Hi everyone,

I was wondering how many of you are playing songs by ear, that is just listening to a popular song and trying to figure out the chords on your own and how many actually follow the music score ?

I've been playing songs with music score all this time and i was wondering how easy/difficult it would be to play by ear.
Hope this is not too much off topic...

Claude

[This message has been edited by wizboy (edited 11-27-2002).]

This is an appropriate question for this forum. Ask away.
I try to find the lyrics and chords on the internet but I play the melody by ear. I have a lot of trouble trying to figure out chords by ear.
You're playing songs by partition? what does that mean?
You CAN teach yourself to play by ear.
1) Get the chords to your favorite song and try to play the melody line. This works for me.
2) Get a friend to play notes and you try to hunt and peck for that note. When playing two notes, he/she should give you the 1st note, you guess the second note. (You are teaching yourself to hear the intervals (distance between notes).
I find I can figure out the melody much easier if the notes (intervals) are close together.
Starkeeper

Thanks for replying starkeeper, by partitions i meant music scores sorry for mixing up some french in there !!

Well, i've been asked to join a band and they gave me a couple of CDs of the songs they wanted to play and expected me to figure out all the chords/sequences that dealt with keyboard. I'm not so sure how to go about doing so and being very accurate at the same time. If they'd gave me chords/notes, it'll make my life much easier


Claude

Most jazz books state that the 2 minor 5 seventh and the root or the 1 chords are the foundation for playing jazz.

There are just so many chords and the more tunes you learn the chord structure to, you will find that they are all related in one way or another for the most part and it gets easier to figure the chords out by ear.

Of coures like everything else there are exceptions to the rule. For me it is still "All The Things You are" "Darn That Dream" and a few more that I find difficlut to follow and remember the chord structure to.

The chord structure is the most fasinating part of music to me. Like Dave said "Lush Life" is different also, but it doesn't turn me on enough to learn it.

Claude,
You can extract chords and melody and accompaniment using computer software. Here is a link you might find usefull: http://www.allformp3.com/mp3_other/mtm.htm
I have never done this, but I'm sure this would work. Once it's in MIDI format you can print out the score to the music.
Starkeeper

I WISH I had the ear and or the training to pick out chords to tunes ... I admire players who can sit at a kb and follow another player or vocalist just because they have a great ear, or can sense where the chord progression is going.
I have found that since I have been playing an arranger, I have gotten a little better at this ... (I know Scott .. it's practice, practice, practice!!!) ...

Getting lyrics and chords off the net is a good idea, although it's become less a resource than it was a couple of years ago (Copywrite laws and all!!) ...

brickboo .. It's interesting how some of us find some things difficult, but others don't ... While there are hundreds of songs I'll have a problem with (even if I've played them a lot), "All The Things You Are" is not one of them ... perhaps because I've developed this very simple counter melody under the chords which kind of leads me to the next chord...
t.

I have never done this, cause I guess I'm lazy. Play the songs you already have music to, but without the music in front of you. Look at the music when you get stuck.
Starkeeper

Playing by ear is a result of having a knowledge of theory. I'd suggest getting a "chord" book, illustrating the finger positions on the keyboards. It is helpful if you can learn how to 'invert' your chords...for instance a simple 'c' chord can be played 3 different ways. From the chord book, you can learn to 'flat the 3rd' for a minor, 'add a 7th note' in the scale for a Maj7, etc. I personally can say from experience that I studied like that as a kid for years... and with arrangers, it has become a great tool. If you read and then can add this approach to the arsenal, you'll be set. My chord knowledge is deep but my reading is limited and lame, which is also very frustrating.
Good luck,
Zuki

Thanks for all the inputs.
Thanks for the link Starkeeper, I'll give it a shot, that'll be great if the conversion to midi is sorta accurate.

I do know my chords but for some songs I've listened to for the very first time, it seems that I don't have the 'intuition' to pick up the chords right away and follow other players

I guess I need to go practice

Claude

Just play country music, as I do. Then you only have to learn three chords.
DonM

Here's where my training as a bassist come in handy. When you listen to a song .... try to find (and follow) the BASS part. It is very often the root of the chord.
eg: a "G" note in the bass will probably be a G chord. You can tell major or minor after you get the right root !
Play along till your bass note matches the song, then try a full chord .... and see if it's major or minor. The fancy stuff comes later !

