Learning to play by ear

Originally Posted by JeffS65:

Kasperow > Relax...yep....that is the ticket. Some guys even barely touch the strings. I'm a little more heavy handed in some ways (I love a deep and digging bend) but being able to let physics do the work and not your hand is really important.

I've taught a coupla people in my day and I noticed that to a person, they all wanted to give the neck a death grip. I'd tell them to do an experiment: Hover your hand over the low E string (second fret) but don't touch it. Start picking the open string. Then slowly lower your finger on to the string (which will flat out at first) but continue to apply very light pressure only until the string rings true. Then stop. You will realize how little pressure it takes to make the string ring.

Response by Kasperow:

I just tried this, and it's true. It doesn't take a lot of pressure to fret a note cleanly. I'm starting to improve a lot in that aspect, which is actually very important, as it means I waste less energy, which by extent means that I'll be able to go on for a lot longer than if I play like I used to (which often got pretty close to "choke the guitar to death"...)


Yeah...there's books on the subject. Of course, knowing to relax and being able to relax are two different things. Jamey Andreas writes about not just the 'death grip' but everything...leg tension, shoulder tension, gritting teeth and on and on.

Jeff65 - I had to chuckle a little about your tip to hum notes. I started doing this just hours ago (yesterday's practice session) - a few hours before your post. Great minds..! ;)

Well, I'm slowly progressing in this endeavor, although I still haven't learned to play anything I could imagine playing Live in front of others. So far it's only Christmas Carols that are 9 months too early, and both the Danish National Anthems... I know, it's progress, but it's still far from the GNR, Aerosmith or Hair Metal stuff I listen to most. But I guess I'll just keep up the work, and hopefully develop my ears enough to be able to learn songs just by playing along to the recording :)

In the meantime, I'll also have to prepare for this upcoming event on my music school where I've got a chance to play. I still don't know if the other guy is up for playing together. I'll probably find out this Thursday evening. If he is, cool. If not, I won't have lost anything. I'm kinda looking forward to finding out, so I can truly start rehearsing for the event. I've got a plan for what to do after I've heard all the others play their stuff. That's when I contact the ones I like. I probably won't need to pay much attention to their stage precense, though, since it's kinda like an Open Mic, mainly just one at a time, just go up, play stuff, leave stage and make room for the next guy. Not that that's going to keep me from going all-in. If I'm playing and someone else can hear it, I might as well make it interesting to look at too! A gig is a gig after all. Even when it's only one song, just to show my playing to some other people who probably didn't come to see or hear me play. I'm used to that kind of audience after all :)

I would still prefer to have a band to jam with every week, and after some rehearsals, come out and play gigs. Of course, this event might be an excellent opportunity to get something together.

Originally Posted by: JeffS65If I had a tip to give is to learn to hum notes. When you strike and A Note or Chord on your guitar, hum it. Do the same with an E and so on. Not sure it is an official technique but it help me match the note I could hum to a location on the guitar.

I mean, I did this decades ago but I still use it when I want to to noodle through a song. Actually, I almost never use tabs and kind of hated them from the get go.

Back in the shredder 80's, all the guitarists I hung out with thought tabs were cheating (aren't guitar player rules just awesome!). Also, I think tabs don't teach you to hear the song. You know the notes but it may not translate to the melody as well.

Back on with my '80's guitarist' friends, we would joke that you could tell someone who learned by tabs because they lacked the song's feel.

Ok, so now that I've bagged on tabs, I actually think they are one of the tools in the learning arsenal but they should not be the only or even the primary tool.

Kasperow > Relax...yep....that is the ticket. Some guys even barely touch the strings. I'm a little more heavy handed in some ways (I love a deep and digging bend) but being able to let physics do the work and not your hand is really important.

I've taught a coupla people in my day and I noticed that to a person, they all wanted to give the neck a death grip. I'd tell them to do an experiment: Hover your hand over the low E string (second fret) but don't touch it. Start picking the open string. Then slowly lower your finger on to the string (which will flat out at first) but continue to apply very light pressure only until the string rings true. Then stop. You will realize how little pressure it takes to make the string ring.

my teacher always said,if you caint hum it ,you caint strum it.good point..