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Learn Guitar Online – How To Improve Your Musical Ear
By Mike Hayes | February 22, 2010
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 hearning and play
that sound correctly on your guitar.
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