Learning to play guitar by ear is an essential skill to master. Once you have a properly developed ear and the underlying skills, any song that you have ever heard will be at your disposal. Learning to play by ear is not unlike any other skill: the more you practice, the easier it will become. If you practice this complimentary skill regularly, you will eventually be able to play just about any guitar piece just by hearing it a couple of times.
I've already covered basic chords and I hope you've been mastering these. Things may even be starting to make sense and you are getting comfortable playing at least some basic songs. It's time to learn to play guitar by EAR.
Learning to play by ear is not unlike any other skill: the more you practice, the easier it will become. If you practice this complimentary skill regularly, you will eventually be able to play just about any guitar piece just by hearing it a couple of times.
So how do you go about learning to play by ear? The first step is pick a song you like. Don't pick anything too complex at first and you want to be able to clearly hear the guitar parts. You want to first want to determine the points in the song where there are chord changes. You need not worry about which chords are being played right now, just listen and get a feel for the chord changes and when they happen. This is important because it will gradually build your sense of timing and refine your ear.
Next when you are ready to begin picking apart the song, you need to make sure your guitar is in tune. Normally, the universal standard is 440hz. If you do not already have a quality guitar tuner, I suggest that you purchase one. If your guitar is not in tune, you will build your ear to become accustomed to hearing an out-of-pitch guitar.
Once you have tuned your guitar, you should figure out the first chord of the song. Typically this will be the "Key" of the song. Go through the basic chords first (C, G, D, E) the large number of songs will start with those chords. If you are unable to determine the first chord (perhaps it is a more exotic chord) then you can figure out the root note (or the lowest pitched string) of the chord. In the case of Hotel California, it is an F#, Then you can play the major version, noting it does not sound like the recording, then the minor version of the chord. So in this case the first chord of Hotel California happens to be an F#m. I would suggest starting with relatively simple songs from The Eagles or similar as they tend to use standard chord
progressions and simple chord forms. Several popular Eagles songs are G-C-D or similar.
Once you have figured out the basic root note of a chord how do you figure out what chord it is? At this point is really is a matter of trial and error (there will be less trial and error as you develop your ear). Strum through the basic chords and
you will hear when you have hit upon the correct one. Most songs in a certain key (Key of G) for instance will tend to begin and end in that key or chord.
At this point, it is a matter of figuring out the remainder of the chords used in the song you are learning. Initially it will seem difficult to find all of the chords, but you will find that as I mentioned, most songs use similar chord progressions and many of the same chords. There are literally thousands of songs that use just the G, C, and D chords alone.
Learning to play by ear will help you to not only master guitar chords with which you are already familiar, but it will allow you learn new chords as well. In addition you will develop your skills in general as a musician. You will begin to appreciate more how chords and passages are constructed to build the overall feel of the piece of music you are learning. Again, take as an example the sheer number of songs that sound completely different that are constructed with the same G, C, and D chords.
Developing your ear as a guitarist is a valuable skill to master and will improve with time, just as it took time for your untrained and weak fingers to learn to make a simple C chord. Do not despair as at times it is frustrating, But I guarantee if you learn to play a song by ear, it will be infinitely more rewarding than learning by reading tablature or some other means. Develop your ear as a guitarist, and it will pay dividends in your future skill and more importantly your enjoyment of your guitar playing.
This article by: J. Corey Lewis - ©2008 - All Rights Reserved
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