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Whistling or Singing Noodling Disciplined Noodling Trial and Error Use A Tape Recorder Other Ideas |
The following tips are based on my personal experiences. When I first started learning to play the guitar, I was struggling to learn the notes (by reading music) and the finger placements, and wouldn't have dreamed of learning to play by ear. But within a few months, I could at least make a start at it. Here are some of the things to try: | ||||||||||||||||||
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WHISTLING
First, try to whistle or sing the tune. You don't have to do it well, just well enough for you to distinguish the notes. Once you have a few notes sung or whistled, try to duplicate them on the guitar. Many musicians and music teachers recommend that you practice singing – especially in a group – to improve your ability to hear pitch and to play by ear. Whether or not you can (or want) to do that, at least trying singing or whistling the tune you wish to play. If you can't do that (at least well enough for you to recognize the notes), you either don't know the tune well enough or you need to improve your ability to recognize pitch. |
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NOODLING
This is just another term for "fooling around" on the guitar. Music teachers often hate it, but it's actually a good idea. You just get familiar with the feel and sounds of the guitar by playing notes a random. You'll usually play only a few (3 or 4 or 5) notes at a time, at least in the beginning. You might play the second and third frets on the fourth string, followed by an open third string (the notes E, F, and G). You might then play an open sixth string, open fifth string, second fret on the sixth string, and second fret on the fifth string (E, A, F#, B). You just try playing different notes, for different lengths of time, and hear how it sounds. Several things come out of this. First, you get a feel for how the various strings sound. Over time, this will help you when you try to play a new song (I think I should start on the third or fourth string). If you start to play a song, and hit a note, you may say to yourself "I think I know how to get the next two or three notes, because I've done that before." Sometime, during your noodling, you may hit a few notes that sound familiar – "this sounds a lot like a certain tune; I think I can change it a little and get the right tune." Obviously, if you're ever noodling and DO manage to start picking out a familiar tune, don't continue to just noodle. Try to finish the tune. In general, though, you won't necessarily find familiar tunes each time you noodle. You'll just get a better feel for how the notes sound on various strings, which will – in the long run – help you play better. |
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DISCIPLINED NOODLING
This is another version of noodling. Go ahead and play randomly, but periodically make it a little more disciplined. You might play the second and third frets on the fourth string, followed by an open third string (the notes E, F, and G). You might then reverse that (G, F, and E), or mix it up (G, F, and E; E, G, and F). You might vary the length of time that you hold each note. You might keep the same finger positions, but change strings (instead of E, F, G using the third and fourth strings, you do B, C, and D using the fifth and fourth). Instead of playing E, F, and G you might play E, F, and A or D, F, and G. Instead of just playing totally randomly, once you find a riff you think is interesting you experiment with it a little bit. Like noodling, this tends to help you in the long run. Like noodling, if you find part of a tune, don't continue to noodle – try to finish the tune. |
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TRIAL AND ERROR
If you're setting down to learn to play a particular tune, try finding the first note (or the first couple of notes). Try each string in turn. Start with an open string; if that doesn't sound quite right, try the first or second or third fret of the string. Once you have the first note, try to find the next note. Pick it at random. If it doesn't sound right, try a note a little higher. Try one a little lower. Stop periodically, whistle or sing the tune, and try again. If you get stuck, you can come back and try again a day or two later. Or start over on another string, or on another note on the same string, and see how far you can get. |
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USE A TAPE RECORDER
If you have access to a tape recorder, you can use it in two ways. First, you can whistle or sing a tune and record it (in case you're worried about forgetting exactly how the tune sounds, or you have trouble getting your singing or whistling to sound good enough for you to differentiate the pitch). Second, you can record some notes that you play, to help you remember how the song sounds. That may make it easier for you to get further along in the song the next time you try it. You can also combine these approaches: Record your singing or whistling, followed by the song (or part of the song) that you play. |
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OTHER IDEAS
Once you've figured out part of a song, you can write down the notes you've found. (I don't recommend writing down the timing, just the names – A, B, C#, etc.) Whether this is good or bad, I don't know. It will help you in the short term – you won't have to remember or relearn the first part of the song when you go back to figure out more of it. But you'll get less practice in playing by ear this way. I recommend doing this only if you're having a great deal of trouble with a song, and you finally make a breakthrough and figure out a large part of it. Then writing down the notes will save you a lot of time. Another idea is to try to recognize a scale or key. Do the notes you have so far belong in the key of C? Or do they belong in another key? Table 2 gives the notes in all the major keys; you can use it for help. Once you know, or suspect, you know the key, this can reduce the number of guess you have to make in the trial-and-error process. The disadvantage – you might get less practice in ear training this way. You can find a lot of discussion, on the Web, about whether learning to read music hurts one's ability to play by ear. I won't discuss the issue further. In my opinion, the more skills you have, the better musician you'll be. You should be able to read music AND play by ear. |
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