Guitar ear training can be an intimidating task. Learning how to play guitar by ear is not as easy as counting to three. For this reason, many good guitarists just put off this chore and rely on external resources, other than their ears, to learn new tunes.
Luckily for those who are brave enough to dive into this challenge, there are quite a few proven methods to learn how to play guitar by ear. We will go through some of them step by step in this small guide, but first, let’s clarify what the most important step is: don’t be lazy.
Yes, on the web you can find sheet music for any song you can think of. Just by googling a song title, you can have access to loads of different materials and resources to learn a specific solo or melody, or riff. You don’t even need to read music, with online platforms focused on chord progressions, charts, and tablatures.
Guitar Ear Training for Beginners
Learning to play a new song on your guitar can be a great opportunity to practice your “ear muscle”. Does this sound bit easier to say than done? Worry not! Here are seven easy steps you can start taking now to learn how to play any song on guitar by ear:
1) First things first: Practice your relative pitch
There are two key aural superpowers we often ascribe to great musicians: absolute and relative pitch. Having an absolute pitch (or defined as a perfect pitch) means having the ability to instantly recognize note by note of what is being played. Having a relative pitch, instead, means having the ability to put notes and chords in relation to each other.
For example, if you hear a song and you can clearly identify the name of every single note, then you have an absolute pitch. If you recognize the relationships between chords and notes (such as progressions or intervals), even without being able to name them, then you have a pitch that is relative.
As far as the legend goes, absolute or perfect pitch is an innate skill. While it’s true that some people are naturally more inclined to develop this ability, we can all train to at least improve it. With relative pitch, however, you have no excuses: everyone knows you can master it through ear training.
Practicing your relative pitch will help you recognize the patterns in a melody, so you will instantly identify a certain interval or a specific chord progression. This is the first step to mapping out the melody you want to play.
2) Master the basics: Music theory, scales, and chords
Another method to enhance your playing by ear is practicing basic scales and chords. This way, you will have two results.
Firstly, you will be more familiar with the fretboard (a significant aspect, especially for beginners). Secondly, you will train your musical ear by playing the same patterns repeatedly. For example, if you practice pentatonic scales every day, you’ll be more likely to recognize them in a blues solo you want to learn. After all, music is often all about patterns!
By practicing music theory regularly, you’ll be able to figure out how notes make up each chord and how modes relate to scales, what various intervals sound like and how to play them anywhere on the neck. It will allow you to avoid the usage of tab/tablature but improve your understanding of the sound and listening skills after a certain point.
If you need any help learning guitar or music theory, there are many great resources out there if you use Google and YouTube to search for free lessons, or can try out some courses and guitar theory books that give better aspects of theories.
3) Interval training: Study the intervals
Studying and practicing intervals is very important for musicians to develop their aural skills. By doing this training, you can train your ear and learn how to play musical instruments and songs by ear.
According to Wikipedia, “In music theory, an interval is the difference in pitch between two sounds”. It means the distance of the pitches from each other. You can notice this distance by the number of frets between notes on the same string.
There are two types of intervals: whole steps and half steps. Distant of one fret is called a half step or a semitone. And the distance between two frets is known as a whole step or whole tone.
For example, in A minor scale, A B C D E F G A: A to B is two half steps apart. There is a bundle of these with names. But it truly matters when you hear the difference between those intervals and hear “two half steps apart” and such others regardless of what pitches were playing.
When you subjugate that along with knowledge of licks, it would be easier for you to amalgamate a solo in your head only by hearing them. But it would take a while to get habituated to the process.
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4) Identify root note
Practice listening and attempt to repeat what you hear. Listen to the phrase and try that on your guitar. Try with your favorite songs to trace the root note underlining each chord and hum along. Hum a note and try to find it. If you can track the note, then hum second, then third, and go further.
Next, find them as chords. It will be better as you practice more. Soon you’ll hear the change coming before it even gets there. It’d take a while to urge it right since you are mostly focusing to blend the pitch of the note with the root note of the song.
