Learning by ear

Haych

One thing I've always struggled with; picking stuff off a record and learning it.  I'm better than I used to be but not as good as I want to be.

I'm currently trying to learn a solo, which isn't complicated, and I know I have the ability to play, but I just can't figure it out.  It's not helped by the fact that it's written in a harmonic minor key (I think), which is a bit alien to me.  It's not fast but it's taken me an hour to get the first bar.  So damn frustrating.

If I slow the track down it still isn't slow enough to pick out the individual notes and then you just get the sample rate confusing things too.

There must be an easier way of doing this, surely.  Or is it just a case of our old friend Percy Veerance?

octatonic

Learning by ear is really learning by brain- the more you do it the better you get at recognising patterns.

I don't slow things down when learning- I use Transcribe! to play the maximum number of notes I can recognise at once, finding them on the neck.
If that is one note at a time then so be it.

I did a video about how to transcribe music for the forum a while back, I will see if I can find it.

Yes it is perseverance.

Lestratcaster

Break it up into phrases and try to get the rhythm of them first, makes it much easier to learn the notes after. If you can sing the solo you can usually play it, that's how I do it.

Haych

Lestratcaster said:

Break it up into phrases and try to get the rhythm of them first, makes it much easier to learn the notes after. If you can sing the solo you can usually play it, that's how I do it.

I've seen people do that before, but I can't sing for toffee so that's me out.

sev112

When things start to get fast, I just can’t “hear” the rhythm!  

Lestratcaster

Haych said:

Lestratcaster said:

Break it up into phrases and try to get the rhythm of them first, makes it much easier to learn the notes after. If you can sing the solo you can usually play it, that's how I do it.

I've seen people do that before, but I can't sing for toffee so that's me out.

I can't sing very well either but I can use it to work out pitch.

Mark1960

I think it's one of those things that the more you do the easier it becomes, as most simple solo's are based around either the melody of the song or a series of "standard" Licks or in some cases Riffs. I start by learning the solo in my head so I can hear in my head if the note goes up or down from the previous note. A basic knowlege of the chord sequence will also help as this narrows down the potential number of notes played over any one chord. If all else fails if it's a classic solo, you can often get a u-tube lesson. Just type in the solo name followed by guitar lesson, and you may find some demo's or TAB sheets. As you build up your repertoir, you will start to find sequences of other solos that you have already learnt, so they can easily slot right in there if the key is the same, but if not just transpose them. Good luck, and enjoy the challenge, it's all part of the journey.

stratman3142

Haych said:

Lestratcaster said:

Break it up into phrases and try to get the rhythm of them first, makes it much easier to learn the notes after. If you can sing the solo you can usually play it, that's how I do it.

I've seen people do that before, but I can't sing for toffee so that's me out.

I can't sing for toffee either. I break things down into phrases also and then imagine/hear the phrase in my head.

As has been said earlier, it's perseverance. Then you get to recognise certain phrases or combinations, and permutations of those phrases. However, I can only do that quickly with my largely blues/rock vocabulary. If it's some jazzy phrase I'm completely unfamiliar with, it's sometimes down to working it out very slowly.

Haych

octatonic said:

Learning by ear is really learning by brain- the more you do it the better you get at recognising patterns.

I don't slow things down when learning- I use Transcribe! to play the maximum number of notes I can recognise at once, finding them on the neck.
If that is one note at a time then so be it.

I did a video about how to transcribe music for the forum a while back, I will see if I can find it.

Yes it is perseverance.

Hey, @octatonic, I Googled the Transcribe! software you mentioned. Absolutely wonderful tool. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. 

I’ve only dabbled with it for an hour or so but in that time had worked out the first half of the solo I was struggling with. 

Thank you so much!

mrkb

Haych said:

octatonic said:

Learning by ear is really learning by brain- the more you do it the better you get at recognising patterns.

I don't slow things down when learning- I use Transcribe! to play the maximum number of notes I can recognise at once, finding them on the neck.
If that is one note at a time then so be it.

I did a video about how to transcribe music for the forum a while back, I will see if I can find it.

Yes it is perseverance.

Hey, @octatonic, I Googled the Transcribe! software you mentioned. Absolutely wonderful tool. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. 

I’ve only dabbled with it for an hour or so but in that time had worked out the first half of the solo I was struggling with. 

Thank you so much!

Its great software - works with videos as well - I often download a youtube tutorial and loop the phrase Im learning - slow it a bit to get the phrasing correct (and check how its being played in the video), then speed it up.

axisus

The hard part for me is memory. I can't remember tomorrow what I learned today. 

jpfamps

I use Transcribe too.

I find the looping feature really helpful for nailing phrasing.

octatonic

Haych said:

octatonic said:

Learning by ear is really learning by brain- the more you do it the better you get at recognising patterns.

I don't slow things down when learning- I use Transcribe! to play the maximum number of notes I can recognise at once, finding them on the neck.
If that is one note at a time then so be it.

I did a video about how to transcribe music for the forum a while back, I will see if I can find it.

Yes it is perseverance.

Hey, @octatonic, I Googled the Transcribe! software you mentioned. Absolutely wonderful tool. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. 

I’ve only dabbled with it for an hour or so but in that time had worked out the first half of the solo I was struggling with. 

Thank you so much!

Most welcome.

viz

axisus said:

The hard part for me is memory. I can't remember tomorrow what I learned today. 

That’s not having poor memory, that’s just being bad at time travel. 

DLM

octatonic said:

I did a video about how to transcribe music for the forum a while back, I will see if I can find it.

@octatonic Is this the thread you were thinking of, James? https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/85579/the-inaugural-learn-a-song-a-day-for-a-month-challenge/p1 Bostin' stuff!

octatonic

Yeah that was it.

Grangousier

For the Mac, I'd mention Capo - https://supermegaultragroovy.com/products/capo/

Haych

Capo can kiss my rosy red ring.  

It looks like a great tool, I did download it and started using it and comparing it against Transcribe!  The interface is very friendly but after about a minute of using it Capo deliberately overlaid irritating white noise over the track I was using and flagged that it was because I was using the trial version.

How on earth you're meant to be able to trial a piece of software that is deliberately functionally impaired is beyond me.  The only way to evaluate it properly without white noise is to buy a subscription.

So, no, sorry, does look good but I won't be subscribing.  At least Transcribe! allows me a full 30 days to decide if I want to buy a license.

nickp

justin guitar has a bit on ear training I think - it's in the back of my mind as it's something I have to undertake and soon!

Danny1969

Reaper is actually very good as a translating tool and being non crippled evaluation software it's essentially free. Common tricks I use are 

Import song, right click and "Item processing" then  "explode multi channel audio to new one channel items"   ... then click the phase button on one of the new tracks. This will cancel out most of the vocal and bass and kick so you can hear guitars better. 

Highlight a section your learning and then hit the toggle repeat button so it loops the bit your interested in constantly

To slow a track down without changing the  pitch hold down Alt and drag the right hand end of the track to the right

To change pitch on old recordings where tape transfers changed the pitch slightly use the Playback Rate slider at the bottom of the edit window .... hold down Ctrl while moving the slider for more precise movements in pitch

Insert the EQ plugin on a track and high pass it around 400Hz and lo pass it around 4K  to hear the guitars better

There's probably more but I use the above all the time 

menamestom

Haych said:

There must be an easier way of doing this, surely.  

Find some dude on youtube that's done all the hard work.  Copy all the hardwork until you know the solo.
Play solo at gig.  Spend the extra time you would have wasted on working it out on talking to the chicks who are mightily impressed with your solo.

This works for me, except the last sentence, which was from my imagination.