i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

[LukeGilmour]

i just tried to play the intro from "every breath you take - the police" and i got very frustrated early on.

its a very simple riff, but i just struggled too much for it.



when i started playing the guitar it was always, tab tab tab, and now i can play very decent when i play my own tunes, but playing other people's stuff is really hard for me (at least if im not reading it from somewhere)




so, guys, do you have any advice / exercises / drills for this?

 

[GoDrex]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

"every breath you take" is not that easy IMO - it seems kind of easy but to play it well is a different story.

the only advice I can give is play slowly and then work it up to speed when you can do it perfectly. That and play the songs you want to play, a lot.

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

Are you saying it is difficult to play the riff or to pick it out?

 

[LukeGilmour]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

Are you saying it is difficult to play the riff or to pick it out?

to pick it out!! getting around technique is just muscular memory, i can get around that with time and practice.


now picking it out is really frustrating, taking maybe 2 minutes to find the first note then 2 minutes for the second one and so on is driving me crazy...

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

It can definitely be frustrating.

Just an idea ........ one of the keys is to be sure you're fretting hand is in the right position for the notes you're attempting to mimic. That is, try to recognize whether a certain note you recognize is played on an open string, and if not, try to listen to the tone/texture to try to determine which string/fret it is played on.

Once you locate the correct position for one or more notes the rest are usually easier to pick out because they will probably be close ...... most players try to play efficiently ... that is, with as little movement up and down the fretboard as possible.

Some of the Police stuff might be extra hard because the notes can sound indistinct due to the shimmer of the chorus.

 

[cream123]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

play it on the piano...figure out the key and tonality and all of a sudden it will flow on the piano

 

[DankStar]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

I can't pick up stuff by ear. I end up playing notes that sound good with it, probably stuff in the same key, harmony notes, but I seem to always dance around the actual notes.

 

[tone4days]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

this is where a knowledge of applied music theory can be a speed boost ... the applied part comes from laying the theory knowledge over the fretboard .. it isnt about black ink on white paper, its about how the notes and their theoretical relationships are laid out on the neck ... coupled with ear training, you can learn to identify common patterns, intervals, etc and then .. the ear training will help you identify the root notes and chord tensions (major, minor, etc) .. just because EBYT is a simple song doesnt mean its an easy song

for that song ... try to identify the root notes of every measure first ... almost like a simplistic bass line ... then you can work up the arpeggios and picking pattern .. you'l fine tune it by getting a feel for how he crafts the suspended notes, etc to give it the signature summers flavour

i am sure you can find tab for it too

 

[Frantic_Rock]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

Actually - "Every breath you take" didn't seem simple to me at all. It's a ripper actually. Even with my big hands, I was struggling with it... And to get it sounding exactly like the record is even harder - with the same touch, fingering, tone and dynamics.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

this is where a knowledge of applied music theory can be a speed boost ... the applied part comes from laying the theory knowledge over the fretboard .. it isnt about black ink on white paper, its about how the notes and their theoretical relationships are laid out on the neck ... coupled with ear training, you can learn to identify common patterns, intervals, etc and then .. the ear training will help you identify the root notes and chord tensions (major, minor, etc) .. just because EBYT is a simple song doesnt mean its an easy song

for that song ... try to identify the root notes of every measure first ... almost like a simplistic bass line ... then you can work up the arpeggios and picking pattern .. you'l fine tune it by getting a feel for how he crafts the suspended notes, etc to give it the signature summers flavour

i am sure you can find tab for it too

+1 . . . scale knowledge, chord construction, and arpeggios will really help you out when you're trying to learn things by ear. I usually try to figure out where the changes are, then pick out the root of each chord. After that it's just a matter of trying different arpeggios and scale fragments to figure out what they're doing. From what I remember, Andy Summers loves picking sus chords, give it a shot starting there.

 

[karpathion]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

just keep at it! i cant read music. but i can pick out most any song i hear within seconds."most of the time". you'll just get to where you know the note when you hear it. but thats how i had to learn. you, have the option of reading the music and playing what you read. i'd do a little of both. and thats not such an easy riff to pick out anyways. if you want another similar in difficulty to play by ear. try cult of personality, by living color. it takes a few on that one too.

