Ear Training And How It Helps On Guitar

There are many musicians that learn to play music by reading music, but a lot of popular musicians didn't come up that way.  They learned to play music by developing a great ear for music.  There is no law that says a musician needs to read music.  In fact many of the musicians that learn to play by ear are very successful and can sometimes relate even better to an audience since their songs focus more on stories and emotions.  Guitar is especially a popular instrument to learn to play by ear.  There are a lot of courses online that help guitarists play by ear.  So I wanted to focus this post on ear training so that guitarists can have help playing their instruments without having to learn how to read music.

Guitarist playing by ear

I do want to clarify that ear training and reading music isn't a "one or the other" approach to playing guitar.  In fact the best musicians use both.  So even if you do know how to read music, I suggest you still read through these ear training suggestions to be the best guitarist you can be.  Check out this introduction to ear training at http://www.blackbeltguitar.com/news/show_news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1065728716&archive=.

Why Ear Training?

Listening and composing are Siamese twins of a sort. Every time you listen, you form an impression about things going in the music that you personally like and want to make it your own, and you find it coming out in your playing. The more you understand what you are hearing, the more readily you recognize it when you hear it, then you can categorize it in your own mind, then retrieve it later when needed.

A Practical Definition

A practical definition of ear training is: training your mind to understand what your ear hears. Given this definition, is not so daunting or tedious to learn to listen for what is going on in the music you love.

Structuring Your Own Ear Training Program

Not all ear training programs are created equal. You only need to learn what is useful and practical for the kind of music you want to listen to and play, so let that music be your guide. Now, as you listen to the music you love, try to describe musically what is going on in terms that you or another musician can understand. If some area confounds you, or you can't quite sort out what is happening, then you know you need ear training work in that area.

Essential Elements of Ear Training

Here are some essential elements to learn to recognize by ear:

• Perfect Pitch Tone Identification (name that note)
• Perfect Pitch Aural Recall (sing a note without a queue)
• Interval Recognition (name that interval up AND down, melodically. Also harmonically)
• Chord Decomposing (hearing the individual tones in a chord)
• Chord Type Recognition (name that chord by its sound color alone)
• Melodic Scale Degree Recognition (1, b3, 4, 5)
• Harmonic Scale Degree Recognition (I, II, IV, III)
• Cadence Recognition (where in the song are we?)
• Speed Recognition (all of the above)
• Tempo or Meter Recognition (how fast is that?)
• Rhythm or Beat Recognition (salsa, reggae, 4/4, shuffle)

If any of these areas is particularly hard for you to discern or describe, then you may need to sharpen your ear or your theory or both. There are good software and audio products available to drill you initially, but don't become dependent on them. After you understand the terms and concepts that should be trained into your ear, the best ear training is done on your own instrument, and by listening to music and drilling yourself.
Remember that the most important goal of ear training is to learn of these elements by recognition or intuition alone, without too much mental processing. Like learning a new language, this is a long process, and is best learned by small doses every day over time, rather than cramming for some test.

Guitarist in recording studio
playing by ear

One of the best ways to develop your musical ear is by mastering music intervals.  Knowing all the scale intervals will help your ear training process along dramatically.  Check out this valuable lesson here at http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/for_beginners/musical_intervals.html.

Basic Ear Training

Introduction:

Hello, and welcome to another lesson by CPDmusic! (If you haven’t read my other beginner lessons, check them out!) Today, I’m going to do another theory lesson, just like my Major vs. Minor lesson. But this lesson will also incorporate a bit of basic ear training! It is about music intervals. You’re probably saying to yourself “Musical intervals! What the heck are those?” and that is perfectly reasonable. Musical intervals are the difference in pitch between two notes. Being able to recognize different musical intervals is the first step to being able to transcribe music by ear, and who doesn’t want to be able to do that! So get ready, because here we go!

