Speaking of which, maybe you already do this, but just in case you don't, a suggestion is to get a beat box like a DR880 or just download backing tracks on-line. Then jam a long with them, making up your own guitar parts. If you're going to play lead, then try playing the solo "in your head" without even touching the guitar. Once you've got a melodic idea, work it out on the guitar without sweating what notes are what or what scale you're in. I think you'd find that a really fun and rewarding way to develop your ear, though I understand it wouldn't help much for being able to learn other peoples songs and chords by ear... I find that really tough too!
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Hope to help... I just didn't want you to beat yourself up too much. I saw an interview with Steve Vai that I really liked... what he said, believe it or not, he never worked on his weaknesses... only his strengths. At first, that just sounds stupid, because we all have to start with zero knowledge, and so we're weak in all areas of our "playing". But what he meant (he elaborated) was that he went straight for what came naturally... anything that fed the fire, that made him say "wow, that's cool, I want to play like that" and so his passion motivated him to go after it. It makes sense really, because no matter how good you get at one facet of guitar, someone can always find another, a "weakness" that you have that now you "should" work on... finally got your metal shredding down? Great, but how is your flamenco playing? It just never ends. So if you're going for the "playing by ear" thing to take the moral (and very commendable) higher ground in the hopes of just being a better player, go for it. But if it just not happening, don't let it take you away from other areas of the guitar that might interest you more. I put my lead playing on hold for a bit, because I really got into acoustic fingerpicking I was learning here. I really enjoyed it, and found I progressed way faster than I was with my scale stuff which honestly I was finding kind of dry. Hey its all for fun.. well, mostly!
Speaking of which, maybe you already do this, but just in case you don't, a suggestion is to get a beat box like a DR880 or just download backing tracks on-line. Then jam a long with them, making up your own guitar parts. If you're going to play lead, then try playing the solo "in your head" without even touching the guitar. Once you've got a melodic idea, work it out on the guitar without sweating what notes are what or what scale you're in. I think you'd find that a really fun and rewarding way to develop your ear, though I understand it wouldn't help much for being able to learn other peoples songs and chords by ear... I find that really tough too!
Speaking of which, maybe you already do this, but just in case you don't, a suggestion is to get a beat box like a DR880 or just download backing tracks on-line. Then jam a long with them, making up your own guitar parts. If you're going to play lead, then try playing the solo "in your head" without even touching the guitar. Once you've got a melodic idea, work it out on the guitar without sweating what notes are what or what scale you're in. I think you'd find that a really fun and rewarding way to develop your ear, though I understand it wouldn't help much for being able to learn other peoples songs and chords by ear... I find that really tough too!
