Thread: I can't play by ear!

Quote: Originally Posted by blue_strat It does take years of playing, but it's also the best way to learn from scratch. Don't use tabs or chord charts - learn the theory, but use your ears to transcribe. Listen to a song and sing the root notes of each chord. Trial and error on the guitar until you can play what you're singing, then you can work out the notes and use theory to determine the chords. It takes years to develop it...

it's like techniques, after a time you can just know what the guitarist is doing based on what you hear. It takes YEARS and years, I'm nowhere near there yet. But my grandad was a musician for around 25 years (or longer, I've not spoken to him about it recently) and he said it took a long time to master.

Your ear gets better the more you play, but you can teach yourself to play by ear. Just start with really simple stuff - see if you can work out how to play something like Happy Birthday or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on your guitar. Once you can work out things like that, try simple pop songs, and gradually work up to the music you want to play.

I have zero musical background and I picked up guitar only last year. I am amazed by how people can just play by ear and they don't need tabs or chords to play songs they hear. I was wondering if this is a skill you learn if you've been playing the guitar for years, or it ocmes naturally? Anyone here not able to play by ear after 5 over years of guitar? Is it a normal thing?

A couple of years ago i was asked to play guitar with an orchestra for a school production. I was surprised to find that although many of the other supposedly better musicians were able to sight read sheet music far better than I can, when I played something for them on the guitar (it was a simple tune too) and asked someone to play it, they were absolutely clueless. And these were people who had been playing cornett or flute for 10 or so...

It does take years of playing, but it's also the best way to learn from scratch. Don't use tabs or chord charts - learn the theory, but use your ears to transcribe. Listen to a song and sing the root notes of each chord. Trial and error on the guitar until you can play what you're singing, then you can work out the notes and use theory to determine the chords.

Its the same with a lot of classicaly trained people. A lot of pianists can literally only play if they have the sheet music in front of them