The Intervals:

First of all, I should probably tell you the names of the intervals. These intervals will be looked at more closely later on, but for now, just check out this list:

Unison
Minor Second
Major Second
Minor Third
Major Third
Perfect Fourth
Tritone
Perfect Fifth
Minor Sixth
Major Sixth
Minor Seventh
Major Seventh
Perfect Eighth

Does it look like a lot? Don’t worry about it; this stuff is probably a lot easier than you think! Just take a deep breath, and we’ll get started looking at each interval.

Unison:

Unison is the easiest interval, as it is when both notes are exactly the same. Look at the example below:

E||------------||
B||------------||
G||------------||
D||------------||
A||------------||
E||--0----0----||

Minor Second:

A minor second is when a note is one semitone, or, in guitar terms, one fret, higher or lower than the previous note. (if you don’t know what major or minor mean, read this) Check out the example below:

E||------------||
B||------------||
G||------------||
D||------------||
A||------------||
E||--0----1----||

Major Second: 

A major second is when a note is one tone, or two frets, higher or lower than the previous note. Check out this example:

E||------------||
B||------------||
G||------------||
D||------------||
A||------------||
E||--0----2----||

Minor Third:

A minor third is when a note is three semitones, or three frets, higher or lower than the previous note. Look at this example:

E||------------||
B||------------||
G||------------||
D||------------||
A||------------||
E||--0----3----||

Major Third: 

A major third is when a note is two tones, or four frets, higher or lower than the previous note. See this example:

E||------------||
B||------------||
G||------------||
D||------------||
A||------------||
E||--0----4----||

The Rest: 

You should start to see the pattern, so let’s just fly by the rest:

Perfect Fourth: 5 semitones

E||------------||
B||------------||
G||------------||
D||------------||
A||------------||
E||--0----5----||

Tritone: 3 tones

E||------------||
B||------------||
G||------------||
D||------------||
A||------------||
E||--0----6----||

Perfect Fifth: 7 semitones

E||------------||
B||------------||
G||------------||
D||------------||
A||------------||
E||--0----7----||

Minor Sixth: 4 tones

E||------------||
B||------------||
G||------------||
D||------------||
A||------------||
E||--0----8----||

Major Sixth: 9 semitones

E||------------||
B||------------||
G||------------||
D||------------||
A||------------||
E||--0----9----|

Minor Seventh: 5 tones

E||------------||
B||------------||
G||------------||
D||------------||
A||------------||
E||--0----10----||

Major Seventh: 11 semitones

E||------------||
B||------------||
G||------------||
D||------------||
A||------------||
E||--0----11----||

Perfect Eighth: 6 tones (one octave)

E||------------||
B||------------||
G||------------||
D||------------||
A||------------||
E||--0----12----||

Okay, So What?

“Okay, so what?” is probably what you’re thinking right now. You’re probably asking yourself how knowing this makes you better musician. Well, if you can recognize these when you hear them, you will obviously have a better ear, and be able to transcribe music by ear more accurately. For example, did you know the first two notes from the theme of Star Wars are a perfect fifth from each other? With this, if you could identify the first note as, let’s say E (I don’t know if this is actually true, it’s just an example), you could then also identify the second note from the melody to be B, which gives you the first two notes.

You could then compare the 2nd to the 3rd, the 3rd to 4th, and so on. This is a rather tedious way of transcribing by ear, but it’s also a lot easier than playing random notes and comparing them to the recording. So, I probably just brought up another question. “How the heck do I recognize them?”

Recognization:

With practice you should be able to recognize intervals by ear. This, in my mind, is a two step process.