5) Identify melody
After root note identification, try with melody. Begin with simple melody lines and slowly proceed to more difficult ones. Hum a melody that would need chord changing from one to another and try to detect each note on your instrument. After that, you can try easy 3-4 chord songs.
Here are a few steps you might take into consideration:
- Just listen to the song multiple times to concentrate on the rhythm and bass parts without playing guitar along. Bass parts are the hinge pin between the percussion and the chords.
- It is also helpful to define solos. Play the major or minor chords and power chords of the song with the bass line.
- Focus on the precise chord of the song and check out what chord voicing the guitar player is playing. Your musical sense to identify a majority of chords will develop over time.
- Slow the song down to half speed by using any media player to learn a solo. You will observe that solos or chords become more understandable at half speed. You will learn a vocabulary of licks, and it will help you to recognize those same licks used in different songs.
6) Sing it!
You might not be the best singer in the world. You might not have a very strong relative pitch either. It doesn’t matter. If you have the ability to play the guitar, chances are you have enough musicianship skills to reproduce a melody with your voice.
Some notes may be off, and the timbre might not be great, but you can probably sing a good 90% of a usual melody you have just heard. Even if you struggle with this ability, guess what? You can train to improve it by doing ear training exercises.
No matter what your level is, singing the melody you want to play can be a great way to find the right fret to tap. Let’s make a practical example.
Let’s assume you want to play “All You Need Is Love”.
Grab your guitar and sing the first five notes of the chorus. Now, while singing, try to play them. Are you tapping the right frets?
This method instantly detects whether you are playing the wrong or the right notes. As straightforward as it is, it is golden for absolute beginners too.
7) Learn from your mistakes
Playing the guitar and song by ear requires a lot of training. Accept that, in the beginning, you won’t get it right. But instead of feeling discouraged, try to learn from your mistakes.
Do you recognize patterns in them? Are there any particular intervals you struggle to recognize? Do you need interval training? Any scale you need to practice more?
Great musicians keep studying and practicing every day and they never feel accomplished enough. As athletes do, they train their “muscles” every day, trying to fill their gaps. Get into this “trial and error” mindset as soon as you can and you will succeed.
Can you learn guitar by ear?
Yes, you can. Before the era of YouTube and Online courses, there were many self-taught guitarists who could play major scale, minor, and pentatonic scales accurately without any formal training. They didn’t know any chord names and had zero ideas of formal scales but figured out different chords exactly by ear. Today it is much easier to develop any skill with the help of a large amount of useful online and offline resources.
If you want to develop your ear, you’ll have to train it. As difficult as this may sound, anyone can improve their aural skills by doing some focused exercises. It doesn’t matter whether you have some music theory knowledge or not. It doesn’t matter if you are a terrible singer, who doesn’t even dare to sing while showering. You can still adjust your pitch and improve your ear with some consistent work.
And you don’t have to wait until you achieve a certain skill level. From the very beginning of guitar learning, you can start developing this aural skill. But keep in mind that if you cannot identify the difference between what you hear on the track and what you are playing on the guitar, then there is no good in trying to play songs by ear.
However, we suggest that one should take a combination learning approach. Guitar Ear training is as important as formal training. Find a music teacher or guitar lesson platform where you’ll get to mix up music theory with learning songs and rhythm at the same time. That can go a long way toward keeping you interested.
How long does it take to play guitar by ear?
First of all, you must do the hard work. Take action and exercise these tips regularly to see results. But be patient because this efficiency to hear and replicate takes time to develop.
How long does it take, you ask? That depends on you & your capability to practice consistently. Playing by ear can be a bit of a challenge and does take time. But if you keep up to work at it, it will get better.
Final Words
To sum it up, you don’t necessarily have to be an advanced guitarist to play a song on your instrument by ear. Every step of the process involves skills you can develop through some solid ear training exercises.
Practice your scales, focus on your ability to listen, and learn from your mistakes. Overall, develop a solid practice routine and stick with it. This way, you will obtain unexpected results.