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ChristopherSchlegel
Guitar Tricks Instructor
Joined: 08/09/05
Posts: 8,328
ChristopherSchlegel
Guitar Tricks Instructor
Joined: 08/09/05
Posts: 8,328
09/16/2017 2:30 pm

Hey, there!

What's your current skill level? Is there a style of music type of guitar playing you are aiming for? If you haven't yet, then I strongly encourage you to work through the GT fundamental courses. After that, (or if you've already progressed beyond that) pick a style course that best suits your goals.

Links to all those courses are on this page.

https://www.guitartricks.com/beginner.php

And of course you should be learning songs!

Originally Posted by: mbw1

I play guitar and I would like to better at playing by ear and get more rhythmic, and I was wondering of there were a online site that would help me to become better at that.

[/quote]

The best way to improve your aural skills is figure out songs on your guitar. Play guitar a lot & listen! :)

Listen to a lot of pop music. Blues, rock, country, jazz, radio pop. Everything. Listen for bass motion & try to pick out the bass notes. Then add the rest of the chord to discover it's chord quality: major, minor, dominant, extended harmony, etc. Then start to pick out the melody notes, usually the vocal line in pop music. Or even the licks & solos!

Do that for a lot of songs until it becomes second nature.

[quote=mbw1]

I have found these so far

Musical U ear training

Music is win super guitar system 1

Have anybody tried one of these sites or have one they can recommed ?

I'm not familiar with any of those sites. One of my favorites to recommend is.

http://www.musictheory.net/exercises/

Sites like that can help you develop your aural skills when you are away from your guitar. Or be an addition to your guitar learning.

But in my experience, the best way by far to improve your ear training (aural skills) is to do it with a musical instrument in your hands. Learning the basics: chords, scales, rhythm, harmony, basic sight reading. Then listening to songs, figuring out bass notes, chord progressions & melodies.

Sometimes people study theory as an isolated pursuit, separated from the sounds. I've seen it result in students that can name every note, scale, chord, mode & inversion. But since they only studied in "on paper", they can't identify the sound of those things when they hear them.

So, how does that work? :) Like this.

The best way to train your mind & ear (aural training or ear training) is to be able to recognize intervals & chord progressions by automatic memory recall.

If you learn basic scales & their degrees like this.

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=363

And, then practice those basic scales like this:

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=451

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=723

And then use them to play lots of little melodies & licks like this:

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=439

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=896

Then mentally identify the notes of those melodies as scale degrees, then you will be on your way to developing your ear correctly.

Consider that once you understand that these major scale degrees ...

1-1-5-5-6-6-5-4-4-3-3-2-2-1

... form the sound of the melody to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, once you can hear that in your mind before you pick up a guitar and play it or hear it, once you can visualize that on the guitar fretboard before you play it, then you've started ear training correctly. :)

I know that is a very simple example, but really that is the entire process described in a nutshell. That is the exact same thing I do & every musician does to recognize, play, make up melodies, riffs, licks, and chord progressions.

We recognize that certain patterns of notes & scales on the guitar will result in certain specific sounds every time.

For example, when I hear this lick:

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=20405

It doesn't matter if it's in a rock song, blues song, what kind of guitar or amp or which key it's in. When I hear any guitarist play those notes I know right away before picking up the guitar to figure out the notes exactly what they are. This is because I know they are scale degrees 5-5-1-5-1 (with some bending).

I explain the scale degrees of that specific song in the next lesson.

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=20406

Next you want to play various groups of chord progressions like I-IV-V so you are building a similar folder of chord progressions in your memory banks. You want to play things like this A-D-E progression with the idea in mind that it is a progression:

A (I chord)[br]D (IV chord)[br]A (I chord)[br]E (V chord)

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=442

And this group of chords is the exact same progression, but in C instead of A.

C (I chord)[br]F (IV chord)[br]C (I chord)[br]G (V chord)

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=443

Eventually you need to work at realizing that those are the same sounds anytime you encounter them. So, when you hear Buddy Holly playing It's So Easy, you'll know right away that he's playing an A, D and E major chord in different orders.

A-E-D-E[br]A-D-E-A

Or when you hear Twist & Shout or La Bamba, you'll recognize that they are both just variations on I-IV-V chord progressions in C major!

C-F-G

Every song is built from the basic materials of notes, scales & chords. These patterns repeat over and again in pop, rock, country, blues music. So, the trick is to get your mind & ear to memorize & understand what those patterns are.

Almost every blues you hear is built from a I-IV-V progression. After practicing playing & learning to identify these chord progressions, I can hear them immediately when I hear a new song.

Make sense?! :)

Hope this helps! Please more if necessary & best of success with it!


Christopher Schlegel
Guitar Tricks Instructor

Christopher Schlegel Lesson Directory