Learn Guitar Online - How to Improve Your Musical Ear
Whenever I'm interviewing an experienced guitarist with the view of teaching them I first run a series of tests to see exactly where the perspective student is 'at'.
Just because someone has done something for a long time does not automatically qualify them as being any good at it; it only means that they have been 'doing' something for a long time...
nothing else, over the years their guitar playing skills may have actually deteriorated or at best they may be simply going around in circles picking up a hot lick here and random chord there.
As I'm speaking to the perspective student I suddenly pick up the guitar and turn away from the guitarist so they cannot see the fretboard of the guitar, I play a familiar chord, one that they would have heard many times in the playing career and I ask them what chord am I playing...
to their surprise most of the time they cannot answer correctly.
Remember, I'm not playing E7#9, Bb13b9 or some more obscure chord that only jazz players would recognize, I'm talking about E, D and A7...
garden variety chords that almost every guitarist plays daily.
Of course this tells me immediately how developed the guitar player's ear is.
Why can't they pick simple chord sounds? The answer is simple...
to develop your musical ear you must may a conscious effort to remember the sounds you are playing.
Jot that down...
it's important "to develop your musical ear you must make a CONSCIOUS effort to remember the sounds you are playing or hearing.
" Surely we down need to practice hearing, unless we a born deaf we can all hear very well can't we? I agree unless a person is deaf we all can hear, the distinction we need to make is between 'hearing' and listening.
Hearing is being aware of sounds in your environment such as a truck or bus driving past in the street...
you are aware of the sound but you are not really listening intently to what type of motor it is, it's just a bus going past.
It's important for your survival to be able to identify sounds but we don't really get past the initial identification of that's a 'lawn mower, phone, or bus' type signal.
Listening on the other hand for the musician has many different levels.
The reason why or 'experienced' guitar playing friend cannot correctly identify a familiar chord is because he or she did not make a conscious effort to register the chord in their memory; quite possibly they have playing this particular chord hundreds of times in their guitar playing experience but they have been busy looking a the chord symbol on the paper and not paying attention to the sound of the chord.
How To Improve Your Musical Ear: A great way to improve your ear is to record a chord; just one single strum and let the chord fade away, as the chord fades you will notice yourself listening more intently...
this is good.
Start with just this one chord, try a use a chord you think you are familiar with, give this chord an musical ID e.
g.
, chord number 1 then say the musical ID out loud so it will be recorded before you play the chord; next strum the chord and let the chord fade away, write the chord name down in a notebook with it's musical ID next to it so you can check your answer later on.
Like this; ID 1 = E ID 2 = A ID 3 = B7 Obviously it's going to be easy for a start because you will only have one chord as you get used to the sound of the chord add another chord to your collection; don't forget to give each chord their unique ID code.
Important: Knowing a chord shape and it's physical fingering is only the start, you must also know how each chord sounds, only then can you use it, only then do you own it!.
Your eyes can 'hear' consequently staring at a chord book or Guitar TAB won't improve your ear, get the chord off the page and into your head, and while we're talking about getting things into your head keep in mind that when someone refers to having an 'ear' for music what they really are referring to is someone who has a good MEMORY for sound! That's it...
your ear simply sits on the side of your head and picks up signals, it's your well trained musical memory that allows you to instantly recall a sound you are hearing and play that sound correctly on your guitar.
Just because someone has done something for a long time does not automatically qualify them as being any good at it; it only means that they have been 'doing' something for a long time...
nothing else, over the years their guitar playing skills may have actually deteriorated or at best they may be simply going around in circles picking up a hot lick here and random chord there.
As I'm speaking to the perspective student I suddenly pick up the guitar and turn away from the guitarist so they cannot see the fretboard of the guitar, I play a familiar chord, one that they would have heard many times in the playing career and I ask them what chord am I playing...
to their surprise most of the time they cannot answer correctly.
Remember, I'm not playing E7#9, Bb13b9 or some more obscure chord that only jazz players would recognize, I'm talking about E, D and A7...
garden variety chords that almost every guitarist plays daily.
Of course this tells me immediately how developed the guitar player's ear is.
Why can't they pick simple chord sounds? The answer is simple...
to develop your musical ear you must may a conscious effort to remember the sounds you are playing.
Jot that down...
it's important "to develop your musical ear you must make a CONSCIOUS effort to remember the sounds you are playing or hearing.
" Surely we down need to practice hearing, unless we a born deaf we can all hear very well can't we? I agree unless a person is deaf we all can hear, the distinction we need to make is between 'hearing' and listening.
Hearing is being aware of sounds in your environment such as a truck or bus driving past in the street...
you are aware of the sound but you are not really listening intently to what type of motor it is, it's just a bus going past.
It's important for your survival to be able to identify sounds but we don't really get past the initial identification of that's a 'lawn mower, phone, or bus' type signal.
Listening on the other hand for the musician has many different levels.
The reason why or 'experienced' guitar playing friend cannot correctly identify a familiar chord is because he or she did not make a conscious effort to register the chord in their memory; quite possibly they have playing this particular chord hundreds of times in their guitar playing experience but they have been busy looking a the chord symbol on the paper and not paying attention to the sound of the chord.
How To Improve Your Musical Ear: A great way to improve your ear is to record a chord; just one single strum and let the chord fade away, as the chord fades you will notice yourself listening more intently...
this is good.
Start with just this one chord, try a use a chord you think you are familiar with, give this chord an musical ID e.
g.
, chord number 1 then say the musical ID out loud so it will be recorded before you play the chord; next strum the chord and let the chord fade away, write the chord name down in a notebook with it's musical ID next to it so you can check your answer later on.
Like this; ID 1 = E ID 2 = A ID 3 = B7 Obviously it's going to be easy for a start because you will only have one chord as you get used to the sound of the chord add another chord to your collection; don't forget to give each chord their unique ID code.
Important: Knowing a chord shape and it's physical fingering is only the start, you must also know how each chord sounds, only then can you use it, only then do you own it!.
Your eyes can 'hear' consequently staring at a chord book or Guitar TAB won't improve your ear, get the chord off the page and into your head, and while we're talking about getting things into your head keep in mind that when someone refers to having an 'ear' for music what they really are referring to is someone who has a good MEMORY for sound! That's it...
your ear simply sits on the side of your head and picks up signals, it's your well trained musical memory that allows you to instantly recall a sound you are hearing and play that sound correctly on your guitar.
