Find a Songs Key & Guitar Chords - By Ear! | Walt Ribeiro >> The Internet's Music Teacher

Home » Ear Training, Marketing, Technique

Find a Songs Key & Guitar Chords – By Ear!

Submitted by Walt on Friday, 30 November 200713 Comments

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

OK – so here’s how to listen to a song and put chords to songs by ear. Its an important know-how to learn. Why? Because when you begin to hear the music in your head it shows through your playing and your writing. Ever wanted to do a guitar solo over your friends house? Well, when you can ‘hear’ the notes before their played, you can improvise that much better. This example takes Mary had a Little Lamb and puts simple chords over the song for you. Start small – then work up to that crazy solo!

13 Comments »

Sit N Go Journal said:

Sit N Go

Really enjoyed that article,tell me do you have any other blogs? Why not come and write for me I have a wicked article site you could submit article for?

- 27 March 2008 at 4:54 pm

Paris Hilton Sex Tape Video 2 said:

20 have you watched a new Paris Hilton sex tape

Paris Hilton Sex Tape Video 2

- 15 April 2008 at 9:42 am

the guru said:

seriously dude… you are only explaining trial and error!
And those chords are hilarious!

You don’t actually know do you!?! ha ha

- 11 March 2009 at 11:18 am

Glenn said:

I agree with trial and error, there are better ways to do it. However it’s a place to start for beginners and i think that’s who it’s intended for.

- 5 September 2009 at 1:55 am

Acoustic Guitar Strap said:

I think, every guitar player should play more to get experience. And by more experience, find chords by ears is simple. Although, there is simple ways to learn it quiet fast. But at the end, you have to used to it, if you want to be a master or pro.

- 18 October 2009 at 11:51 pm

pale said:

Hy. I have problems playing by ear. I don’t figure out the note exactly, i coming close to it usualy by a half step. I was doing exercises on a site http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id92_en.html . I set to the to play melodic and selected only minor major. And i did a score about 50/50. I’m 24 years old and got the midi controller for about 7-8 months.

- 6 November 2009 at 2:35 pm

pale said:

What to do ?

- 7 November 2009 at 6:29 pm

Walt (author) said:

keep practicing. be patient! you scored a 50/50 – that’s fantastic!

- 7 November 2009 at 6:34 pm

pale said:

It’s not because if you look there you can play the chord harmonic or melodic many times as you want before pick the answer, so it’s not the first pick that 50/50 …
Today i did better – 80% – but it took me a lot of time for every chord to figure it out…
I can’t recognize yet the major minor diminished… What to do ?
Thanks!

- 8 November 2009 at 6:01 pm

pale said:

I forgot to ask you if you know some method practice play by ear. I use this http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id92_en.html but i don’t like the sound quality.

What to do ?

Thanks!

- 10 November 2009 at 2:01 pm

pale said:

I mean that site is too old.

- 10 November 2009 at 2:02 pm

pale said:

You don’t know something else ?

- 11 November 2009 at 6:10 pm

pale said:

How much time should i practice on a day ? I mean i don’t want to do more that recomended because it’s not helthy that much sedentariness.
I got my midi controller about a year ago and in the last two weeks i started playing songs by ear, doing interval exercises… I want to go further as fast as possible.
How much should i practice ?
Thanks !

- 16 November 2009 at 5:30 pm