Learning to play by ear.

With all the tabs and videos available today I find most students rely too much on them and spend little to no time actually trying to figure out a song or solo by ear. Many find this a daunting task that takes too much time and effort which is a shame because more can be learned by listening and playing along than a tab or video could ever give you.

Here are some shortcuts to help you get started. Start with an easy 3 or 4 chord song. As you get better move on to more complicated songs.

1. Start with the most popular keys: A, E, G, D and C.
2. Just try to figure out the basic progression by using the 6th string on the guitar and seeing if you can figure out the note changes.
3. After you have an idea as to how the song goes change the notes into chords. Just use Major, Minor and 7th chords to start.
4. Once you have the chord progression down try and nail down the exact chord. Many rock, blues and country songs stick with the basic major, minor, 7th, major 7th and minor 7th chords.
5. Trust your ear. If it sounds right it is mostly likely right. Don't over analyze what you are doing and don't worry about getting it 100% correct. You just want to get the basics. As you get better the more complicated parts will get easier.

So get to work. Don't cheat and when you are finished you can check your work against on line tabs and videos.

Good Luck!

Standing In The Shadows Of Motown

If you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend the movie "Standing In The Shadows Of Motown". This is about the Funk Brothers which is the group of studio musicians who played on all the great Motown records. Fascinating look into the life of a musician and how those great Motown songs were recorded.

Lesson Availability

Latest lesson times available. Sundays 1:00pm and 7:30pm
I have no openings the rest of the week.