are there any good resources or any insider knowledge here on how you learn to play things by ear?

i've been wanting to learn a few songs for a while but the extent of information about them online is just chords, and that doesn't help me with finger picking patterns at all so i was wondering if you had any good tips on getting started with it because i have no idea where i'd even begin. (i know i can just google "how to learn to play by ear" (and i am doing that as well) but i like to ask here as well because it's nice to hear directly frmo real people)

plus i think playing by ear is a really good skill to have in general so i don't have to rely on tabs and youtube videos to learn songs.

  • Nagarjuna [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    For finger picking, pick up a cheap toy keyboard, then try to pick them out of that first (it's a lot easier on piano). Then you can play those same notes on the guitar.

    Another Find common transitions (like I–V V–vi vi–IV ) in songs you know very well. For example, "I've been working on the RAIL--ROAD" is "I've been working on the IV-I).

    Then, when you're trying to figure out a song, think "which common progression seems to fit here?" If you're doing 90's rock, a lot of it is a riff on I-V-vi-IV, and after Good Riddance, a lot of it is riffing on that picking pattern.

      • Nagarjuna [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Yeah, there's definitely a part of playing by ear where you just have to have been doing it since you were a little kid. Like how only native speakers and people with perfect pitch can speak Vietnamese since there's so much pitch involved.

    • Madcat [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      ty ty ty. keyboard advice is really helpful and i'm pretty sure i've got an old one around here somewhere so i can start working on that. thank you.

      and i googled the I–V V–vi vi–IV progression and you're right it's in a crazy amount of songs.

      • reaper_cushions [he/him, comrade/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        If you want to get into jazz, familiarise yourself with ii-V-I progressions and secondary dominants. If you want to play Yngwie Malmsteen songs, listen to pieces heavily featuring the harmonic minor scale (the ”evil“ scale, heavily featured in the Tocata and Fugue in d-minor by Bach). Also, if you want to learn western music, study western theory. It’s basically cheating although it can lead to dissatisfaction when writing simpler songs.