Play Guitar By Ear - Developing Your Recall System
When learning to play guitar by ear the name of the game is to make a conscious decision to pay attention to the sounds around us.
How do people play by ear ...
by making a mental note of audio information with the intention of recalling this information at a later time.
The key is to make a conscious effort to notice the sound you want to remember.
Doesn't everyone do this? The answer is no.
Let's to a close look at this business of playing by ear.
Apart from a person who is deaf, everyone can hear.
Hearing is not the same as listening.
An example of hearing would be you 'hear' a motorbike drive past you in the street.
An example of listening would be to be able to discern, (a) what make of motorbike (b) what the pitch did the motorbike's engine produce (c) whether the bike was being driven on a wet road surface etc.
You see, when you as listening intently to a sound a lot of extra information is available to you.
Of course, not many people would be standing on a street corner listening to a Harley Davidson's engine range between the pitch of 'G' and 'Gb'.
Which is exactly my point! We hear sounds all the time and we don't pay too much attention to them.
To learn to play by ear we simply need to make some slight changes in how we listen to musical sounds.
It's like the old saying "fish discover water last", that's because they are in the middle of it, they are surrounded by it, ...
it's the same with music, we hear music all the time from a wide variety of media.
The important distinction is we 'hear' music all the time but we are not making a conscious effort to 'listen' to that music for the purpose of recalling this information at a later time.
For example; Let's say two group's of student's were watching the same movie.
Group 'A' simply watched the movie and then went on about their daily activities.
Group 'B' however, were given a notepad and pencil, they were told that they would be asked questions about the movie later and that their answers would count as part of their end of term exam.
Which group would retain the most information about that movie? Group 'B' of course, why ...
because their nervous system would be more alert, they know they have to retain this information for instant recall at a later date.
The way this information would be stored and filed in their brain's would be different than the group that just casually glanced at the movie.
By the way, talking about movies, have you ever tried to recall the titles of movies you have watched recently? If we can't recall the titles, how much of the other details would be able to recall? The information is stored in our brain somewhere, it's just difficult to retrieve this information because we did not make a conscious effort to file it away for future reference, an so the information is lost in the mist of the information overload fog.
I give this example to show how we must make a slight change in our listening habits, start by paying attention to the sound we are producing in our practice sessions ...
they are all important.
Listen closely to the two chord progressions, and feel the eight bar phrases and try to think of melodies that would fit over these progressions, that's how you play guitar by ear.
How do people play by ear ...
by making a mental note of audio information with the intention of recalling this information at a later time.
The key is to make a conscious effort to notice the sound you want to remember.
Doesn't everyone do this? The answer is no.
Let's to a close look at this business of playing by ear.
Apart from a person who is deaf, everyone can hear.
Hearing is not the same as listening.
An example of hearing would be you 'hear' a motorbike drive past you in the street.
An example of listening would be to be able to discern, (a) what make of motorbike (b) what the pitch did the motorbike's engine produce (c) whether the bike was being driven on a wet road surface etc.
You see, when you as listening intently to a sound a lot of extra information is available to you.
Of course, not many people would be standing on a street corner listening to a Harley Davidson's engine range between the pitch of 'G' and 'Gb'.
Which is exactly my point! We hear sounds all the time and we don't pay too much attention to them.
To learn to play by ear we simply need to make some slight changes in how we listen to musical sounds.
It's like the old saying "fish discover water last", that's because they are in the middle of it, they are surrounded by it, ...
it's the same with music, we hear music all the time from a wide variety of media.
The important distinction is we 'hear' music all the time but we are not making a conscious effort to 'listen' to that music for the purpose of recalling this information at a later time.
For example; Let's say two group's of student's were watching the same movie.
Group 'A' simply watched the movie and then went on about their daily activities.
Group 'B' however, were given a notepad and pencil, they were told that they would be asked questions about the movie later and that their answers would count as part of their end of term exam.
Which group would retain the most information about that movie? Group 'B' of course, why ...
because their nervous system would be more alert, they know they have to retain this information for instant recall at a later date.
The way this information would be stored and filed in their brain's would be different than the group that just casually glanced at the movie.
By the way, talking about movies, have you ever tried to recall the titles of movies you have watched recently? If we can't recall the titles, how much of the other details would be able to recall? The information is stored in our brain somewhere, it's just difficult to retrieve this information because we did not make a conscious effort to file it away for future reference, an so the information is lost in the mist of the information overload fog.
I give this example to show how we must make a slight change in our listening habits, start by paying attention to the sound we are producing in our practice sessions ...
they are all important.
Listen closely to the two chord progressions, and feel the eight bar phrases and try to think of melodies that would fit over these progressions, that's how you play guitar by ear.