Hi,I am a Singaporean chinese who loves2 play keyboard. I stopped buying music books after I studied modern harmony( music theory).Now I am able to "catch" what chord are being used in a song, although not 100 % accurate. if you understand chord theory or know the chord family, then it wound not be difficult to figure out the chord.A song in Cmajor usually uses all the chords found in Cmajor family, the C major chord family is C,Dm,Em,F,G,Am,Bdim.(Bdim is rarely used)and many modern songs also use E7,D7,A7.It the same for all other chord family,just remember--1major,2minor,3minor,4major,5major(perfect 5th),6minor,7diminished.Of course the chord being used may be played with a different bass note(eg.C on G,G on B etc) so practice more!Please 4give me if I gave a wrong info.

[This message has been edited by siahwayne (edited 11-28-2002).]

An interesting topic. I never had any formal training as a keyboard player, nor do I profess to understand music theory. I play by ear, although I tend to restrict myself to major, minor and 7th chords most of the time. I realise that much is lost though doing this and occasionally I hit chords which I dont know but they sound good! I guess the key to sounding pro is being able to play different types of chords, though I often wonder how its possible to remember so many types!
I started learning to play by ear by creating multitracked cover's of popular songs, arranging every instrument, listening to the record and trying to recreate the sound. Interesting with popular music is rairly do you find many chords, its more harmonies between different sounds unless of course there's distinctive guitar, pad, piano sounds involved.

Simon


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Simon G.K. Williams
simon@svpworld.com
Creative Music & Multimedia
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I originally trained as a classical piano player but learned all about chords playing clarinet in a jazz band. When you're improvising away you need to know just which chords are being played. The guitarist always had a book with the chord sequence for every tune so if you got stuck you could always take a peek. Only in practice though. Wouldn't do to get stuck in a performance otherwise they threw stuff, beer bottles etc. So you develop the instinct to pick out the right chords even if you don't have the music. Now I am a heavy user of fake books - just the melody and the chords. Main reason is you get so many tunes - 1000 or more per book so you're likely to get most of the tunes you want. So a big thanks to Hal Leonard.

I took piano lessons for a few years in High School. Before then I played only by ear. My teacher concentrated mostly on music theory. He told me once that he could follow most singers and play only the I, IV, and V7 chords. For the most part this will work with most songs. It may not sound exactly like the music you are trying to copy but it will provide some background to the melody notes you are playing in your right hand.

I will play mostly by ear but now like to have the music (fake books mostly) in front of me to keep me in my place and provide the right chords.

You can play by ear if you can tell when you press a note if it is wrong and if it is higher or lower than the note you wanted. After a while you will get a feel for the intervals between the notes and just know where the next note will be.

Best thing to do is to start doing it now. Like they say: "The best time to plant a tree is last year. The second best time is now."

Good luck,
- Brian


[This message has been edited by MagicUser (edited 11-28-2002).]

Theres a lot of good advice here so I wont bother rewriting it in my own style!

Personally I could play by ear long before I took any lessons. Whether I was any good is another matter, of course!

However once I had some classical training, and especially once I listened to and saw some transcriptions of jazzy stuff, knowledge of the theory allows my to recognise the chords much more easily.

The other thing I notice is that a lot of the transcriptions of "Modern" tunes are very inaccurate!

[This message has been edited by MacAllcock (edited 11-29-2002).]

I have the same 'strategy' as UD uses : Just follow the BASS..... write it down and you have 99% of the song.

In my songbook for stage-use are (melody-line) scores, chords and the style......but after a while I do not need them anymore while playing.
Just go to the right page, set the keyoards' style and off we go !

Roel

I tried playing by ear, but my ears were too short..

Fran, LOL. Jimmy Hendrix played guitar with his teeth.
Starkeeper

I use to play a two manual organ, that's why my right arm is longer than my left.
Starkeeper

I saw once in a circus show a man without arms playing guitar with his feet. Very amazing!!! BTW, Is it true that all violinist can play by ear?

On any string instrument without frets, you need to have the skills to play by ear!

In fact I can remember I played once with a bassist with a fretless neck where I could not resist to tell him this " shall I put some frets on your bass neck" (he really got mad )

Anyway I play by ear as well and learned to play keyboards in the past by transposing guitar chords to the keys to figure out the chords on a piano.
This was 30 years ago.
Since the arranger keyboards arrived, this now seems to be a clever way.
Due to this I play chords with three/four or more fingers/thumb which allows a lot of variation.

The playing by ear does not limit me though for getting copyright on my songs as because of Midi (which I record in realtime) the written notes/staff are ready in one go.

Nevertheless I wish I learned to read music good when I was young.

great topic though.