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Thread: Playing By Ear?

  1. Default Playing By Ear?

    I'm still a beginner and taking my time with learning the material in the Teach Me Bass Guitar course. Although I am patient with learning the material, I am very impatient when it comes to wanting to learn how to play my favorite songs by ear. I get disappointed when I realize playing by ear is an area that I find difficult. How long does it take to learn how to play songs by ear and what is the best way to develop the ears to recognize the intervals? Will I get to a point of time in the course where playing by ear gets easier?

  2. #2
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    You clearly have to have the notes and intervals on your bass neck well memorized, or you will encounter a lot of frustration trying to find the note you are hearing on your bass.

    Yes, as you become more familiar with the notes on the neck, what the intervals of 3ds, 4th, 5ths, etc sound like, you will be better able to match up the bass notes with what you are hearing.
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  3. #3

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    Impatience is a common issue with new students. The desire to get from A to Z in a short time can be overwhelming. The ability to start figuring out your fave songs will come, but you gotta earn it through the fundamentals. TMBG isn't a bass guitar drive-thru window. Taking this course and committing yourself to the project is like buying a kit to build (as a friend of mine did) a real working airplane. He worked on it for almost two years. Flying it for the first time was his reward. After he died, our city airport bought it. It was hung up on chains in the main airport terminal, where all could look up and see it "fly" overhead.

    If you dedicate yourself to making TMBG your project, you'll learn to play your songs, yes, but better than that is that you'll be able to play songs you don't yet know, in genres you haven't tried before. You may write your own songs and be confident you know enough about music to give your work some brilliant bottom end.

    Lol... long story short, keep at it and be patient. Keep your eyes on the prize.


    - low life -

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by mgeorges View Post
    I'm still a beginner and taking my time with learning the material in the Teach Me Bass Guitar course. Although I am patient with learning the material, I am very impatient when it comes to wanting to learn how to play my favorite songs by ear. I get disappointed when I realize playing by ear is an area that I find difficult. How long does it take to learn how to play songs by ear and what is the best way to develop the ears to recognize the intervals? Will I get to a point of time in the course where playing by ear gets easier?
    It's hard to quantify how long it'll take for your ears to improve because everyone's journey is different. One thing that can help is playing scales and humming each interval of the scale immediately before you play it. For example, play the root note of a major scale (e.g., C). Now hum what the next interval (D) in the scale should sound like. Now play the note (D). Evaluate. Was what you hummed close in pitch to what you played? Now play C, D and hum what the next note (E) should sound like. Play it. Evaluate. Continue this pattern until you have played the octave of the scale. Do this consistently (maybe a few minutes each practice) with a different scale each time and gradually you'll really be able to pick out the notes you hear without much trouble, assuming the material you're trying to learn is within your skill level.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by mgeorges View Post
    How long does it take to learn how to play songs by ear and what is the best way to develop the ears to recognize the intervals? Will I get to a point of time in the course where playing by ear gets easier?
    Good morning, mgeorges.
    I am a beginner as well, so I cannot answer your question as to how long it will take to be able to play a song by ear. I can tell you that I have been concentrating on learning to play the bass guitar for almost two years now, and I cannot do it. Now, to be clear, what I mean by “play a song by ear” is having the ability to hear a song and part way through it start to play a reasonable version of the bass line. I have seen videos of people doing this though so I know (believe) that it can be done. I think it takes:
    1) Time and therefore patience.
    2) Enough technical proficiency on the instrument that you are not fighting it, but moving easily about the neck. See #1
    3) A thorough knowledge of where the notes, and their sounds, are found on the fret board. See #1
    4) An ability to recognize keys and intervals by ear. Very few of us not raised speaking a tonal language have perfect pitch, but we all can learn relative pitch (I hope). See #1
    5) An understanding of how songs in your favorite genre are constructed-the form of the songs-so that you have an idea as to what is likely to happen next. For example, blues tunes have a few pretty set patterns. In several pop songs again, the progression of the chords is common. As well, the bridge of a song may often be in the relative minor of the main key.
    6) Enough theory to understand what notes are likely to fit and thus be able to anticipate the choices the person you are listening to is playing.

