Learning to Play Guitar By Ear
How is it that some people can simply “play by ear”? What does that really mean? Well, just as an electrician can look at a circuit diagram and understand what it means, when you have a certain amount of “music” inside your being you can literally hear the structure of the music, just like looking at a circuit diagram, or blue print, or reading a book. It takes practice and anyone can learn how to do it if they go in small steps. This article is meant to get you motivated to start this long and important journey.
Music Theory
Whether its formal training or stuff you learn “on the street” you need to know the rudiments of music theory, like how to build chords (such as a G chord) and what it means to be in a “key” and what chords are meant by I IV and V which are Roman numerals—-how antiquated can you get! But it is important.
Listen
Before you can play by ear you have to stick a bunch of music in your ears. The sooner in life you start doing this, meaning the younger you are, the better your results will be. It gets harder for the brain to learn to wire music processing skills into it as you get older. And it doesn’t have to be complicated listening matter. In fact, even listening to nursury rhymes as a child is beneficial because the simple melodies can be easily remembered.
Ripping off
Ok this should really be relabelled as transcribing music others have already recorded. Basically you want to listen to what they are playing then try to match it note for note, beat for beat. The more accurate you are the better. Really the beginning is copying melodies, not solos. Transcribing solos comes later. To do this you need to know what all the different intervals sound like from unison through an octave.
Carry a tune
If you can’t “carry a tune” then you can’t play by ear; basically that means you need to be able to hum a melody to a familiar song with enough accuracy that people can recognize it. If you can “carry a tune” in your head that way then you have the mental musical skills required to someday execute it, and likely any other tune, on your guitar (or any instrument). It then becomes a matter of learning how to negotiate the instrument to play the sounds you hear in your head.
Be patient
This journey might take a long time. It can be frustrating at times. Its a difficult journey unless you were raised around music at an early age. But it is the most important musical journey you can take.
Getting started with transcription for the complete beginner
Try to pick out the melody of a familiar song, like a children’s song like Three Blind Mice or even Mary Had A Little Lamb. Add other songs as you get them down. Do not write down anything when you do this. The point is to hear the music and know how to execute it on the guitar and make an aural imprint in your brain of the melodies.
