Why Play By Ear

- stronger ability to improvise music

- able to play along with songs quickly after hearing them
- freedom to express the music they hear in their minds
- better able to remember music and anticipate chord
changes
- able to learn songs and play without sheet music or
tablature
- bigger musical vocabulary and range of expression
- better understanding of how music 'works'
 Step 1: Learn your scales
There are many different styles of popular music - rock,
jazz, R&B, country, heavy metal etc. - and you will find
many big differences between these styles.

The one thing they all have in common, though, is that

they are tonal - meaning that the music centers around
one particular tone, called the tonic or the 'one'.

When you hear the tonic in a melody, you feel you are
'home'. It is the most stable tone used in a melody, and
usually it is the tone on which the melody ends.
Step 2:Recognize the Patterns
Music is full of patterns: Notes combine in a specific
way to make a scale or chord. Chords come together to
form chord progressions. Progressions combine to
make verses, and so on. Chord progression patterns are
especially common in popular music.
 Step 3:Find the Key
In order to learn songs quickly by ear, or to play along
with other musicians on a song you don't know, you
first need to find the key of the song.

To find the key of a song, you must find the tonic. In

the key of C Major or C Minor, the tonic or '1' is C.
The notes in a scale or key are like a family - they are all
related, and they center around the '1' or the tonic of
the key. This is the tone that sounds most 'at home' -
the one that fits better than any other note.
Step 4: Discover Your Voice
One of the best things you can do to improve your ear
is to sing. Your voice forms an important link between
your instrument and the music you hear in your mind.
When you can accurately sing intervals and chords, you
will have a much easier time identifying them by ear.
Step5: Develop Your Powers
of Visualization
In terms of ear training, visualization refers to the
ability to mentally 'see' how you would play a fragment
of music on your instrument. Once you are able to sing
a phrase you hear, the next step is to visualize how you
would actually play it.