Karl makes a great point that if he knows the numbers, he can figure out the qualities.The progression is the same, but there is more information to analyze – the chord qualities.Gotcha! They’re the same intervals as the first exercise: 1, 6, 2, 5. Listen to the chord progression and just try to name the numbers for each chord. Similar to the previous exercise but with an added layer of detail. Exercise #2 – Hearing a chord progression If you can, try to sing the numbers for each interval – the first note of a bass line will almost always be the root note.īeing able to accurately recognize a bass line will give you the basic information necessary to navigate through a song. Sam plays the line and it’s Karl’s (and your) job to sing it back. Here’s a breakdown of each exercise Sam and Karl go through, listen along and see how you do. We’ve got an episode specifically about ear training on our Pickup Podcast where we run through some examples of ear training exercises. Once you’ve got those locked in, find reference songs for each interval descending too.
The examples above are all ascending intervals (going up from the root note). Spend some time looking for more examples online and find melodies you're familiar with.
We call this pitch matching, it’s a useful skill, but not strictly playing by ear.Most of us can hear a note, move around the neck, and eventually find the corresponding fret. While this may be true in one sense, there’s a big distinction we need to make. You’ll often hear guitarists say “I learn to play stuff by ear”.