5. Developing Your Ear

Ear training is a skill really, really worth developing.  Really worth developing!  Make sure you also read the page Some Essential Theory -  you'll save yourself a load of time if you understand this.  In fact, it's essential.  This basic theory will help you find the chords and notes likely to be used in a song, once you’ve worked out the key, but you'll need to learn how to hear which are the correct ones!  This page is all about this skill. 

Transcribing
We call the skill of working out songs 'transcribing', although this is often taken to mean writing music down.  Classical music is already written down, but popular (all other) music tends not to be.  The orginal artists, unless classically trained, will probably have the harmony (chords) written out and perhaps the melody (tune), although the latter is often just sung or played to the other musicians.  This is why you will find different versions of the same song: there is often no original transcription to copy - only the recording.  Sometimes an artist will cover a song and choose to change some of the chords, but what you need to do is to play the song so that it sounds right.  This takes time, you can't master it quickly, but you should try to learn.  A good teacher will help you to develop your ear as you go along.

Why you should transribe
By learning to transcribe, you'll learn how to 'play by ear'.  This is a skill which takes a long time to do well, but the sooner you start, the sooner you'll hear similarities in songs, thereby helping you to learn (and write!) others.  Professional session musicians can often pick-up the song as it is played, even if they don't know it.  They can hear the notes and chords and are familiar with common chord progressions and cadences (movements between chords).  If you simply use the tabs you find on the net, you won't become a musician.  You should develop the skill of working the music out for yourself first, then going to the net, or your teacher, to see whether it matches what you think.  If not, one of you is wrong....!  It'll take longer at the start, but "teach a man to fish...."

My students, almost from the very beginning, are taught to 'hear' the harmony (chords) as part of the process of learning the song.  All relative to the student's level, of course, and beginning with I, IV, V (see Nashville Numbering).

The process of transcription
Although the following is the process, it's going to take some time to be able to do this.  Do what you can.  Write out, on a piece of paper, the structure of the song: Intro, verses, choruses, any bridge or solo.  It doesn't matter what you call them, or how you do it - it's for you, after all.  I tend to write out the music in sets of 4 bars on each line.  Music is often written in multiples of 4; so 8, 12, or 16 bars in each verse, chorus etc.  You can make changes as you go along.  You'll find you start to remember songs in sets of 4 lines as well.

There are some things you're going to need to listen out for:
The rhythm.  Are there 3 beats in each bar or 4 - simple 3/4 or 4/4?  Or is it 6/8, 12/8 or another time signature?
What is the key?
Which note is the bass playing around?  They're likley to be around the root (lowest note in the chord).  So,
What are the chords?
What is the V, or better, the V7?
Is there a change of key anywhere? 

With some knowledge of theory you'll recognise the likely chords in the key.  After trying these, you may hear some different ones added for musicality, although probably not too many in popular music, unless it's jazz.  Train your ear to recognise whether they are major, minor, dominant or diminished.  This will come with practice - your teacher will help you.

Resources
There is software available which can help you make the music easier to decipher by slowing it down, changing the key etc.

YouTube
The fact that you’re reading this shows that you have some IT savvy, so you’ll already use YouTube.  You’ll also know that you can stop the YouTube video and replay from a chosen point, although doing so accurately isn’t easy.  Did you also know that you can slow down the replay?  At the bottom right-hand corner of the video window, you’ll see a small cog-wheel icon for ‘Settings’.  Click on this, then on ‘Playback Speed’.  From ‘Normal’, select 0.75, 0.5 or 0.25.  Not bad for something that’s free, right?

It’s very useful to be able to slow down the song using YouTube, but you can’t loop a section, or change the pitch.  Some songs are recorded in a lower key, Eb is a common one.  If this is the case, you can sometimes find a version or cover which is in E.  If it’s a fast solo you’re trying to transcribe, you’ll find it quite difficult using YouTube alone.  There’ll be places where there are a lot of notes in just a second or two.  It’s difficult to replay over and over from the same place.  This is when more specialised software comes in.

A lot of professional musicians use Transcribe.  It is a convenient and simple piece of software which is purposely designed for transcription.To work on a piece of music in Transcribe, you drag-in the copy you own, or a mp3.  There are many ways to use the programme.  I’ve found the most useful to be:
Slowing the playback speed down (as far as 20%)
Looping a section to repeat, either to listen to, or to play over. It even suggests possible chord/note choices.
Changing the pitch (key)
Adding markers/labels (verse, chorus etc.)
Adjusting the EQ to listen more carefully to a particular part of the musical spectrum

Sometimes I use the ‘karaoke’ function to remove the vocals.  (Depending on the file used - it doesn’t always work).  Apparently, you can also add video, although I’ve not tried that myself.

There is a one-off cost for Transcribe of about £30, but you can try it free for a month.  No, there’s nothing in it for me, I’m afraid!

Connverting YouTube to mp3
With YouTube, as I understand it, you can’t legally download the music, but you can download a mp3 copy of the file (UK and US).  (??!!)  There are a number of pieces of software you can use to do this, and many are free.  I use YouTube to MP3, found here  www.mediahuman.com

Interval Ear Training
This is where you develop the skill of hearing the musical intervals between notes and chords.  This is what is known as 'relative pitch'.  So, If you hear F, for example, and then down to C, you'll be able to recognise this interval.  I can recommend musictheory.net/exercises/ear-interval   Go to the settings and select only Perfect 4th and 5th.  Don't do more until you recognise these intervals every time.   


So, develop your ear and, if I could give you only one other piece of advice it would be to develop your ear.  Are you seeing a trend yet? : )
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