All professional musicians, whether they're playing jazz, rock, bluegrass and country music, have spent their first years of practicing bent over a half speed record player. You might be wondering what does this have to do with trying to learn to play the guitar by ear. As you will learn from this article, it actually has a lot to do with it.
Slowing Things Down
In order to learn to play the guitar by ear you have to begin with learning the melodies, chords and leads from a recording. To be able to do this, you've got to slow them down a bit. Some exceptionally gifted people with really good ears are able to learn to play some slow songs just by listening to them at a normal speed. However, even those folks have problems with learning faster melodies and need to slow things down.
Most of us can't even figure out slow songs just by listening to them at a normal speed. While most of us can match a note with our guitar or voice if it's the only thing we're hearing, we tend to get confused when lots of notes are played together. If you slow the music down, we can separate the notes and play them piece by piece until we learn the whole song.
Slowdown Technology
Years ago, the slowing down process was done using half speed tape recorders. However, as you slowed the music down, the pitch dropped. By the time you got to half speed, the pitch had already dropped a lot. Anyway, for most of us, half speed is still to fast. You will probably need a 1/10 speed in order to figure out certain pieces.
Fortunately, nowadays everything has been made easier with the aid of digital slowdown technology. You can now slow the melody down as much as you want, without having the pitch dropping.
Do You Really Have to Put So Much Work Into It?
You're probably thinking that spending so much time on figuring out each note yourself must be awfully hard. Why not just buy a book and get over this part?
Of course, you can buy a book, but, as it usually happens with all music theory books, it will probably be gathering dust on your bookshelf forever. If you really want to learn to play the guitar by ear, you will have to get involved in the process and figure out the notes from a melody yourself.
While figuring out note by note on your own is the best way to go, consulting a transcription book from time to time while you're trying to figure out the music is also good. Some beginner guitar players who want to learn to play the guitar by ear learn from a transcription book first and then play along with the original recording at a slower pace to get the rhythm.
You should learn to play the guitar by ear just because this way you get the most fun. Playing the guitar should be fun and this is why you should have started to learn it in the first place. However, the more you time you invest into the learning process by getting involved in practical activities, the faster the progress.
In this guitar lesson we will use Every Breath You Take as an example.
The hits songs you hear are usually copyright protected and shouldn't be found as free sheet music on the internet and really not as guitar tab either without permission from the copyright owner.
However I can tell you that I personally have saved a lot of money by my ability to play songs I hear by ear. I don't have to buy sheet music and I can also play them as they are heard on the radio or make a guitar solo version of them.
To be able to play songs on your guitar by ear you have to develop your ear and your ability to find yourself around on the guitar fretboard.
In this guitar lesson I will show you how to play "Every Breath You Take" in the key of G. This means that you cannot play together with the original version by Police and Sting but I think it will be easier to play the melody on your guitar in this key.
Guitar lesson part 1
The verse begins with the words "Every breath you take"
The chords on your guitar will be:
G Em C D G
The melody notes you will need in order to play this song will be:
G A B C D
A very economic melody as far as melody notes are concerned. But how do you play these notes on your guitar?
I will show you these notes with a form of guitar tablature that will be displayed correctly on article sites like this one. Some examples:
23 means that you press down the second fret on the third string.
03 means that you play the third open string. This means that you play the third string with you right hand without pressing down a fret.
In other words, the first number indicate which fret to press down and the second number which string.
Guitar lesson part 2
Let's go back to the melody notes you'll need for the first verse:
G A B C D
With the previosly explained guitar tablature the notes will look like this:
03 23 02 12 32
I will not show you the melody. You are supposed to learn to find this out by yourself. I will only help you by saying that the first note to play is B and is notated 02.
Guitar lesson part 3
Let's take a look at the part of the song beginning with the words "Oh, can't you see"
The chords will be (a bit simplified):
C G A D
This part starts with the note G notated 03.
The notes you will need to use are:
G B D E F# G A
and they are notated like this:
03 02 32 01 21 31 51
This melody starts with the note G notated 03.
I will not help you more that this in this guitar lesson. The best way to learn the melody is by trial and error.
In the process of learning this melody you will also develop your ear and your ability to find your way around on your guitar.
This means that the next melody you will try to learn will probably be easier to learn!
You can prepare yourself to pick up melodies on your guitar by doing these two exercises:
1. Learn scales on your guitar. Learn to play the scales up and down.
2. When you know a scale well you can improvise simple melodies and play around with the scale and at the same time you will learn to find your way around the guitar.
The more you learn scales and create your own melodies on your guitar the easier you will have to figure out how a certain melody can be played on your guitar.
Both Tomas Labas & Peter Edvinsson are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Tomas Labas has sinced written about articles on various topics from Allergies, Skin Cream and Fishing. Article written by real guitar lover. Some of authors articles can be found at:Articles to help you learn guitar quick.. Tomas Labas's top article generates over 49500 views. to your Favourites.
Peter Edvinsson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Guide Guitar, Programming and Guide Guitar. Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your and learn to play guitar resources at. Peter Edvinsson's top article generates over 135000 views. to your Favourites.