 

[Frantic_Rock]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

You could take an ear training course. Some colleges offer that as part time in a music department.

You need to learn what major, minor, dominant sound like. What all the modes sound like and all the intervals sound like. Learn the sound of the following intervals.

minor 2nd
major 2nd
minor 3rd
major 3rd
perfect fourth
flat fifth
perfect fifth
flat sixth
major sixth
flat seventh
major seventh
octave

that's it. Just need to know what each interval sounds like, and then you'll be able to "guess" at what the player is using in each song.

So if you hear a melody that is happy, you know that it must have a major 3rd in it. Vs sad, which will have a minor 3rd.

To help memorize the intervals, you can pick a song for each interval. For example: the octave - is "Somewhere over the rainbow" - the first two notes, are an octave. And a minor 2nd is - Jaws theme. etc etc

 

[LukeGilmour]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

ive been working on the intervals for a few years now... but i guess it takes time to settle them in!


im using the amazing slow downer, that helped a lot!



im starting to think this is one of those skills that you have to actually face head on to get better, with no shortcuts whatsoever.

 

[Ball&Chain]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

You got it right there. The more you do it, the easier it will get in time.

Practice in that just like anything else.

 

[juice]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

Yeah, that one's pretty sweet.

You might already be doing this, but having a good feel for scales really helps. It helps teach you intervals too in a strange way! Also, the slowdowner thing is really awesome! Definitely makes it a lot easier to learn riffs and such.

 

[RushOfBlood]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

my tiny hands do not like when I make them play those chords

 

[sosomething]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

yeesh

diving into theory = counter-intuitive to "playing by ear," at least from my perspective.

Reading MORE things on paper ain't gonna help you.

Take a big grain o' salt here - I am an untrained, self-taught player of some 13 years or so and set in my ways...

...But I have always had a good ear. It's simple for me to pick out even hard stuff. My ear now is so trained that I can often figure out a riff or lick I've never heard before just by listening once or twice.

I know zero musical theory. I don't even know what chord or time sig or scale I'm playing 90% of the time. But the trick is this - stop trying to listen with your hands.

You've got to listen to the music with your ears and your brain. Don't let the physical act of playing the instrument dictate the music. LISTEN FIRST. Play second.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

i just tried to play the intro from "every breath you take - the police" and i got very frustrated early on.

its a very simple riff, but i just struggled too much for it.

The secret to EBYT is to finger it in the correct positions. The verse guitar arpeggio is one of Summers' favourite shapes, shifted around the 'board. (Compare and contrast with "Message In A Bottle"!) The HARD bit is playing this and singing at the same time.

I occasionally deputise on bass in a local cover versions trio. The guitarist/vocalist insists on playing EBYT in the wrong key just so that he can play the arpeggio section on the lowest three frets and open strings. IMO, it sounds plain wrong down there. (With capo at second fret is no better.)

 

[daemon barbeque]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

I learn everything by Ear. And i do it for a very long time.
To achieve that, you first have to be able the chord your guitar without a tuner. Comparing string notes perfectly and bringing them to ring in harmony is the key for tonal awareness. Than you can move to "play/jam along" which is the best way to get the feeling of a song.Note by note, beat by beat, comparison is the key here. After a while of doing that, things get much more natural and you can almost pick out every riff or even solos. Ofcourse you can slow them down and use modern tricks to hear what was played.

 

[GoDrex]

Re: i am AWFUL at playing songs by ear!!

yeesh

diving into theory = counter-intuitive to "playing by ear," at least from my perspective.

Reading MORE things on paper ain't gonna help you.

hmmm well I know for a fact that knowing your major and minor scales and how chords are made from those scales can help you a lot when it comes to learning songs "by ear" since most music does follow at least some of the basics and known that stuff can get you in the ball park. Otherwise you spend a lot of time with trial and error in the beginning when you're not yet adept at figuring songs out quickly. For example, since I've been playing a long time I can usually determine what a key a song is in pretty quickly. This gives me the notes I'm going to be working with (generally) and the chords that may be used. It also helps when something doesn't fit, because it stands out.