STEP 1: Find a way to help you remember what the intervals sound like. The most common way is to relate them to a piece of music you know very well. Here are a few I use:

Minor second = Theme from “Jaws”
Major second = Frere Jacques
Minor Second = Canadian National Anthem
Major Second = Them from “The Simpsons”
Perfect Fourth = Here Comes the Bride
Perfect Fifth = Theme from “Star Wars”
Perfect Eighth = Somewhere Over the Rainbow

STEP 2: Now, you need to actually have to hear intervals to recognize them. Here are three ways to go about doing that:

a) Listen to the beginning of your favourite songs. If you have an audio editor, crop out the first two notes or something, and loop them. The downside to this is you don’t know if you’re right, unless you know someone who is knowledgeable on the concept.
b) Get a friend who is knowledgeable on the subject to play random intervals on an instrument (it doesn’t have to be guitar, any instrument works.), while you try identifying them.
c) Go to my brand-spanking-new YouTube channel, where you will find the first of a series of videos that are tests on musical intervals. Here is a link.

Closing:

Well, another lesson has come and gone, and know your ear is (hopefully) better trained for transcription. Now, before I go, I want to tell you that my next lesson will be about harmonization, which will use this information. Why do I want to tell you this? I want to tell you this because somebody recommended I write a lesson on harmonization, so I am going to. I encourage all of you to give me some suggestions, because I write what you guys want to read! Thanks for your time, and goodbye.

Guitarist on stage at live show

One of the most recognized guitarists in popular music is Steve Vai.  Fortunately, he has provided a series built on the importance of ear training and suggestions to developing your ear.  Check out the first installment here at http://www.guitarworld.com/ultra-zone-steve-vais-course-ear-training-part-1.

GuitarWorld.com is revisiting Steve Vai's classic mag column, "The Ultra Zone," for this crash course in ear training.

I could never overstate the importance of a musician’s need to develop his or her ear. Actually, I believe that developing a good “inner ear” — the art of being able to decipher musical components solely through listening — is the most important element in becoming a good musician. Possessing a healthy imagination is a necessary ingredient for creativity.

But without the ability to bring those imagined sounds into the real world, one’s creative aspirations will remain crippled. Training one’s ears to understand and recognize musical sounds and concepts is one of the most vital ways to fortify the connection between the musical ideas in one’s mind and the musical sounds created on one’s instrument.

All musicians practice ear training constantly, whether or not they are cognizant of it. If, when listening to a piece of music, a musician is envisioning how to play it or is trying to play along, that musician is using his or her “ear” — the understanding and recognition of musical elements — for guidance.

This is also true when trying to emulate a piece of music, or transcribe it, or even just finding inspiration in it. No matter what one is playing, one’s ear is the navigational device that steers the musical ship where it will go. Without a good ear at the helm, you could find yourself musically adrift at sea.

I have always been fascinated with looking at music written on paper. When I was in college, I took a class called solfege, which entailed learning how to sight-sing. Sight-singing is the art of looking at a piece of written music and singing it. First, you identify the key center, and then you sing the written pitches, using the “doe-ray-me” phonetic structure, just like that song in the movie The Sound of Music. “Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do” (pronounced “Doe-ray-me-fa-so-la-tee-doe”) represents a major scale; there are other monosyllabic sounds that represent the other pitches that reside within a 12-tone octave. These solfege classes in college were difficult courses, but they were well worth the time invested. A thorough study and analysis of solfege within the confines of this column would be impractical, so I can only encourage you to investigate it on your own.

I’ve always considered transcribing to be an invaluable tool in the development of one’s musical ear and, over the years, I have spent countless glorious hours transcribing different kinds of music, either guitar-oriented or not. The most well-known example of my guitar-based transcribing labors is The Frank Zappa Guitar Book (Hal Leonard), for which I transcribed, among other things, the entire Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar series of recordings. Many musicians, however, do not have the ability to pull the sounds — guitar solos, rhythm parts, melody lines, etc.—off the records that they love. Transcribing is an art that takes a lot of practice and a study that I encourage everyone to experiment with.

But fear not: you do not need to have the ability to sight-read or transcribe in order to practice ear training exercises. If you are just sitting there with a guitar, there are still a great many ways to develop your ears, in the quest to strengthen the connection between your head and your fingers. Below, I have outlined some of the ways a guitarist can work on ear training exercises using just the guitar.

