I used to think a musical ear was something you were born with and it ranged from Mozart to tone deaf and wherever you landed was where you stayed. My view of this has changed radically since I started consulting with songwriters.
First of all, I discovered that how well you can hear improves considerably with practice. It's a lot like stretching exercises. When you start, you can barely reach below your knees and within a month, you have your hands on the floor with your knees straight. Little by little, it's like that with ear training. I noticed the other day that I sat down and played a song with no trouble at all that in high school was unfathomable to me. The interesting thing is that I don't believe I've attempted to play the song since high school. It's not that I've been working on it all this time. I simply know and recognize a lot more intervals, harmonies and chords now than then. I do because I've been playing by ear all this time. And anything you continue to exercise simply gets better.
So often I'll ask a student if he or she can play by ear and I'll hear, "Oh, no." Then I'll ask if he's ever tried and he'll admit that he hasn't. Then I'll ask if he or she can sing harmony. That's a sure give-away. If the person can sing harmony--especially if he can pick out the harmony on his own--then he can play by ear. Think about it. If you can sing the notes of the chord being played, you can find it on an instrument. Some people just get overwhelmed at the idea of singing the notes and picking them out, but that's actually what playing by ear is. We see someone very proficient at an instrument simply sit down and play a song he's never heard and we think "I can't do that." We may not realize this person has spent hours sounding out chords and finding them on the instrument. We all have this picture of Mozart going to the piano and re-creating a symphony, but even at 6, he probably sounded stuff out. These were the scenes they left out of "Amadeus."
Expertise on an instrument is not easily won, but if you simply learn block chords, you can begin. If you learn the I, IV and V chord of one key--for instance, C, F and G in the key of C, there are hundreds of songs you could pick out. I'm a keyboard player, so the thought of picking out notes on a guitar--which is not laid out in a linear manner--seems disorganized to me. But playing three chords on a guitar is quite simple. You could start there. The good thing about keyboards and ear training is that the midi keyboards are transposable. By simply playing familiar fingering in a key you're familiar with, you can be triggering sounds in the key the record is in. This allows you to learn the concepts of chord function and interval relationship, without having to learn every key at first.
In Nashville, session players simply use numbers for chords instead of letters. That's what we're going for here: the relationship between the I and the IV chord--the difference in sound, no matter what key you're in. So you might as well begin thinking numbers and translate those numbers into a key you're able to play in at first. Later you can learn all the keys. But it's a little like trying to learn a vocabulary in three or four languages at once to play in every key when you're first developing your ear. If you find it easy to hear the one, four and five chord, then move on to other chords frequently heard in songs you like. Choose a new chord a week and listen for it on the radio in your car. Find it in your CD collection. It'll be like a new word you've learned. It'll pop up everywhere. Sing the notes of the chord and make sure that's the chord you're looking for. Picture the notes on the instrument, sing them and see them in your mind. I don't mean the notes on staff paper; I mean on an instrument. If you can read music, great. But this is about your ear and translating what you hear to your voice and to an instrument you can play with your hands. Soon you'll have a very large harmony vocabulary and there won't be a song you love you won't be able to play. And your own music writing will have improved immeasurably.
© 1996 Harriet Schock
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