    Since I have not got there yet, I can’t tell you how best to get there. As Bassix pointed out, every person and their path is different. If you are fortunate enough to live in an area where good bass guitar teachers are available to you, and you have the time and fiscal resources to access one, they may be able to guide you. I don’t, so here is what I have been working on, in order of the above, to try and get there:
    1) Good luck. This is not my long suit. Tried meditation, but grew impatient with it. Paul may be the contented tortoise, but I am more like the snarling snail. Sometimes, when the fun factor runs low, shear bloody minded determination keeps me going. It may not be ideal, but if that is the only tool in your box at the time, use it. I do find the “pomodoro technique” useful though to keep me focused. See the link below. http://bassmusicianmagazine.com/2012...teven-gregory/
    2) I have been following the course. So far so good. Re technique, I also greatly appreciate Trasyter2’s recommendation of Ed Freidland’s book(s), and the muting threads on Scott’s Bass Lessons.com. Check out Lane Baldwin’s Bass Lessons HQ site as well. The lesson section on the Row is great, and various web sites as well are there to help.
    3) Pay attention to the exercises in the course. I find that, as others have suggested, saying the names of the notes as I am doing the scales and arpeggios helps. Bassix’s tip on singing the intervals on you bass is a great one. When doing the exercises and scale etc., don’t do these on autopilot. Be mindful of the sounds and where they are on the instrument. I think one is not just training the muscles, but the ear as well.
    4) This is a work in progress. In addition to the above, I have started to use the following free programs to train my ears. There are a tonne of others available for your computer or mobile devise as well. There are also lists of songs you can familiarize yourself with to help in the recognition of intervals.
    http://www.musictheory.net/exercises/ear-interval
    http://www.earbeater.com/online-ear-training
    http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bhammel/t...recognize.html
    5) For this, I believe transcribing the songs you want to hear/play is the way to go. I use “The Amazing Slowdowner” to slow things down when necessary without altering the pitch, and the free version of Finale-Finale Notebook, to write the songs out. Paul likes “Transcribe”, and there are many other programs out there to help. I am getting better at this, but I was recently working on a quick paced song with swung 8th notes and a thick mix. It took me at least 1.5 to 2 hours per song minute to get it pretty well right.
    6) There is a lot of information in the course material. As well I like “Music Theory for Dummies”. (me not you). A useful site is: http://www.musictheory.net/
    So, 2 years in I think I see some progress. I can tell you that, for me, I did not pay enough attention to technique at the beginning, so I had to pause at lesson 7 and go back and fix things. I suspect most people are faster, but as stated at the beginning, everyone is different.
    I hope this helps a bit. Good luck, be as patient with yourself as you can.

    Brian

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    The other primary thing that works is playing, and playing along with lots and lots of CDs. Everything you can find in the genre(s) you like. Not a much better way to learn to hear where the chord progressions go in each type of music, than to listen to how those that play it, play it.

    There is hardly a piece of CCM that I can't get a decent line going after hearing about 3 bars, but I've been playing that for about 30 years now. I couldn't when I started, but you will learn to feel/hear where the melody line is going, where the next chord change is and to what note in the scale. You can learn this by the book, but you have to have it ingrained from much practice to make it happen easily and on the fly.
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    Eden WT500, WTX1000N & WP100, QSC PL230
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    Quote Originally Posted by TobiasMan View Post
    There is hardly a piece of CCM that I can't get a decent line going after hearing.
    So...in Alberta your thing is to listen to hockey skates and bicycles???

    Brian

  8. #8

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    Line6bassmans believe it or not ( like Ripleys )

    Just that this reminds me of a Joke or is actually real no pun intended, OK, maybe there is a lot of pun intended!!
    But only to the one in the story no one on here.

    My wife had a grandmother that seem to play the piano pretty well, ( just an opinion ) So I asked the grandmothers
    son ( my father in law ) how did she learn how to play the piano?? And he said by EAR, Banging his left ear with
    his head on the piano keys and then his right side ear with his head... Enough said.

    Line6bassman
    Last edited by line6bassman; 02-23-2015 at 12:32 PM.
    GO LOW!!!STAY HIGH!!!ON BASS THAT IS!!!

  9. #9
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    Hmmmm . . . yep
    ___________________________________
    Steinberger NXT5 EUB, MTD 535 Fretless, Tobias Killer B6, 72 Fender Precision
    Eden WT500, WTX1000N & WP100, QSC PL230
    Eden D410XLT, D410XST, 215, Fender Bassman 10

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