Guitar
I've been able to play along with music playing bar chords since college, but now I am getting noticeably better at figuring out other chords and riffs quickly too. Last night I played along to the entire latest Ugly Beats CD and could play every song fairly well by the time each song ended. It's not the hardest stuff but harder than your average I-IV-V song, and there are some scales. I am still horrible at playing along to guitar solos, but that too will come if I keep on practicing!
Labels: band
posted by PlaysByEar at 7:00 PM
5 Comments:
I'm curious how well Mr. Playing It By Ear does with this little game. I think it repeats the same pattern, so your first run is probably the hardest test. I didn't do as well as I'd hoped.
Do you really play by ear or figure out what key it's in and then apply the scale?
It kinda all happens at the same time. Knowing the key helps, but isn't necessary. It helps more on guitar since the root chords are all fingered differently, but on piano it doesn't seem to matter as much. It may be that piano scales and chords are so ingrained by now that I don't even think about it. I'm not really thinking about scales on the guitar yet, which is probably why I still can't solo so well.
I tried JT's game but had to quit because it got too long. I was on level 10 with 3,000 points when I quit. I have to think about the pitch for a long time and can guess reasonably close, but the way I did well at this game was remembering the last pitch played and comparing it to the current one--interval recognition. This was easy in the first five levels but got a bit harder in the next level since I had to remember three tones instead of two. I think that is the real key to playing by ear--guessing what the next chord is by the interval change, and then adjusting quickly when you miss slightly.
Also I will say that I was not born with this skill. It took years of practice.
By "root chords" I assume you mean the open chords? For the bars you just slide them around...
I'd think that piano would be worse because you'd have to figure out what key you're in and either just know offhand which are the black keys or apply the circle of fifths. Music is all math to me so I'd do the latter, which explains why I play so white. :(
I've found that if you just get the pentatonic down that I play a lot of solos. They're actually not too bad; only 5 positions and there's always 2 notes per string. They're boring to learn but play the crap out of them until you can go from position to position without thinking about it. I'm still not there...
I've found that if I start banging random pentatonic notes in the relative minor key it sounds pretty good, sometimes. Other times, not so good. I haven't figured out why yet... There's probably a better way to do this...
Oh, I find the key like this. Tell me if there's a better way: I follow along until they hit 2 adjacent major chords, which will be the IV & V. Now I know the key (I). I step down 3 semitones and I've got the relative minor key.
So are you one of those folks that can hear a note and know it's a Bb (or whatever)?
Yeah, I know all the sharps and flats on the piano instantly from all those years of piano lessons. I can't picture where sharps and flats are on the guitar so that makes it harder for me.
Your technique for finding the root sounds workable, but that will only work for I-IV-V songs obviously. The root is usually the first or last chord in a song so I go by that--or just when you feel that you're there (probably harder than it sounds)
I don't think I have perfect pitch (ie. recognizing Bb). I get pretty close by comparing the note I hear to a song in my head that I know the key of. I have to think about it a bit and it's not instantaneous.
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