How To Play Song Melodies By Ear
Without Guesswork, Using Relative Pitch

Scale degrees and Relative Pitch (and not intervals or absolute pitch) is the most accessible method of quickly and accurately hearing and identifying the notes in song melodies which can then be played by ear.

Some musicians are able to play practically any song that's running in their head, with little or no preparation, without guesswork and without looking at any printed music - a song they've never played before.

How can they do this?
How do they know which notes to play?

Playing songs in this manner is what we call PLAYING BY EAR.

To play a song melody by ear,
First, you hear a note, then you identify the note, then you play the note on your instrument - and then go on to the next note, etc. You go through this sequence for each note as it goes by in your head - in "real time", "on the fly" as they say - preferably without any stops and starts. (But of course, you can always play more slowly.)

You can go through these steps quickly. It's essentially instantaneous if you've trained your ears and memorized various note groupings.

This all may sound intimidating, but YOU can learn to do this.

And when you do, your musical self confidence will soar!

And when you can hear and identify the notes in song melodies, you can also identify other notes in recorded songs that you listen to - notes that will help you to identify chords, such as the notes in the bass line.

So, how do you identify notes in songs?

First, let's talk about how NOT to do it.


TRIAL AND ERROR

If you search the internet or YouTube for "how to play songs by ear", you will find many sites that advertise methods that are based on trial and error (although they don't usually call it by that name).

Using a trial-and-error method, you guess the name of a note that you are hearing. Then you stop and guess again if your first guess is incorrect - repeating this process until your ears tell you that you have found the correct note.

They call this playing by ear since you find the correct notes using only your ears and your instrument - you don't need to be looking at any printed music.

That's true, but it's not useful and it's not really playing by ear in the true sense since it involves guesswork, making mistakes, and stopping and restarting at various points while you are searching for the correct notes.

There is no guesswork when you are truly playing a song by ear.


THE THREE METHODS

OK, so how do you play a song by ear in the true sense?

There are three methods that can be used to truly play songs by ear:
     • absolute pitch or perfect pitch (they are the same)
    • intervals, and
    • relative pitch

Absolute Pitch/Perfect Pitch is the ability to quickly identify any note that you hear, without having any musical reference points. It’s only for a very few who have an innate ability to develop this skill at an early age.

The Intervals method requires that you be able to identify the musical interval between any two notes that you hear. The method is easy to understand, but it's very difficult for beginners to train their ears to hear and identify each of the twelve intervals, in any context.

The Relative Pitch method requires that 1) you understand a few simple music theory concepts and 2) you train your ears to identify the universal pattern of notes in song melodies that you are hearing.

Many experienced musicians make use of the interval method and/or the relative pitch method. However,

Relative pitch is the most accessible method of playing songs by ear.


THE RELATIVE PITCH METHOD

In subsequent pages of this website are three modules that will aid you in understanding and using the relative pitch method:

      1. The Method - How It Works
      2. Ear Training - Learning to Hear and Identify the Universal
           Note Pattern in Songs
      3. Identifying Notes in Minor Keys


The first module describes the method - how to play songs by ear using Relative Pitch.

The second module describes the ear training process. There are exercises, songs, and references to other valuable ear training resources on the Internet and YouTube - all to aid you in hearing and Identifying the universal note pattern in songs.

The third module describes how to play songs in minor Keys by ear using the same technique that you use in songs in major Keys.


Nearly everyone is capable of developing this skill - including YOU!

Click here if you’d like to send questions or comments to John.


So, let's move on to the first module -
"The Method"