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


------------------
________________________
Simon G.K. Williams
simon@svpworld.com
Creative Music & Multimedia
http://www.svpworld.com
________________________

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