How To Learn Songs By Ear: #1 Active Listening

How To Learn Songs By Ear: #1 Active Listening

Guitar Theory, Ear Training, & Reading

If you’ve ever tried figuring out how to play your favorite songs WITHOUT a tab or chord chart, you know how hard and frustrating it can be.

Developing your musical ear makes learning your favorite songs SO much easier. Some have been gifted a more developed musical ear so this will come more naturally to them, while others might need to work a little harder at developing it. Either way, it’s something that anyone who has the ability to hear can do! And, like everything, it takes practice.

In this series, Nate Savage & Chelsea Amber are going to go through the essential steps to help you figure out songs by ear.

The 8 steps are:

  1. Active Listening ( ⬅️ this lesson! )
  2. Matching Pitch
  3. Identifying Root Notes
  4. Deciphering Major & Minor Chords
  5. Song Form
  6. Identifying Chord Progression
  7. Finding the Key
  8. Practicing

This lesson covers the first step: active listening. By the end of the video, you’ll know what active listening is, and how simple it is to put to practice. The better you get at active listening, the easier you’ll find learning your favorite songs!

(Songs Nate figures out, in order: Dancing With a Stranger by Sam Smith; Wake Me Up by AVICII; Scars To Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara)