Figuring out complex/fast music by ear?

[tc]

I can figure out most kinds of music by ear relatively easy...sometimes it takes me more time but in the end I get to a place where I can say I got relatively close to the original, but lately I've been trying to figure out some of Eric Johnson's work and it's insane. Same goes for Yngwie but at least I know some of his signature licks (the patterns he sometimes falls into and the way he tends to play diminished arpeggios) but obviously Yngwie's stuff is near impossible as well.

Tips? I just tend to listen to the music over and over again but eventually it becomes to fast too discern or there's some chord voicings that I don't think I nail 100%.

Thanks guys.

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: Figuring out complex/fast music by ear?

Videos help. Being able to see where their fingers are for a given section will tell you the basic chord shape and scalar pattern they're using.

At least that's what worked for me back in the early days of MTV and HBO's Video Jukebox. I'd watch their hands and then lay my fingers in the same spots, and adjust finger pressure/fretted strings until I got the same chord they were doing (or close enough).

I can only go so far with tablature myself - once they start cramming double-digit numbers tightly together I lose track


Reading articles they wrote or where they otherwise speak of their technique and favored scales/modes/voicings also helps, as well as increasing your knowledge of the various scales/modes.

When I first started, I just walked up and down the neck on each string until I had a pretty good idea of where any note was on any string on any fret, and could eventually pick out solos by "ok he starts here, then goes here, then here, here, and here". Then I got to where I could spot the difference between the 3rd fret on the G and the 8th fret on the D, which made the patterns more sensible (the solo to Iron Man covers all 6 strings and can be played easily by starting with the chord played on the 10thF/6thS).

Oddly, even though I had yet to see a book on scales and such (other than the Mel Bay beginner book showing Major chords), I even picked out most of the solo to Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, and Limelight, as well as a few Iron Maiden solos from Beast.

Judas Priest gave me fits though, until I got my hands on a book that showed all the Pentatonics (Heavy Guitar Bible I think). Once I learned the Pentatonic forms and started practicing them, I could hear Priest solos. In no time, I was wailing away note-for-note to Living After Midnight and Smoke On The Water and everything from Back In Black, and of course I already knew a ton of Sabbath solos since he used like 3 scales

But, to my horror, I was stuck in Pentatonic Mode, which meant I could no longer play the Rush, Maiden, and other solos I "just figured out" because I couldn't think outside the "box"

So yeah, definitely learn their preferred scales/modes, and watch those hands.