While you may not be able to identify the key of a song by your ear alone, you'll get faster at finding the key of a song with your hands on your instrument. And once you know what key a song is in, you'll have clues as to what chords are likely to be used in the song, which in turn can help you pick apart lead lines.
Just like learning to play your instrument, learning to play songs by ear is a skill that you can improve with practice. As you get better at picking apart songs by ear, you’ll rely less on tabs, sheet music, and YouTube lessons. Even if you don’t play in a cover band or aren’t a pro session guitarist, learning songs by ear is a rewarding skill for any musician to attain. If you struggle with learning songs by ear, we’ve got some tips to help you get there. I’ve written this from my perspective as a guitarist, but these tips apply to any melodic instrument.
Train your ears to hear intervals
Even if you don’t know the exact pitch of a note, you can learn to hear its relationship to the notes before and after it. Most musicians can easily hear the same note in different octaves — play an open string on your guitar, then the same string at the 12th fret to hear this interval. With just a bit of practice, you’ll be able to hear what third-, fourth-, and fifth-interval relationships sound like. Consult a scale diagram if you need help finding these intervals in a scale on your guitar or keyboard. As you get better at this, you’ll start to hear melodies and chord changes in a different way — you’ll begin to hear the intervals between the notes in the riff, and all you need to do is find the correct starting note for the riff.
Learn to identify the key of a song
While we’re talking music theory, it’s important to be able to get a feel for the key of a song just by listening to it. One tip that is often repeated is that the final chord of a song is usually that song’s key. Even if you’re having trouble discerning what kind of chords a song is using, you can hunt around until you find the note that sounds like it makes a stable foundation for that chord — it’s likely the root note of the chord. While you may not be able to identify the key of a song by your ear alone, you’ll get faster at finding the key of a song with your hands on your instrument. And once you know what key a song is in, you’ll have clues as to what chords are likely to be used in the song, which in turn can help you pick apart lead lines.
Tackle it in small sections — software helps
Even if you’re trying to learn “Flight of the Bumblebee” by ear, it is possible as long as you tackle it in small pieces — even one note at a time if necessary. You simply need to have the patience to hunt around on your fretboard until you find that note. And this is where the importance of music playback factors in. You’ll be stopping, re-cuing, and restarting often — find software or a music player that allows you to do this as efficiently as possible.
While iTunes and YouTube have basic transport controls, it can be helpful to loop a song section or even slow it down. In the software realm, IK Multimedia AmpliTube 4 is a popular choice for guitarists — not only does it offer a 4-track looper and 8-track DAW/recorder, but it also offers you a huge range of guitar tones to play with. If you prefer to stay away from a computer when you’re practicing guitar, check out the BOSS eBand JS-10 audio player and trainer. It’s a great-sounding 2.1 stereo system (stereo plus active sub) with guitar and mic inputs, and it’s made specifically for playing along with your music or loops.
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Keyboard players and guitarists too should definitely check out Toontrack EZkeys software. Besides being a great-sounding virtual instrument, it includes Music Theory Basics training with playable examples. It’s a great way to learn intervals, chord theory, and more. It’s also a great songwriting tool.
Slow down when you’re having trouble finding specific notes
When you’re trying to discern individual note values, it doesn’t help that they come as a flurry of 16th notes. This ties back in to the point made above — choose a playback system or software that allows you to slow audio down. It’s the best way to single out notes when you’re just starting on a new song. Once you have a feel for where you should be on the fretboard or keyboard, you can start speeding it back up as you get a feel for the groove and tempo of the tune.
Be patient with yourself — it gets easier
Look at it this way — if you give yourself the time to learn a song note by note, even if it means hunting around for each individual note, you can eventually learn to play any song. The hard part is being patient enough to overcome that overwhelming feeling when tackling a new tune. Once you’ve found the correct notes or chord sequence, you can finally focus on all the other elements of music — phrasing, inflection, dynamics, groove, and so on. By the time you’ve worked out just one song part, you’ll find the others come more easily. And you’ll find that the next song you tackle comes a bit more easily too. Even if it takes you weeks or months to work out a song by ear, the skills you build while doing so will be invaluable.
Try different positions on your fretboard
This one is specifically for guitar and bass players. I’ve often worked out the notes of a guitar riff by ear, only to find that it feels incredibly difficult to play — suspiciously difficult. That’s when it’s time to find the same notes elsewhere on the fretboard and see how that different position requires you to play the riff. Try a few positions, and one will probably feel more “right” than the others. Unless it’s simply a mind-bendingly difficult riff, it usually turns out that I was simply playing it in the “wrong” position.
Keep alternate tunings in mind
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This one is also specifically for guitarists. If you’re beating your head against a wall trying to play a song you’ve learned by ear, it’s possible that it was recorded using a guitar in an alternate tuning. In other words, you know what notes you should be playing, but those notes seem to be spread out too far to actually play at speed. If you’ve ever tried to learn a Rolling Stones song by ear, you’re not going to get far without using an open tuning like Keith Richards did.
Watch TV with your instrument
Lots of players run scales or simply noodle while they’re relaxing on the couch. It’s easier for guitarists, but there are plenty of compact, battery-powered options for keyboard players too. If you’re watching TV, try to play little musical snippets that you hear. Don’t worry about finding the exact same note pitches, just focus on finding the melody regardless of what key you play it in. Being able to mimic music you hear like this is basically the same skill as learning to play songs by ear — and you’ll grow your ability to jam with other musicians on the fly, too.
Make it a regular part of your practice
Just like everything else about your playing, learning to play songs by ear gets easier the more you do it. If you struggle with learning by ear and want to tackle a complex piece, consider learning some simpler tunes by ear first. Even if you never intend to play them ever again, you’ll be honing your listening skills and will probably find that complex piece easier to deal with.
Hopefully these tips encourage you to learn more songs by ear, whether you play guitar, bass, keyboards, or anything else. If you’d like to learn more about tools that can help you get better faster, call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700.
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Photo: Vlada Karpovich
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