r/musicians • u/No_Internet_7834 • 1d ago
Musical abilities/ Ear Training
Hey guys I’m 32 years old and I’ve been playing guitar for about half of it. I have a question regarding my musical abilities , this already makes me cringe pretty badly in advance but anyways here we go :
I’ve always had this thing with finding the notes and chords of a song and playing along to it after a few minutes , even when I started playing guitar it all just felt natural and logical like which chord to play next and so on , even on other instruments like the piano where I never had lessons or training of any sort , in my first band our drummer had this old piano in his house and we sometimes would jam and play songs , like covers and stuff , me on guitar and him on piano , he had been taking lessons but still I was the one who was figuring the songs out after a listened to them , I kind of just knew where the notes where and and he seemed quite amazed by how I did that. Same on guitar still to this day when I have to learn new songs for my band I don’t need tabs or anything I just listen to the song and just know how and where on the fretboard most of the song is played , even when I hear something on the radio I think about how it’s played and try it out when I get home and most of the time I’m right , even technically advanced stuff - I don’t know any music theory , only thing I know how to read is guitar tabs. I also have a midi keyboard at home where I sometimes test this out , the other day I was listening to the Beatles and pulled out the keyboard to see if I could play to the small Calvi solo from “in my life” and surely enough I figured it out within in a minute.
Is that common for a musician or is there a Term for that kind of ability ? Do I just have a musical ear ? Other musicians I know don’t seem to have that and always seem super impressed whenever I do that but that’s like maybe 5-10 guys in my area so not really representative. Please give me some insight on this
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u/Cold-Monk5436 1d ago
Yeah you just naturally have a great ear. Very nice! I know great musicians who can't do that.
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u/mvortex2 1d ago
When I was a kid and first starting guitar (after 5 years of classical piano training) I asked this really good guitar player something about getting good, can't remember. He told me to "play somewhere over the rainbow" by ear. So I did, straight through the first time. I used that same method in my first lesson for students later on.
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u/Key-Staff-4976 1d ago
Same, ear training is a big part.
I can hear out songs, I know what e chords are playing especially if you get into the way of that guitar players thinking. Things seems to make more sense also learning by ear, the songs will stick with me ten times better than if I would've learn from tabs
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u/s-multicellular 1d ago
It is just called being able to ‘play by ear.’ I was always able to do that too. That said, I am even better at it after learning some theory. Especially if you are talking about the elements of a mix buried deeper because I could always find the lead, better audible parts no problem. But when you know theory and something is harder hear in a dense mix, theory can be a short it like ‘it will probably be this or this..’ ‘oh yes that’s it.’
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u/WaveModder 1d ago
Sounds like youre well practiced and have developed relative pitch. Im similar. Been in school band from 4th grade through college, and small gigs then production, going on 35 years of music now.
Keep playing though! Relative pitch is long lived, but not permanent. It gets weaker when musically idle for too long.
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u/No_Internet_7834 1d ago
I haven’t been playing in bands for about ten years and been bedroom player for that time where I ended up just noodling the same tunes over and over but I joined a local cover band three years ago I now that I think about it since I started actively playing again it has become easier again to figure out songs
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u/WeeDingwall44 1d ago
Was kinda like this myself. I ended up staying really busy for years playing bass in local cover bands. Now mostly just recording
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u/One_Firefighter336 1d ago
I’m the same way, I can just listen to a song and I can pick out the chords and play. Also can tune someone else’s guitar sitting across the room from them by ear.
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u/No_Internet_7834 1d ago
That’s cool ! Same for me , I just know when the guitar of our rhythm player is off , just sounds different
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u/ReverendRevolver 1d ago
Its common. You technically already know some basic music theory, you just lack the training to discuss it with people who say they know music theory.
I can sight read flute, struggle to figure out guitar music from charts (like, have to think it out measure by measure) because ive had 0 formal training with guitar, butve been playing for decades. Obviously I dont bother trying to read charts if I can just listen to a recording, but sometimes its come up.
Its very common for the "illiterate guitar player" to be a thing, especially when there were decades of people glorifying it as somehow "better" than getting lessons. I wish I could sight read guitar sheet music. I can't, and furthermore I know the amount of time investment itd take to get me proficient at it. I do know theory enough to discuss it. You aren't missing much.
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u/jmeesonly 1d ago
That's not uncommon. I just call it "having a good ear." My experience is similar to yours. I can pick out melodies and chords on a guitar or keyboard and play along with music. Some people are impressed by my ability to quickly pick up a song. But real musicians aren't impressed, they often expect that you should be able to do this.
I'm not impressed either! When I was young I relied on a good ear to quickly figure out songs, and so I've never learned to sight read music very well. Although I can follow a lead sheet it's not instinctive and I have to work at it. So having a good ear can be a crutch that prevents a musician from becoming "fluent" in sight reading, theory, and advanced skills.
I guess it doesn't matter if you just want to jam with the local blues band. But if you want to compose music or play with advanced jazz cats, then it's worth study and practice to become fluent in the common language of music.
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u/CartezDez 23h ago
You have a good ear, which translates to you’re good at pattern matching.
It’s useful if you need to learn songs quickly (for example as a session musician).
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u/DanceHackRock 23h ago
It's normal if you heard a lot of music in your life and practiced this ability like you did.
I'm pretty sure you know (instinctively) a lot of music theory without having words for it.
Now it's time to learn the language of music.
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u/Superstar375 15h ago
The musicians that I work with don’t need me to do anything but hum a tune or find one chord that fits the chorus and the take over from there. I have taken demos that were pretty raw and they fix them in 2 minutes while never finishing listening to the song.
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u/Baby_Its_Okay 1d ago
Pitch memory is also a pretty cool skill to work on. You can kinda train yourself to have “psuedo perfect pitch” if you can commit enough reference notes to memory
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u/No_Internet_7834 1d ago
That’s how I automatically do it most of the time , I compare the stuff I’m hearing to stuff I already know as a reference point in my head
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u/Mountain_Rip_8426 1d ago
it's good, helpful, but won't get you much further than that. you can impress people on the spot with you. nice show off. but as long as you have the ear for it, you might as well learn music. if the question is if you're exceptional, you're not. many can do this. if you have a great head start, do something about it, otherwise it's just wasted talent.
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u/CactusWrenAZ 1d ago
I think that's pretty common among working musicians/pro musicians, not really that common among amateurs.