If you have ever wanted to sit down and learn songs by ear, this is the tutorial for you! You will learn the BEST tips that actually work, which will help you play songs by ear in a hurry. Hundreds of students of every level have found success with my method! Check it out.
What does ear training mean?
If you have ever met someone who can just sit down and play a song after hearing it once or twice, THAT is ear training. Ear training is the ability to play by ear, to recognize intervals and chords and generally have a deep aural relationship with music.
There is a common misconception that playing by ear is something you are born with. IT IS NOT. I actually learned to play by ear and have taught hundreds of other people to do the same. In this blog, I am going to take you step-by-step through a simple method to actually develop your ears and become a more versatile musician.
My Cruise Ship Story: How I learned to play by ear
Back in the year 2000 I went out on a crazy adventure as a Singalong Piano Bar entertainer. I had never done a gig like this before, but I was bound and determined to do it!
Anyone who knows how Piano Bar works knows that you have to know a LOT of songs. You have to have enough material to cover 3-4 sets a night, but you also have to take requests all night. I quickly found out that I didn't know nearly enough songs to cover all those requests. YIKES!
Now, this was back in 2000 where you couldn't just log into Ultimate Guitar.com and pull up all the songs on your ipad. Neither of those things were even invented yet! So, I had to do this all by ear.
I would sit in my crew cabin for hours and go through this process. I had a notebook, a CD walkman and a pitch pipe and I had to make it work for me. (There was no room in my miniscule cabin for even a small keyboard and Spotify wasn't invented yet!). I learned over 700 songs in 11 weeks using the method below.
Learn a few songs this way and your ears will be amazing!
Play by Ear Step #1: Lyrics
The first step is to locate the lyrics to the song. You can do this with an easy Google search (look for the name of the song and "lyrics and chords"). You can also do it the old fashioned way by listening to the song and writing it down on a piece of paper. That's how I did it on cruise ship!
Play by Ear Step #2: Label the Sections
Take a moment to highlight the different sections of the song. Showing where the verses and choruses are will make it much easier as you start writing in chords!
Play by Ear Step #3: What key are we in?
You will want to take a minute to figure out what key the song is in. You can do this by "plunking" notes around while you listen to the song. Once you find a few anchor notes then the rest of the key should fall into place.
Play by Ear Step #4: Bass notes
Now we are ready to start figuring out the chords! Take a moment and try to figure out what the bass notes are. Don't worry about all the bass notes - just try to find the first note in every bar. That is usually the root of the key. Write this directly onto the lyric sheet.
Play by Ear Step #5: Major or minor
It's a binary choice: decide if each chord is major or minor. Write that onto the lyrics sheet. Just write the chord name ("C") for major and notate minor with a "-" or "m".
Not confident with your major and minor chords? Check out this video...
Play by Ear Step #6: Write out any details
Love the bass line or the guitar hook? Play it by ear and notate it either in notation or in letters on your lyrics sheet. You've learn the whole song!
Need to learn chords?
Sign up and get my FREE Ultimate Chord Cheat Sheets! Perfect for mastering your chords on piano.
Ear training is a long game!
Take a little time each day to work on your ears and you'll notice a huge payoff. In my course Piano Technique and Ear Training, each week there are technical exercises on the piano coupled with simple ear training exercises that build up to a HUGE musicianship payoff.
Want to level up your musical skills? Strengthen your piano skills, develop your ear training, become a rhythm ninja and learn new skills like jazz and improvisation.
The Versatile Musician is an all-in-one membership that combines video lessons, print material and live support to help you level up your skills and thrive as a musician and music teacher.
To learn more, check out www.theversatilemusician.com and get ready to become the best musician possible!
How to DO ear training