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How to Develop Ear Training Skills for Guitarists: A Practical Approach
What is ear training?
Ear training or Aural skills are the skills to identify melodies, chords, chord harmonies, rhythm etc. by ear and learning to play songs by ear without using TAB or other references.
Do you need ear training to become a good guitarist?
No, ear training is not essential. Technical ability and practice is important.
How to develop ear skills?
Ear skills should be developed gradually over time. It depends on an individual’s effort and the patience to consistently work on it.
To develop a good ear, it's important to start by learning songs from various genres and styles to help you connect with different types of music. For example, if you're into the Rock and Metal genres, which are often played on electric guitar with distortion effects, you may find it challenging to fully relate to the songs unless you have experience with this style.
Following are some of the methods to develop aural skills. The first three methods are discussed more in detail here
Ear Focus
Progressive Development
Figuring The Song Key (For chords)
Ear Training Apps
Advanced Study with Intervals
Ear Focus:
Ear focus is basically developing the habit to listen to audio tracks of musical pieces and learning to play a musical piece by ear along with the help of TAB or sheet music.
For example, if you are learning a strumming pattern, the TABs are important to understand the chords used, correct pick strokes and other theoretical/technical information, but only by listening to the strumming pattern you will be able to play it correctly with regard to the rhythm, timing etc. If you are learning a solo/lead or riff, the TABs are important to understand the fret numbers, strings used, left hand fingers used and other theoretical/technical information, but only by listening to the solo/lead or riff you will be able to play it correctly with regard to the phrasing, melody, timing etc.
Progressive Development:
Progressive means gradually over time. First it is important to learn to play musical
pieces from various genres so that you can relate to music well. Aural skills begin to develop from the moment you learn to play your first melody or chord. For instance, when playing a familiar melody, you can instantly tell if you've hit a wrong note because it doesn’t sound right. Similarly, if you misplace a finger while playing a well-practiced chord, your ear immediately picks up that something is off. This awareness comes from your developing ear skills!
Try picking up simple melodies & Riffs by listening. Melodies are easier to pick up compared to chords. You may or may not be able to instantly pick up a melody by listening, but you need to be persistent and work towards it. As you regularly practice this, over time you will notice significant improvement in your ear skills.
Figuring Out the Song Key (For chords)
This method requires some fundamental music theory, including major and minor scales, chord families and keys, along with reasonable playing experience.
Identifying the song key
Take a simple song where the guitar parts, bass, keyboard/piano parts are clear. Listen to the song multiple times to get a feel of the song
Identify the song key (Major/Minor Scale Method) and figure out the chords in the “Chord family”. Usually, the first chord in a song will indicate the key. For example, if the first chord is “G”, it indicates that the song is in the key of “G Major”. Note that the first chord may not always indicate the key.
Analyzing the song
Put on a good quality headphone and listen to every changing part of the song; the guitar parts, bass notes, keyboard parts etc.
As you hear change in tones it usually indicates a change in chord. During these changes play a chord from the chord family that you think is closest to what you are hearing, and if it is matching with the song, probably the chord is right.
Keep working part by part and figure out all the chords. As songs have repetitive parts, once you figure out the chords used in the “Verse” and “Chorus”, usually it will be the same throughout the song. If there is a “Bridge” in a song, the chords/musicality may change in this section.
What you hear and play in the first attempt maybe right or wrong. But as you constantly work with the song you will see that you gain more clarity and you will get closer to figuring out the parts.
Note that the song that you are listening to is studio mastered audio, which may have additional tonal effects added and other instruments. When you play a chord on the guitar it may not match exactly with the tone in the song, but will be close enough.
Once you have roughly identified the chords, play along with the song track and work towards fine tuning the chords and other areas.
Even if you are able to figure out 25 % of a song, it is excellent! As you keep working with different songs, your aural skills will get better gradually.
Ear Training Apps
Ear training apps can be useful for practicing specific listening skills through structured exercises. They can help with areas such as identifying notes, intervals, chords and rhythms. However, for guitarists, app-based exercises are best used as a supplement to practical listening and playing rather than as a replacement for developing the ear through actual music.
Advanced Study with Intervals
Studying intervals is a more structured approach to developing aural skills and can be particularly useful for musicians who want to develop advanced listening abilities. It involves learning to recognize the distance between two notes by ear. While this can be valuable, it is not necessary for every guitarist, especially at the beginner stage. It can be explored later as your musical knowledge and playing skills develop.
Listen widely and make practice consistent
Dedicate around 15 minutes of your practice time to ear training. Try figuring out short melodies by ear from songs you like, from other instruments such as the keyboard, saxophone, or violin, and also try arranging vocal lines from songs onto the guitar.
Keep in mind, it's not necessary to learn an entire song and stress yourself out. Start with short, simple phrases. The goal is to train your ear to recognize pitch, tone, and phrasing, thereby gradually strengthening your aural skills.
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