As guitarists, there are certain things that most of us do that are simply part of the program: we learn some scales, develop some exercises intended to improve our physical abilities, work on chord forms on different parts of the neck, etc. I believe it is extremely important to put aside some time dedicated solely to focusing on ear training.

One of the easiest ways to begin working on ear training is to sing what you play. For example, you can play a C major scale (C D E F G A B) in any position — preferably one that is physically comfortable for you—and sing each note of the scale as you play it, being very careful to sing on pitch as accurately as possible. Start with one note: play the note, sing it, and then play and sing the note simultaneously. Then go to two notes. Once you feel comfortable, take a little piece of that scale, say, the notes C, D, E and F, and create a very simple melody with these notes for you to sing simultaneously, à la jazz guitarist George Benson.

This is an easy way to get your ear in sync with the sounds your fingers are creating. Whether you’re soloing over a rhythmic vamp or are playing alone in free time, you have to really stick with it, and don’t allow yourself to slip up or drift into something else. The idea is to endlessly improvise and sing what you are playing, using any key.

Another good thing to do is to record a simple one-chord vamp to play over. First, only play/sing notes that fall within the key, staying within a basic note structure of a five-, six- or seven-tone scale. Don’t start wandering off into your favorite guitar licks to play; save that for another time, when you’ve developed your ear to the point where you can sing just about anything you can play. This is an exercise in discipline: do not play anything that you cannot follow perfectly with your voice. Whether you stay within one octave of the guitar, or you sing the notes an octave lower than the sounding pitches, or you use falsetto to hit the high notes, you must be able to recreate all of the notes played on the guitar with your voice.

If you work on this every day, you’ll find yourself getting better and better at it, and it will become easier to do. The cool thing that happens is that you’ll begin to hear music more clearly in your head, allowing you to formulate musical ideas—write music—within your head, without the aid of a guitar. When you finally do pick up the instrument, you will discover that you will instinctively be able to play these ideas that have taken form in your mind.
To take this a step further, try this exercise: without a guitar at your disposal, picture the guitar’s fretboard in your mind, and then envision playing something so that you will “hear” and “see” the notes as they are played. It may be helpful to sing the notes as you imagine them being played. This is an excellent exercise that will fortify your mind-fretboard relationship and actually improve your ear by strengthening the acknowledgment of “pitch relativity” (how one pitch relates to another, in terms of sound and placement) on the guitar’s fretboard. You may discover some cloudy areas in your mind’s eye/ear, but if you work through it, the picture will soon become clearer and clearer.

These techniques do not address the act of playing one thing on the guitar and singing something completely different. Someone like Jimi Hendrix had the uncanny ability to play very complex rhythm parts and single-note riffs while singing complementary parts. This technique requires a whole different set of brain muscles and is very difficult for many players. Playing one thing while singing another must be worked on as an independent field of study. If I could play the guitar and sing at the same time, hey, I might have a career! I’ll be back next time with some more effective ways to help you to develop your ear.

Guitarist listening to
and playing songs by ear

Jazz music is one of the most popular styles of music that constantly works your ear training.  Jazz musicians work for years to develop their ears to be able to react in real time on stage to unplanned improvisation.  Playing jazz guitar gigs is one of the best ways to develop your musical ears.  Find a stellar lesson on jazz guitar ear training here at http://www.jazzguitarlessons.net/ear-training.html.

Steady Musical Growth
and "jazz performance ear training"

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of learning to make music is the training of the ears. Working on (and achieving) good listening/hearing is seldom discussed... but make no mistake : musicians who actually "do it" usually make strides in a short amount of time!
Ear training anyone...?!

Why develop our ears?

We know that changing our general perception (of life, music, relationships, etc.) can change the way we create and play music (as discussed here). Of course, changing and developing our aural perception should also yield results.

In fact, I can almost guarantee that exercising your hearing a little will improve your playing (regardless of level, instrument or style).

