Ear Training for Guitar Players:
Elevate Your Music!
Playing the sounds that you hear—both inside and outside your head—is an essential skill in limitless guitar playing. The most common goal of ear training for most guitar players is to be able to find chords and single note lines or leads by ear. But there are a lot more high-value skills you’ll gain when you develop this sense!
With a well-trained ear, you can tell what a song sounds like just by looking at the sheet music. You can even jot down a tune that comes into your head while you’re riding on a bus or sitting in a café! Imagine how efficient rehearsals or recording sessions could be if you were able to write out parts by ear. And, if you’re interested in helping other guitar players learn, ear training for guitar players is invaluable. You will be able to figure out songs for students—and even write them out—on the spot!
The importance of ear training is irrefutable, but you may question your ability to succeed at it. Fortunately, you can develop the skills you need through intelligent practice. And, as you progress in your study, your playing will improve and your music literacy will grow, as will your knowledge and use of the fretboard. All in all, your level of musicianship will skyrocket!
What Do You Need?
To be successful at ear training for guitar, you will need to cultivate a particular mental state and style of thinking. This is the same mode of relaxed concentration, balance between the two hemispheres of the brain, and emotional detachment or lack of self-judgment that is required of a good guitar player. You can learn more about this style of thinking/being in You & Your Guitar. I’ve also written about the best way to cultivate it in some of the other articles on this site.
—and How Do You Do It?
You’ll begin by learning to hear the distance between two notes. That is known as interval recognition. Once you have achieved some skill with those basics, you’ll move on to recognizing chord qualities. You’ll discover that can already tell the difference between major chords and minor chords. Hearing the root note in those chords is the next step, and one that you will find surprisingly easy. At that point, you will have all the listening skills you need to identify chord progressions.
With each step, you’ll continue to improve your interval recognition, which will enable you to hear short melodic lines. Before long, you’ll be taking melodic dictation.
At that point, you’re only a small step away from transcribing complete melodies! And, the longer you study, the more discerning your ear will become. With time and practice, you’ll even be able to transcribe rapid lines and sophisticated harmonies.
You can learn all of this and more in A Guitar Player’s Guide to Ear Training. This is the course where I teach the principles of ear training, give you guidance on how to succeed, and provide ear training exercises for your practice. As a guitarist, I designed the course specifically for guitar players, so you’ll find out what shapes to play on your guitar for each interval. I give you tips for hearing notes and chords and tell you how to hear where on the guitar they’re being played. I tell you how to recognize common chord voicings. And I even help you determine whether a capo is being used or an open tuning employed.
And now, you can get it for free! Of course, if you want the hard copy, you can still get it here. But I’ve also placed the entire ear training course in the Virtual Studio. If you haven’t joined it yet, you should definitely sign up now!
Try Some Now
The easiest way to start training your ears right away is simply by singing a major scale. Sing it by scale degree numbers—do=1, re=2, mi=3, etc.—from 1 up to 8 and back down again. Play the scale on a well-tuned guitar or piano to keep your pitch true, if you need to.
When you’re comfortable singing the scale by scale degree numbers, start to sing the intervals by interval names. (1-2, Major 2nd; 1-3, Major 3rd; 1-4, Perfect 4th; 1-5, Perfect 5th; 1-6, Major 6th; 1-7, Major 7th; 1-8, Perfect Octave.) If you’re not familiar with interval names, this will help you learn them and connect the names to the sound. (My ear training course explains intervals and any other musical relationships or music theory concepts you’ll need.) Again, use a well-tuned instrument to ensure true pitch.
…and Make it Easy
A great way to remember the names of the different intervals is to use a mnemonic (memory) device. For example, the song “Michael Row the Boat Ashore” begins with the interval of a Major 3rd (1-3). It also begins with a major chord, as the first three notes are scale degrees 1-3-5. Here is a list of familiar songs that start with the major and perfect intervals. If you’re not familiar with these, find songs that you know very well to use as your personal mnemonic devices.
M2 Tennessee Waltz
M3 Oh, When the Saints . . .
