Thoughts on ear training

[suppaenitetere]

I have been trying to train my ear for the longest time now to figure out songs easily. I find that i can figure out lead pretty easily, even faster blues or jazz things but i have HELL with chords. I tried for an hour with a NIRVANA song of all things and couldnt figure it out today. It was the song Dumb which has a really defined bassline so it should have been easy but i couldnt get beyond the first chord for the life of me. Even when i played it right i didnt think it was right. Finally out of frustration i looked at tabs and realized i had gone over the correct progression several times and just moved on thinking it was wrong. Anyone else have trouble like this? I can sit and figure out jimi hendrix licks all day long and i cant figure out a nirvana song? (Theres more than the nirvana song, thats just the most recent example)

[gud4nothing]

i experienced difficulties finding chords used by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and other bands. The sad part is, i can figure out blues scales played by Paul Gilbert and Van Halen's tapping(eruption, dreams,etc.).I'm not boasting with my ability, it's just that i can easily catch up with solos and other fast riffs( excluding malmsteen, of course).

[gck]

The reason why lead is actually easy to figure out by ear is because it doesn't really require any actual ear training: lead is mostly composed of single notes or maybe double stops: it's enough to hear wether the next note is higher or lower, and how "much" higher or lower.

However, when you've mistakenly heard a major third as a minor third, you will find out when you play it on your own guitar and realize: "Oh, that doesn't sound right, maybe it was a minor third..".

Have someone play all the different intervals in all different keys at all speeds and see wether you can name them all EXACTLY... not so easy, right?

With chords, it's totally different: you can only identify chords by their "quality" of sound because listening into the chord and think like "okay, that's a major third and fifth, hence, a major chord" would be too slow (although it's a good practice for your ear!):

Instead of trying to figure out songs take the time to listen closely to all the intervals, the different chords etc... try to absorb the sound into your mind and memory so that you can recall them in your head. Try to play a note and sing an interval up or down from it. Ear training is much more about feel than anything else. You can actually devellop some sort of "instinct" that instantly tells you what interval you hear, what kind of chord you hear, etc.., without having to listen closely...

[Josh Redstone]

This site has some cool ear training exercises on it. There are chordes, intervals and even a perfect pitch section.

www.good-ear.com

[gck]

that's a nice computer game, but don't expect to get a better ear from using it: the trick in ear training is that you have to listen to intervals, chords or even single notes from lots of different angles i.e. how one note colors the other in an interval, how the notes work together in a chord etc... you can only get this from an instrument. A good trick is trying to recall a sound in your head before you "check" yourself with an instrument: play a note, match it with your voice, then sing an interval up or down from it and check yourself. Or sing arppegios etc...

[Coco(R)]

its all about practice

[Josh Redstone]

Well the site worked for me anyway. Maybe its not for everyone.

[movsw]

I found it very useful humming every note I play. So, before I try to pick something on a guitar by ear, I try to hum the melody first. Then I play the notes I sing.