Play the Guitar by Ear


Some musicians are able to hear a song once, fiddle around with an instrument for a short while, and then play the song without any great difficulty. The ability to play the guitar, or any other instrument, by ear is a great boon to any musician. While some people may be better suited to learning to play the guitar in this manner, there are some things that a guitarist can do to attempt to develop this ability.

The best way to begin learning to play the guitar by ear is to pick out a song that you would like to be able to play. Now is not the time to attempt to master "Stairway to Heaven." Pick something fairly simple to begin with, and preferably a song that you know well. Choosing a slower song is also recommended, if possible. If you can find a slower punk song that doesn't use too much distortion on the guitars, this can be an excellent place to start, as many punk songs only use three chords.

Once you've selected the song, you will want to listen to it a few times, attempting to pick out where the song switches from one chord to another. You may also notice that there is a point in the song where the guitar part changes key; keep track of that as well. It may be helpful if you sing or hum along with the song, as the vocals will often follow one of the guitar parts. Getting a sense of where the vocal part changes substantially or even in a minor way may help you to figure out when the guitarist is changing chords.

Next, you will need to tune your guitar to the same tuning as the guitar in the song. If you're lucky here, this will simply be standard tuning. Otherwise, you may have to experiment a bit to get the tuning right. If you're familiar with the work of the guitarist in question, you may know that he or she often uses a specific non-standard tuning. Another good clue that the guitarist uses non-standard tuning is if they are in a metal or rock band. The short version of this is that it may take several tries to get it right, but between some experimentation and possibly a bit of research, you may be able to figure out the tuning that the guitarist is using for the song you want to learn.

Once you have your guitar tuned appropriately, start listening to the song, listening closely to the first chord played. You will want to try to find the note that is closest to the sound of that chord. Your best bet is to play several notes on the fifth or sixth string on your guitar, until you find one that sounds right. After you have picked out the right note, then you will want to find the right chord. Try the most simple version of the chord corresponding to the note you picked out. If that doesn't sound right, try some other variations of that chord, remembering to try both major and minor chords, and possibly power chords as well. With a little trial and error, you will be likely to find the correct chord. You may want to jot down a quick note about what you have determined, particularly if your memory is not the best.

Then you will want to follow this same process, moving on to the next chord of the song, and continuing through the chords in this way until you have figured out what chords are being used. In most songs, you will discover the pattern in which the chords are placed, and should be able to play through the verses with little difficulty. You may discover that things are different when it comes to the chorus. It is fairly likely, however, that once you have found the basic chords that the song uses, you will be able to work your way through any tricky parts with less work than it took you to figure out the chords initially. If the song you are working with has a guitar solo, you may want to save that for last, as it is the most likely portion of the song to have significant variation from the rest of the song.

Once you have worked through one song, you are well on your way to being able to play more songs by ear. Whenever you encounter a tricky song, simply break it down into chords, and you will discover that it may not be as difficult as you first thought. After learning a few songs by ear, you will discover that it becomes easier and easier to learn new songs in this way. The ability to play the guitar by ear opens up a huge number of possibilities to any guitar player, so it is definitely something well worth learning as early in your guitar playing career as possible.



Resources:
Maximum Musician offers a much longer and detailed explanation of this process as a ten part lesson.