it down into manageable sections i.e. verse, chorus, bridge etc. Start with the first part of the song, which will quite often be a verse, and figure out the bass notes for the chords in the verse.

Using the bass notes, determine the actual chords - Each bass note that you now have is simply the root note of the chord. So you only need to figure out if that chord is a major, minor, 7th etc. For example, if you know that the bass note of a chord is an "E", then all you have to do is play through some E variations (major, minor etc.) until you find the one that sounds like the recording.

Write down the chords for the verse or first part of the song- Always have a note pad handy and once you know what the chords are for the verse, write them down. Not only to help to remember them, but also because you may start to notice a familiar chord progression evolving. i.e. I, IV, V or I, IIm, IV, V etc. If you do recognize a pattern in the progression it may really help you  figure out the rest of the song.

Repeat process for the chorus, bridge and/or remaining parts of the song - Once you have the verse or first part of the chord progression figured out it is largely just a matter of repeating the same thing for the other parts of the song.

Songs, as you know, have many common structures and once you have the first verse figured out then it is usually the same chord progression for the rest of the verses. The same holds true for choruses etc. There are normally no more than two or three sections to figure out and then you have the whole song!