Yes, it's that simple!

If you were only allowed to practice and work on one "musical topic" throughout your life, only "ear training" (and developing deeper listening in general) would provide you with steady musical growth all along.

All the jazz legends tell us the same thing: It's all about listening! Great music is performed when good musicians play together and listen to each other really well.
In short, the better you hear yourself and other musicians around you, the greater your musical abilities become (to play, interact, improvise, compose, etc.) Sounds empowering, doesn't it?

"Ear Training" Overview

I don't like the expression "ear training" in general because it's too often associated with classes, books or softwares. These tools can certainly help... but they can feel "out of context" (as compared to the playing situation musicians get themselves into.)

Recognizing intervals in a classroom is very different from listening to sounds "under fire", on stage!

This current article deals with the general aspects of listening and aural perception while playing music. Several guidelines will be given to put the concepts into practice. Most of the tips and technique are directly related to jazz performance...

Not what you're looking for?

There's is plenty of ear training resources out there to help you work on the "technical ear training". I won't go into more details here ...

Ear Training in performance : jazzmen on the bandstand

Please imagine this as if it were really hapenning to you, today. Here's the premise :
You get a call, someone asks you to sub in and play (on a gig) tonight, in just a few hours. Pay is good; you accept. Your bandmates are strangers from out of town (good jazz musicians). It's understood that the band will only be playing tunes you're familiar with.
By the way : there's a crowd of 20-30 people waiting in that jazz club. The audience is eager to hear the band. People are also curious : there's a "new guy" in the group tonight... that's you! Ready? You meet up, plug in and... Show STARTS!

So, let me ask you a few questions. Please answer honestly to yourself. In that unexpected musical situation, could you ...

• Identify the chord substitutions imposed by the pianist ? (provided you do know and hear the "normal" changes very well).
• Determine what meter the drummer decided to shift to ?
• Hear if anyone (or even yourself) is lost in the form ?
• Sense if the music is rushing (speeding up) or dragging (slowing down) ?
• "Wing it" and improvise a decent solo on an un-familiar 32-bar form tune ? (by playing mostly by ear, "faking it")
• Tell if you, or someone else is out of tune in the group?
• Hear if the sounds are well "balanced" ? (are the drums too loud? is the bass too soft? etc.)
• Get the "musical clues" as to how the other musicians will be ending the current tune ? (vamp, turnaround, tag, other?)
• Tell right away what inversion of the chord the bassist is playing (for a chord that lasts 2-4 bars) ?
• Interact on a melodic, harmonic or rhythmic level (or all three) with any/all other band members? (while you solo or comp)
• Tell when it's time for you to lay out completely ?
• etc.

Assessment

So? How did you do?! Was the gig good, okay or a total train wreck? The "live playing" situation is very different from an ear training software, book or CD, isn't ?!

If you can't honestly answer "yes" to at least half of the questions above, you know you have some serious work to do in ear training.

Don't worry though ... because you've come to the right place to get better! (and find out more about hearing / listening habits.) Wherever you stand, only more experience and serious dedicated listening can help you feel (and play) better in that kind of situation.

Do you now understand the difference between technical ear training exercises and "real life" type of aural perception?

Even if you finish with an "A+" in all ear training classes
at Berklee College, does it mean that you'll be genuinely
listening and interacting with other musicians on stage?

What do you think?

In short, "ear training" is not just about recognizing intervals or melodic dictations; it's also about listening to yourself and to other musicians when you perform. Keep that in mind, always.

How to do it?

You should work on "jazz performance ear training" :

1. When you're alone;
2. When playing with other musicians.

Remember : The main goal here is to be better prepared for your next musical engagement (like the fictional situation above). So, your main focus should be on applying this stuff in real playing situations.

Suggestions and Exercises : Preparation (by yourself)

I like to think of the "loner" part of ear training as a preparation for the next gig or rehearsal. By being better prepared (mentally and aurally), you can "catch" a lot of stuff more easily (in the heat of the performance).

