Today I want to talk about the “lost art” of learning the songs and parts “by ear” from the original recordings.

First of all: I love technology, technology is great! It makes our life easier, good quality gear is getting more and more affordable, the same goes for entry-level and intermediate instruments. You just get better quality for less money. There’s also a ton of software to help you learn, practice, write, record and even publish your music. If you need sheet music, lyrics, chords, anything, you just go online and there it is! But we often forget that there’s something missing in all this…

Do you listen?

As a starting musician it is crucial to learn from your musical heroes and study them and their heroes, too! It’s the way it always was and IMHO still is the way it should be. You LISTEN to your favourite artists’ music and try to learn their songs and the parts they’re playing. Also try to find out who their role models were, where did they learn their chops. That will help you understand why they’re doing what they’re doing that you love so much and it will help you incorporate that into your playing and your music.

The most important thing here is that you listen to the original recordings. Why, you ask? To learn songs and parts, of course! Well, you might say: “… I tried to learn what XYZ was playing but I couldn’t hear it exactly, so I just went online and searched for TABs/chords/sheet music. It was much easier…” Yeah, I get that! But tell me something: are you sure that the stuff that you found online is really correct? Who says that? Nowadays anybody can put stuff online and there’s nobody who checks it if it’s actually accurate! I personally found guitar tablature online (and I’m not the only one!) that were rated with 4 and even 5 stars and were wrong! Yes, wrong! And every musician on Earth will tell you that the worst and most difficult thing is to correct anything you’ve learned the wrong way so, please, double-check everything…

Now, I’m not saying that the stuff that you find online is bad per se, just try to use it with caution and perhaps in a different way. For example: I try to learn my stuff by ear and when there’s something I just can’t hear well in a recording or I’m not quite sure about it, then I’ll go online and check out what’s written in sheet music and/or TABs and then compare. Of course, at the end of the day there’s always the possibility to play something “your way”…

There’s more

When we try to learn the song and/or instrument parts we often forget that there’s more to it than just the chords and notes. When you try to learn by listening to the actual song you also hear the sound of the instrument that you’re learning, its dynamics (is it playing loud or soft?!), stylistic elements (vibratos, slides, playing with fingers, bows, picks, etc.), how the part is working with other instruments and parts and so on. Guitar TABs and sheet music can’t help you with that!

Learning “by ear” is the best ear-training program you can find. Did you know that if you really concentrate on one sound source, our brain is capable of lowering all other sounds and noises by max of 6 dB? Using that you can learn to hear individual instruments in a complete arrangement, what they’re playing and how they work together, what kind of sounds and effects they’re using, etc.
This also helps you with your musical taste – not just the style of music but also the sound of the individual instruments. I remember helping somebody to learn how to program drums at his home studio and he asked me what a good snare drum sound was?! This question really caught me by surprise! It’s one of those things that is easy to know but very hard to explain. “You just know!” “Oh, yeah? How?” Well, by listening to a lot of music! As with everything else you start to develop a taste for different sounds. Favourite drum sound, bass, guitar, piano, synth – you name it! Just don’t forget: my favourite sounds are not necessarily – can be but don’t have to be – your favourite sounds! That’s the beauty of it! The diversity brings color to music…

There’s even more

Remember that to learn all of the things and skills that I’ve been talking about here can take some time so try to stick with it – the end-result is well worth it! A lot of it even happens subconsciously! Let’s say you want to learn the chords or a melody/solo of a specific song. You concentrate on your instrument and the notes it’s playing but your ears in combination with your brain are automatically taking notice of the whole song: chords, rhythm, bass, sounds, effects, etc. With every repetition they get more and more familiar with the material so every learning step gets easier and easier to accomplish.

Last but not least: even if you don’t know or maybe don’t understand it now, but with learning “by ear” you’re ultimately listening to the song structure, the different chord progressions, the arrangement and, of course, melody and lyrics. All that information will also help you a lot later when you’ll (hopefully) start writing your own music…