   Another guitar thread - learning to learn songs
  My guitar background is that as a child I learnt classical/Spanish guitar, then dropped it for years, then started playing again but basically just chords, i.e so that you could sing along.I try sometimes to listen to music and play to it, but I jsut can't figure out anything, like what key it's in, what notes I am hearing, what chords would sound OK,...Is this something you can learn? I don't know a lot of music theory but I'm not convinced I should need to. Is it just a case of keep practicing and eventually my attempts won't clash?Because I play acoustic, I use a capo for chord-work, how do I figure out what the hell key it's in? I know lots of songs use the same sets of chords - like Em, C, D, G for instance is very common (or all raised up 3 frets is very common too), is it easiest to try these patterns in different keys and see what fits?[Edited by - d000hg on September 12, 2007 8:14:40 AM]
  chords? frets? Psssh, real men use one of these!!;  I'm not much of a musician and I've never played guitar, but I do dabble in keyboard playing and composing game music, as well as experiment around with chords. Being able to transcribe music by ear is a skill I'd like to develop too, except I've never put the appropriate amount of effort into it.I've only got one music theory book ("The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory", which is actually pretty good for a Complete Idiot book), and it includes a chapter on learning to transcribe music you hear in order to be able to accompany it. It pretty much boils down to practicing your listening and processing skills until you're good at it, figuring out how to hear different pitches and intervals and recognising chords, as well as the rhythm.The only thing I'm not sure you can develop from practice is "absolute pitch"; the ability to know the pitch of a note without any base note to prompt you.   ;Quote:Original post by booleanchords? frets? Psssh, real men use one of these!!Is there a cool story behind that?   ;  Yes. Yes there is:Crazy mod;Quote:Original post by d000hgBecause I play acoustic, I use a capo for chord-work, how do I figure out what the hell key it's in? I know lots of songs use the same sets of chords - like Em, C, D, G for instance is very common (or all raised up 3 frets is very common too), is it easiest to try these patterns in different keys and see what fits?Personally I'm a little more heavy on lead work. As a result, I usually start off by locating a key where soloing works. The easiest way to do that is simply start playing in the pentatonic scale up and down the neck until you find the one that doesn't sound like crap. From there I try to dissect the actual progression of the song.Alternatively, you can attempt to listen to what the actual progression is, first. Maybe it's I, IV, V, for example. Once you've got that, it's a simple matter of locating what chord is being played first, which luckily is usually on a strong downbeat.Lastly, you could just look it up online.   ;  If you ever want to learn how to shred, study tapping, sweep picking, and arpeggios. It doesn't take very long to learn easy to intermediate tapping techniques. Sweep picking will probably take a little longer (or a lot depending on your learning speed). Arpeggios are going to take a long time whether you're a fast learner or not.   ;  I find humming the tune helps. My ears often seem to play tricks on me and often I'll think a note is going higher when it's actually going lower than the last note. Humming the tune usually sorts this out for me.Also, if you can get something that will play songs at 1/2 speed that may make it easier as well. The notes will be the same, just an octive lower.It may also help you to play the notes first and figure the chords out later.But in the end you're not going to be really good at music unless you learn the theory behind it. I'd compare it to trying to learn to program by copying snippets of code from someone else's programs. Eventually you're going to need to know what's going or you're not going to be able to progress any farther.;  One program to rule them all...Best PracticeOne of the BEST time stretchers I've ever seen. It does time slowing and speeding, as well as pitch shifting, and it actually does an awesome slowing down job to about 70% (thats when it starts pitch shifting, though only minor). The true best part, is its 100% FREE AND Open souce. It uses a bunch of audio formats and can play/rip cds.I recommend it for practicing learning songs as well as learning solos by ear, it helps a bunch. Enjoy.   ;  Learning to play songs by ear comes with experience. I've played for some 8 years and still am not that great at it. However, I did see someone mention shredding above. If you want to learn to shred, do some stuff with arpeggios, and some really fast pickwork try and learn some stuff by Dream Theater. John Petrucci is absolutely amazing. He made some Instructional Videos a while back, and they're amazing. Of course, they're not all that famous because most of they're songs are 7-10+ minutes long, the longest being 42 min (Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence), so they aren't really played on the radio. If you like Progressive Rock, pick up one of they're CDs.Haha, sorry, I had to put in my 2 cents on fast guitar work, and I'm a huge fan of DT. I have never, ever, heard a guitar player like John Petrucci.But like I said, learning stuff like that by ear mostly comes with experience. If you play long enough, you'll get it down.BTW: John Petrucci is the guitarist of DT.   