Learning by Ear

First, let me say, nice win last night, Oilers. You get doubled up in shots, but somehow pull out a 7-2 win. Better to save those goals for next month.

Which reminds me to point out something. (Okay, I'll get back to the actual subject of this post in a moment.) The fact that the Oilers start off their season with so many games on the road, added to the fact that they have one divisional game in all of November, smacks of something criminal to me. Sure, I'll probably be loving life in March when everyone has to come to freezing Alberta to play a winter game, but right now it's brutal. A lot of comments are flowing through Oiler blogs about players not playing to their potential. Is it at all possible that they are still shaking off the summer rust, and that the travel schedule has done nothing but emphasize the problem? I guess we'll see, come next spring.

Okay, so back on topic.

A blind guitarist can learn songs in a few different ways. The expensive route is to purchase lessons from either a website (i.e. www.musicvi.com) or via a personal teacher. Alternatively, you listen to a CD, probably augment with Internet research, and try to hack it out. Some even have friends that play that can help teach.

I use the second option. As this topic gets a bit of conversation on forums, I figured I would comment on the process. It's laborious, almost impossible with kids around, and will result in you playing the song your way. You will probably never exactly cover a song, which in some ways is a great thing! On the other hand, if you truly want to cover a song, I can't stress the first option enough. It costs more in dollars, but less in time. It has the added benefit of helping to develop proper technique while learning a song you enjoy.

Anyway, for me, the process usually goes like this: I start out either looking specifically for a song, or browsing the catalog of one of the sites listed below. I listen to the song over and over to develop a sense of rhythm, key, and difficulty. For example, songs with advanced techniques or finger-style melodies would go way up on the difficulty chart. Often, songs with high difficulty are simply impossible for my ear, as I can't pick up every transition, every note.

So I've listened to the song several times. I like it, I can probably even sing the words, but I haven't touched a guitar. Once I have everything in my head, I sit down and attempt to play the melody. This solidifies my sense of the song's key and helps me identify chord changes. Since most popular songs follow standard music theory. (Why go against the grain if it won't make you money.) So, I know that a song in a particular key will generally have specific chords. For example, a song in the key of C will have C, F, G, and A-minor. Since most songs work very well with only four chords, artists rarely go outside the box. So now it's up to me to put those into a proper order, get the right strumming pattern, and play along with a group.

Is my method precise? NO. Does it develop any new techniques or skills? No. Does it allow me to play along with a crowd in 99% of circumstances? Yes. So, for anyone thinking that picking up the guitar is to hard, listen very carefully to a few songs, learn some chords, build up some calouses, and have fun!

And now, for your clicking pleasure, the sites I most commonly use for chords, lyrics, and learning:

www.guitarnoise.com
www.guntheranderson.com/v/index.htm