- Rhythms - 

To me, time/feel and rhythms is the most important glue between the players of the band. Poor rhythms and feel is therefore the #1 mistake made by musicians of all levels and styles. When music kind of falls apart, it's often because it's not grooving / swinging coherently ...

I find that rhythm is the most underrated aspect of ear training. So, I'm going to give you lots of suggestions on this topic. The amount of information is huge, but don't panic. Pick *one item* in the list and work at it for a long time. No one ever mastered all this stuff overnight...

Suggestions (with metronome) :

• Play through tunes in 4/4 swing (improvising and comping) with the metronome set as the "2&4" of each bar.
• Same as above, but use the metronome as the "3" of each bar...
• (it's in fact, the "2&4" of the half tempo...)
• Use the metronome as above, but on different beats. (Not just the "3"). This is quarter-time, because the click happens every 4 beats.
• Play into it until it becomes as comfortable on the "1", "2", "3" and "4". Then, try the "and" of each beat (the 8ths notes that are on upbeats)
• Finally, play through tunes again but set the click of the metronome as being different part of the 8th note triplet.

While working with the metronome, be aware of your tendencies. It might be that you speed up at certain moments, (or anything else you find is not smooth.) Write it down and shed it!

By taking notes and working on what's difficult for you, you're getting better at hearing yourself and others play different rhythms in musical contexts. Musicians bring "all they have" to the bandstand, including that last practice session!

Remember : The metronome might not groove or swing but it's a good gage for your time feel... Then turn the metronome off!

Suggestions (WITHOUT metronome) :

• Record yourself playing through tunes alone (comping, improvising). Listen back and analyze your time / feel. Be critical but don't judge. Take notes, analyze.
• Do the same thing twice as slow.
• (and twice as fast). Stay focused, make music! It's worth it, I promise.

• Improvise playing just one rhythmic figure for many choruses. Notice how the tempo feels. Do you drag? Do you rush?
  
  Start with just whole-notes, then half-notes, and quarter-notes, and then 8th-notes, etc.
• Play decent walking bass lines on your favorite standards. Play in a "bassist" time for a while!

Suggestions (with AND without metronome) :

• Charleston : play this simple figure starting on all downbeats (use a familiar form such as 12 bar blues.)
-- Dotted quarter - Eighth-note --
• Repeat the process starting on all the upbeat!
• Play on all three 8th-note triplets individually for many choruses. Repeat with quarter-note triplets. Do with other figures also please refer to Ari Hoenig's book (below)...
• Work on different polyrhythms (for instance, playing 4 notes for every bar of 3/4 is a 4:3 polyrhythms). Also refer to Ari Hoenig's book (below)...

- Sing what you play -

Sing and Play ... Play and Sing. It doesn't always work well, but focus on it for a few minutes. It's a great exercise. Sometime I wonder if I'm singing what I'm playing... or is it the other way around?

-Pacing-

While improvising, wait "a little longer" before you play that next idea. The previous line will ring in your head. Try to connect your next idea with that "echo" of the previous line. Make you solo sound like a conversation (question, then answer).

Think about this consciously, make an effort. Some people will even say : "Wait twice and play only on your third impulse". You'll amazed at how fewer notes actually want to come out!

With this in mind, it becomes possible to play less and still convey the same message and energy. This is very important. By waiting, you're giving yourself the chance to really hear what you're playing.

- Play Along -

(the best ear training there is!)

Perhaps the most important "non-technical ear training" exercise you can do by yourself!
Put on a great album and play along. Close your eyes and imagine that you are in fact jamming with the boys on the recording. Let you intuition guide your best ear training session ever! If you do it a lot, you'll absorb by osmosis.

One other thing I like to do is accompany (aka comp) a recorded solo I know well. It works beautifully for horn solos. Disregard the accompaniment on the album and do the best you can.

