Ear training: How long does it take?
2 weeks. Just kidding! Of course, there is no simple answer to this question. The bad news: You won’t wake up one morning and have perfect ears! The good news: Every day of ear training practice contributes to your ability: you’ll be continually improving...
Learn to play by ear using chord tones (Part two)
Here’s part two of Brad’s article on playing melodies and improvising by ear using the notes of a song’s chords. It’s part of our series on learning to play by ear. You should start with part one if you haven’t already read it! Welcome...
Learn to play by ear using chord tones (Part one)
This week in our playing-by-ear series guitar teacher Brad Mavin shares a process he uses for learning to play songs by ear on guitar. A fun exercise that I like to do with students is to play along with a popular four chord song. Identify the key and make music using...
Learning to play by ear was the answer when flaming fingers left me cold
Continuing our playing-by-ear series, we’re very pleased to welcome the first of our “home team”, Easy Ear Training author Nick Long, to share his experiences learning to play by ear. I decided I wanted an electric guitar aged 14 after seeing a video...
The Sexy Secret of "One, Four, Five" (Lisa McCormick)
Being able to play by ear is one of the most desirable skills among musicians. But many people assume it’s a gift: you’ve either got it or you don’t. In this series so far I hope we’ve convinced you otherwise. You can learn to play by ear!...
Like vegetables in your diet! (Eugene Cantera)
Today we’ve got a slightly different viewpoint on playing by ear to share with you, from Eugene Cantera of the excellent Discover, Learn, Play website. Eugene’s joined us here before, writing about ear training technology and we’ve covered the DLP...
4 Steps to Playing By Ear (Natalie Wickham)
One of the most effective ways to improve as a musician is to learn from multiple teachers, exploring different approaches and hearing from a variety of perspectives. So to continue our series on playing by ear, we decided to invite some teachers and musicians to...
Top Online Courses for Playing By Ear
Want better musical ears? Get the latest methods, information and techniques for training your musical ear with these top online ear training courses.
Top Tech Tools for Playing By Ear
Want better ears for music? You should use the latest modern ear training tools so you get better much faster. Learn what they are and start using them today.
What can you already play by ear? Harmony & Rhythm?
This article follows on from part one, on melody. If you haven’t read it yet, please start there for the explanation and background. If you’ve already started your self-assessment – let’s continue on! Today it’s harmony and rhythm to...
