I have a question..

[XxTremontixX]

I've been playing for about two years now, and I still cannot play very good by ear. I notice I do usually run to tabs when I want to learn a song. I would like to be a serious musician one day. Do you think this will become a problem. If so, could someone please tell me how I can practice this skill?

[phantom]

i recommend to really try hard to play by ear!!

it might sound like a stupid answer but if you try for maybe 6 month or a year to get songs played by ear, it really pays off!!

when i was at your age i was listening to malmsteen and ozzy as well, just like you, and i loved their songs and wanted to play them so badly, just like you probably. back then in the little town where i lived i had no chance to get any tabs! the next music shop was a 1 hour train ride away and when you got there you had to realize that they don't have what you were looking for, and the worst thing, there was no internet (!) where you could just type in the song and you get tabs to download within seconds.
if you wanted to learn a song - you had to listen! and that is such a good exercise! it took me maybe 4 hours to get the first bars of i am a viking together and another month to get it up to the speed like it was played on the record - it was a pain in the a##. but guess what - i never forgot it in the last 15 years!

if you really force yourself to play by ear you will learn even more than just playing the song. after listening to one certain bar mabe 50 times you'll notice maybe "hey this vibrato sounds different to that one" or "he played the same note twice but second time it sounds more bright, how can i get the same effect"!
know what i'm trying to say? you'll start to recognise all the tiny things, the nuances, that make the difference between a usual player and a great player.
it will improve your tone to try to play exactly what you hear as your ability rises to differ!
thats why i recommend to play as close to the original as possible - with every deadnote there is and with all the tiny bits.
i think you'll gain more by learning these nuances than by playing through the whole song after a tab. :)

don't get me wrong - i think tabs are great for certain puposes.
but you'll learn definately more during the "playing by ear torture".

if you have difficulties to locate a whole riff, break it down to a certain section.
if you still have difficulties, break it down to a single bar.
still a problem? - break down the bar.

try to get the first note right, then the second - then connect. and so on.
you'll probably get sick of it, depressed, angry, and all in between - but GO ON! in the end you will be proud and you will definately see progress in your overall playing (not only that can play that certain song).
sounds like a lot of work, but hell yeah nobody said its easy to get good!
;)
anyone agrees?

[xenor]

i agree with that. I've don the same thing. It's painful but it will worth the effort. Because unlike technique it's not something you can forget.

[forgottenking2]

Yup, just like with everything else, practice practice practice... you can try for instance playing the chords you're familiar with over and over and over REALLY listening to them and then have someone play them randomly and you "guessing" what they are... (that's how my brothers and I started developing our ears in a rather competitive way I must add <we're all musicians... that can be tough :D >) um... do the same with scales, single notes, arpegios... just whatver you can get under your fin... ears.

I hope this helps,

Regards,

[XxTremontixX]

Thank you all. I will try my hardest to go threw a year or so without tabs. I was actually tryin to do this at one point. I wanted to learn "the way I feel" by 12 stones and I figured out half of the solo by ear. I just have one more question. When trying to figure out a blistering fast solo, how would you break that down?

[phantom]

there is probably no overall good advice, i can just tell how i did it and still doing it.

basically i would recommend to take it note by note and bar by bar. find the note the solo starts with - try to hear at which position it is played (an e on the 12th fret low e string sounds different than on string 2nd fret.....) then take the second note and connect them. find out note 3 and play 1,2,3.
if you know scales, try to find out which scale he is playing - once you know the tonal center it is easier to find the right notes.
if you encounter a really fast part like a tapping part, try to find out which notes are involved first (is he playing a maj or min 3rd, is there a 5th or a octave...) then find the pattern that is tapped (is it tap - pull off - pull off - hammer on - tap or tap - pull off - hammer - tap - pull off - hammer etc...)
since you obviously have a computer you could slow the audio data down (with wavelab for example) that makes it a lot easier, but remember that it has to sound right when you are playing at normal speed ..


hmm.... if i can think of something else i am going to post it...

hope i could help a bit..

let the torture beginn:D

[XxTremontixX]

Okay yeah that helped, but here is another problem. I dont understand what a maj 3rd or anything like that.

Got any thing to help me with that?

[Koala]

Hey Tremonti, welcome to IBM! I recommend you read Gunis articles on this website, startin with the intervals on to begin your journey into music theory.

Hope this helps

[Bongo Boy]

Originally posted by XxTremontixX
I dont understand what a maj 3rd or anything like that.

Got any thing to help me with that?Yes, we absolutely do. Guni has publsihed a series of articles called 'Chord Scales' here at iBM. Do a search and find them. Within a very short time you'll know all about what intervals are, and if the articles give you any problems, just ask. Welcome!

[XxTremontixX]

Oh my god..Thank you all. Ill definatly be looking through all of it!

[Jeansen]

cool article from Vai...;)
yeah..Tremonti ( is this your real name? or are you a fan of Mark Tremonti? ): well, is till remember that when i played guitar for the first time...i'm curioused to play gnr's stuff....man!!, it tooks me 3 month to transcribe "dont cry" solo and "sweet child" intro so it sounds right to me!!
but i'm shocked in the fact that i've got it only 50 % right and the other were completely false....lucky, i have their tabs..and from that tabs i know what's my false and then fixed it!!

i tell you this cause i don't absolutely agree that you must really that far away from the tab..but i think you can learned from tabs but of course you must ! do ear training everyday and keep transcribing.
Use the tab for refferences..if it sounds better than yours maybe the right one is the one from the tab...and if it does..fixed it!


oh ya...Steve Vai did mention something important..
"don't try to transcribe ( licks etc ) that you can't sing "
you must gradually take it step by step. My great friend said to me that my aural skils will develope as well as my speed..so if you can't play speed like Malmsteen then there's a big chance that you won't be able to follow or even transcribe it..

i'm only only a begginer...sorry if i got it wrong but i'm just
throwing away my opinion..... :)

[XxTremontixX]

oh, Hehe, Im just a fan of Marks.

And yeah, what you said makes sense, along with what everyone else said. I have been looking into the articles.