Comping behind Charlie Parker or John Coltrane can be a tough gig though ... (-;
Of course, transcribing is always a good idea, but that's not within the scope of this jazz performance ear training article...

Now, let's see how you can apply this type of ear training on the bandstand...

Even More Suggestions and Exercises : Performing Situation (gig or rehearsal)

The other aspect of "ear training" can (and should) take place in real-time, on the bandstand. Be prepared, and then make a conscious effort to apply the principles when it's showtime!

By "showtime", I mean : a gig, a rehearsal or any other real, actual playing situation where you're performing jazz.

I suggest you try only one of the following ear training exercises at a time to start with! Focus on one concept during a complete song, you'll be amazed at what you can already hear.

-Pacing Your Ideas- 

(aka listening to yourself)

Practice this alone at first (see above) and then try it live. Of course, you'll put less focus on pacing in performance because so much is hapenning already...

Try and make a conscious effort though, wait a little longer before you play that next note!

Let the music breath; play less and listen more.

I insist : it's very important!

By waiting, you're giving yourself the chance to really hear what you're playing. You're also giving other players (and the audience) a chance to digest what you just said musically.

In the silences (between the things you play), pay particular attention to how the other musicians (and audience) react. Adjust accordingly!

-Listening for Roots Movement-

(aka listening to the bassist's ideas)

While improvising, try to follow the bassist's lines. Hear what he's outlining and connect your ideas with that. You're the highest melody, he's the lowest melody. You can get parallel, contrary or oblique motion.

This is called counterpoint (only this time, it is spontaneous.)

In short : interact on a melodic and rhythmic level with the bassist while improvising and/or comping.

-Listening for the Pulse and its Subdivisions-

(aka listening to the drummer's ideas)

While improvising, listen to how the drummer/percussionist implies the pulse. You can certainly relate musically to what's happening : Can you feel the time and its subdivisions? Can you follow the form? Could you play "air drums" for a while?

Try to connect your ideas with the multiple layers of rhythms. This is less technical and more intuitive, I find. It's often fairly easy to "gel" with a drummer musically speaking; it's just instincts.

Prepare yourself by working alone on rhythms and time / feel exercises (with AND without the metronome) See above.

-Listening for Harmony/Chords/Extensions/Resolutions-

(aka listening to pianist/guitarist harmonic ideas)

While improvising, pay particular attention to what the accompanist chooses to outline. Also notice what he's leaving out.

Listen for the extensions their resolutions and the general harmonic flow of the tune. It could be that the harmony is very precise or somewhat vague. Connect your blowing with that; hopefully, the accompanist will also try to follow YOU, the improviser!

In short : interact on a melodic, harmonic and rhythmic level with the accompanist when improvising.

- Listening to SOUNDS -

Dynamics - Timbre - Volume - Blend -etc.

This is very general, but you have to try it.

Listen for everything that is NOT notes, chords and rhythms during on whole tune. Focus on the different sounds coming from the instruments.

Loud, soft?
Round, Square?
Low, high? (in pitch)
Many sounds, few sounds? (texture, density)
Fast, slow?
etc.

By doing so, you may find out more about your own role within the group. Maybe you'll find a way to "blend in" more and add the the group's overall sound and texture. Or maybe... your amp was just way too loud the whole time!

Who knows?! (-;

Performance Ear Training Wrap-up

Of course, great musicians can do all of the above simultaneously most of the time (and a bit more). Shocking, isn't it? I believe the trick is to get in the zone and let things flow naturally. all the while keeping ears wide open.

In the end, you'll want to hear everything, all of the time. We all know it's practically impossible but we keep on trying!

Guitarist transcribing a song

Another great lesson to hone your ear training is transcribing.  This process blends written music and ear training by listening to a song and writing out specific parts of it on sheet music.  This process will not only develop your ear, but build your knowledge of songs too.  Transcribing is a great way to memorize your favorite songs to reproduce them on stage in front of an audience.  See a great introduction to transcribing here at http://www.guitarnoise.com/blog/transcribing-part-1/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GuitarNoiseBlog+%28Guitar+Noise+Blog%29.

