From: ken@batman.austin.ibm.com
Newsgroups: alt.guitar
Subject: Re: Help needed on playing by ear...
Date: 1 Oct 92 15:27:58 GMT
Reply-To: ken@austin.ibm.com
Organization: IBM, Austin

In article <1992Sep28.153902.12373@news.acns.nwu.edu>
ddavis@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Donald Davis) writes:

#   Also, any tips on how to pick out the notes in those blazing fast
#solos??


It has been my experience that if I can hum/sing/whistle something,
I can learn to play it. This involved me sitting down and matching
the notes to the pitch I'm humming until I complete the passage.
Then it's time to woodshed (especially if it's fast-n-difficult).

Now I know you're saying, "Ken, this guy is blazing so fast I can't
tell what the hell he's doing! And you want me to *hum* it?" Well,
yeah! It may take some practice, and you may have to try to peg
one note at a time. Above all, you should employ whatever knowledge
of theory you have (even if it's just "I know this scale in this
position" and modify it). If you can get a starting note and an
ending note, you can "connect the dots" so to speak with the notes
in between. A lot of times, I'll listen to a recording over and over
trying to figure out one note that I missed (some times I just say
sod it, but that's another tale).

Then there are those magic moments when you peg a run the first
time! But that usually only happens for me when the player I'm
trying to copy plays in a similar style to me (or I play in a
similar style to him/her as the case may be!). Everybody does
unique things, but there are some people who come from a certain
background with certain influences that I can mimic better than
others. See, for me, learning Van Halen is a snap, but learning 
Pat Metheny is a lot harder because I approach the instrument
more like Van Halen (rock/metal) than Metheny (jazz). When you
really sit down and learn a lot of material (or just goof around
jamming with an album) you'll discover things about how a certain
player voices chords, plays rhythm/lead, what scales (s)he tends
to use, what oddball techniques (s)he tends to use, etc. so when
you encounter another tune by that player, you kinda know what
to expect and have a base of things to try. And I think listening,
not just to enjoy the tune and tap your foot, but really digging
in and listening to analyze what's going on can help you. I have
even tried mental imaging to "predict" what's going on with some
amount of success.

tom@cpac.washington.edu (Tom May) posts:

#Tape it and play it back at half speed (e.g., record at 15 inches per
#second and play back at 7.5 inches per second).  The only side effect
#is that it will come out an octave down.

Yeah, that works too, but I never think to do it. I once figured
out how much the pitch changed between 45 rpm's and 33 rpm's, so
if I wanted to learn something difficult, I'd try to get the single
and play it at 33 rpm's instead of 45. It worked, too! My dad also
had an *old* turntable that played at 16 rpm's, and I suppose I
could have played albums slower on that, but the idea didn't occur
to me until just now!


=============================================================
THIS POSTING DOES NOT REPRESENT THE OPINIONS OF MY EMPLOYERS.
-------------------------------------------------------------
"The killer awoke before dawn, he put his clown shoes on, and
             he ... flopped on down the hall..."
=============================================================