P4 Here Comes the Bride
P5 Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
M6 My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean
M7 Cast Your Fate to the Wind
P8 Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Make a Map
If you’ve never done any conscious ear training before, it can be helpful to start by mapping out some sounds. To prepare, take a blank piece of paper and draw a horizontal line across it. The line will represent the notes you hear as home base, which we call tonic. Tonic is the starting point of the scale, or scale degree 1, and it indicates the key the song is in.
Now pick a familiar tune that’s at a moderate or slow tempo and listen to the first phrase of it. Sing it back. Consider each note carefully, noticing when the pitch rises, falls, or stays the same. If it changes, how large is the interval? Is it a step or a skip? If it’s a skip, how big is the skip? As you answer these questions, draw your conclusions on your “map” as oval notes. You’ll be assessing the distance of one note to the next and the next. As you go through each phrase or line, try to also stay in touch with tonic, represented by the line, and adjust your decisions accordingly.
Don’t worry about right or wrong answers. This is just an exercise to help you start tuning in to direction and distance from one note to the next. You’ll get better with practice. And you’ll probably start to notice that you’re listening to all music with an increased awareness and enjoyment with that practice!
Analyze, Analyze, Analyze!
Pick a couple of simple songs in a major key to start with—children’s songs are a safe bet. Then try analyzing them in terms of scale degrees. Your goal is to sing them by scale degree numbers. If you wanted to sing “Frere Jacques,” or “Are You Sleeping?,” for example, you would sing 1 -2 – 3 – 1; 1 – 2 – 3 – 1; 3 -4 – 5; 3- 4- 5. Instead of the words to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” you would sing 1 – 1, 5 – 5, 6 – 6 – 5. Once you’ve made your decisions, check yourself using an instrument. Make any necessary corrections, and then practice singing the correct version.
You don’t have to be a good singer to do this. Just do it! Be sure, though, that you know where “1” is, so that you’re singing the correct scale degrees. For example, “Tennessee Waltz” starts on “1”, so the scale degrees would go: 1-2-3-5- 1-2-3-5. On the other hand, on “Here Comes the Bride” the interval from “here” to “bride” is a perfect 4th, but scale degree “1” is actually on the word “bride.” So, in this song, your starting pitch is scale degree 5.
To clarify, an interval name describes a distance from any one note to another, not always or necessarily beginning on “1”. If you’re not sure where “1” is, just sing through the whole song. The note you end on will probably be tonic, or scale degree 1.
If any of this this seems complicated or unclear, just start with songs that begin on tonic, or “1.” You won’t have to sing scale degrees on more than a few songs for everything to make sense.
Ready to take your ear training to the next level?
A Guitar Player’s Guide to Ear Training provides instruction that enables your comprehension and success!
Would you like to get my ear training course for free? I’ve put it in the Virtual Studio, so you can! Sign up here to access it for a whole month for free. Your membership will give you access to all the other courses and lessons in the Studio, so join now!
How is Ear Training for Guitar Players Different from Any Other Ear Training?
Most ear training programs help you hone your ability to hear music, which is essential in becoming better guitar player. Ear training for guitar players is no different in that regard. But my ear training course, A Guitar Player’s Guide to Ear Training, will help you connect the sounds you identify with the corresponding shapes on the fretboard. Not only that, there’s a section that guides you in tuning in to and identifying puzzling guitar parts from favorite songs. It also provides tips on hearing what another guitarist is doing when you’re trying to transcribe or learn a song from a recording.
Then What?
Once you understand the principles and have a way of applying them, it’s important to practice them! It’s no different than learning guitar—you need to ingrain what you learn. With time, your ability to play by ear will continue to improve, surpassing your current goals. Just by considering what you’ve learned as you play guitar and transcribe music, you will boost your abilities. But to maximize your progress, you should also continue your ear training practice by using the exercises and instruction in the course. You’ll also want to seek out any exercises from any source that you find helpful.
There are some really good ear training apps available, and I recommend you use them! But remember—to get the most from the resources you choose, you’ll need to build a strong foundation. You’ll also benefit the most if you get some tips on how to succeed and get the most from the time you invest in ear training. A Guitar Player’s Guide to Ear Training provides those things, so start with it. You can find it free here for a whole month, which will give you time to learn a lot. You have nothing to lose and a lot of good aural skills to gain!