For this post I thought I would address a topic that has arisen in numerous lessons of late with my own students and something that I feel needs addressing. This topic is the importance of developing a good musical ear through transcribing songs.

I often have students ask me if they can learn to play their favourite song (which is definitely something I strongly encourage) but they often look back at me horrified when I ask if they have tried working it out themselves. It seems this idea had never crossed their minds!

Go back a few years, though, and working out songs by ear was the primary means of learning to play the guitar. This is how most of our guitar heroes and legends taught themselves how to play. You read over and over again in interviews how they would sit with a vinyl record and play it repeatedly in order to learn the guitar parts they admired.

Nowadays Internet tab and artist song books are a student’s first port of call but you can only get so much from a tab. If you want to get the true feel and tone of an artist you have to use your ears. Perhaps even more important is that you will learn to hear parts that aren’t always written out in transcription. There’s nothing stopping you from playing the saxophone part from a song like, for example, “Take Five” except, perhaps, your current lack of confidence in your listening skills.

So what is transcribing?

Transcribing, technically, is writing out a song so that another person (yourself included) can play it from your written notes. But because transcribing is becoming such a rare ability we tend to think of it these days as the art of working out songs through using your ears and also writing it down. But for now we are only looking at working it out at this stage.

It is important to note, though, that there are different levels of transcription. You could be doing something as simple as figuring out the time signature and the chords of a song so that you can strum along to it. Or you could be trying to work out a note-per-note transcription of a single guitar part. Or you could be working all note-per-note transcriptions of all the guitar parts of a single song. Since we’re just getting started, let’s focus on figuring out the chord progressions, okay?

So when do I start trying to transcribe?

As soon as possible, obviously this seems daunting to the beginner guitarist but developing a good musical ear is all about experience, so just give it a try but most importantly keep trying! Start with your favourite song and try to clap along with it, is it 4/4 time? Listen closely to the Bass guitar which often plays the root notes of the guitar chords, try to pick them out along the ‘E’ string and change chords with the guitar.

There are a number of excellent articles here at Guitar Noise that can help you get started. David’s “ear training trilogy” is a good place to begin. The first and, especially, the last lesson of this set are the ones to which you’ll want to direct your attention:

• Happy New Ear
• Unearthing the Structure
• Solving the Puzzle

As mentioned, definitely take your time with the last lesson, which goes through figuring out three song examples step by step. And don’t forget that most people who teach have been working songs out by ear for quite a while so don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t come to you magically in an instance. Like everything about the guitar (and music), transcription takes practice. But at least now you’ve got something to go on in order to start practicing.

The song is too fast, I can’t keep up.

And, unlike your guitar heroes, you’ve also got a lot of help! There are many computer programs available such as Transcribe! and Amazing Slow Downer which allow you to slow down, loop sections and change the pitch of audio tracks. Plus the digital players in some computers also provide such assistance.

Homework assignment

So now you have an idea of where to start it is time to begin. Have a go at transcribing one or more of the four songs below, in this case “transcribing” meaning “work out the chord progressions, just as David did in “Solving the Puzzle.

To give you a hand, all the songs in question use some or all of the chords G, D, A, C, Em, and B7. All you have to do is work out which ones and in what order.

Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton
Hot & Cold – Katy Perry
Sweet Child O’Mine – Guns ‘N’ Roses

And don’t be shy about attempting songs not on the list! The more you practice on the better you’ll get at working out songs by ear.

I shall return in a few weeks with the answers but until then good luck and happy listening.

P.S. Extra credit marks for working out the guitar solos!

These are just a few steps to start developing your musical ear.  I guarantee that ear training will help your guitar playing tremendously.  You will be able to sit in with any group that you hope to play with because you can react to what you hear and know what to play accordingly. 

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Have fun and stay tuned!

Mike