Unlocking Music by Ear: Mastering Chord Progressions and Ear Training Techniques

Unlock the secrets to playing your favorite songs by ear and break free from the constraints of tablature and chord charts. Imagine connecting intuitively with your instrument as you effortlessly recognize and replicate the iconic one-four-five chord progressions that have defined music across decades. Our journey begins with the foundational understanding of music theory, as we explore the transformative power of recognizing common chord patterns. Drawing on a rich history from the vibrant 1980s rock and metal scene, we share personal insights into how these progressions not only simplify the process of learning songs by ear but also deepen your emotional connection to the music.

Get ready to transform your approach to music through simple yet powerful ear training techniques. We'll start with basic exercises that guide you in identifying pitch movements and gradually build up to recognizing familiar punk classics from bands like the Ramones and Sex Pistols. By focusing on simplifying complex bar chords into manageable power chords, you'll begin to unlock the emotional impact of distinguishing between major and minor chords. Whether you're a seasoned musician or just picking up your instrument for the first time, this episode is packed with valuable insights to expand your musical skills and foster an authentic connection with the music you love. Join us on this exciting journey to enhance your musical intuition and broaden your creative horizons.

Links:

Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/

• Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
• GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
• Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .

Chapters

• 0:00 Developing Musical Skills Through Chord Progressions
• 4:50 Learn to hear major/minor chords, song movements
• 6:52 Developing Ear Training Through Basic Chords

Transcript

Steve Stine [00:00:00]:
If you find yourself using tablature or relying on tablature all the time to learn your songs, I want to give you a couple of different ideas of things that you could do to develop your skill set. So maybe you don't have to do it all the time. Now, there are many different levels of necessity for learning how to play songs that are more complex or something like that. Or you might need to watch a video or something. But let's just start with some real basic ideas. The first thing is getting used to common chord progressions. Now, this could happen by experience. Maybe you've learned how to play some songs before, using chord charts, using tablature, watching somebody on a video, learning from a friend or a relative or something like that.

Steve Stine [00:00:43]:
But the point is, is that you become aware of commonalities. So, for instance, you see G and C and D used over and over and over again as a common chord progression. And like, when I was a kid, I started recognizing these things, but I didn't know what a key was. I didn't know what theory was. So I didn't know what a 1, 4, 5 is, that sort of thing. And if you don't know what that is, that's okay. But I didn't know any of that. But I did start recognizing that a lot of the songs that I was learning how to play would use the same chords together, which we call the chord progression.

Steve Stine [00:01:18]:
Now, the order in which they would occur would be different depending on the song. But if I was playing something, you know, if I heard a song, I started learning to hear that sound. Okay, the changes between these chords. So G, C and D, common chord progression, those chords are used together all the time. Then maybe you've got some songs that you're learning and you learn that A and D and E are used together all the time. Okay, so now you're thinking, oh, if I. If I'm somewhere and I see somebody playing an A chord, I expect them to probably play a D or an E. Now, other things could be played.

Steve Stine [00:01:56]:
Music can do whatever it wants, but that is something that would happen a lot. So gcd, you see a G chord, you're thinking, okay, well, maybe there'll be a C, maybe there'll be a D. Okay, the key of A, A, D and E, C. We've got C, F and G, which get used a lot. Now here's the kicker, is that if we look at the G, C and D, and we look at the A, D and E, and we look at the C, F and G, they're actually the same chord progression, but in different keys. So if you watch this, if I think the key of A and I think A, B, C, D, E, it's the first, fourth and fifth chords in a key. A, D and E. If I look at G, G, A, B, C, D, G, C, D is the first, fourth and fifth.

Steve Stine [00:02:38]:
If I look at the key of C, I have C, D, E, F, G, C, F and G. So this is something that I learned a little bit further on. But I started recognizing that even though the key might change, it was the same chords. And because of this, I started getting used to two things. Number one, the sound of what we'll call a one, a four, and A five.

Steve Stine [00:03:02]:
Right?

Steve Stine [00:03:05]:
That kind of sound. So you get used to hearing songs that use those chords. And then you start going, okay, so if I was to. Right. If I did that in the key of A, kind of has the same sort of sound. So the more you learn of songs, the more you start recognizing the commonality of the chords that are being used. And then if the keys are different, you might even start recognizing that there's. There's common elements between those.

Steve Stine [00:03:35]:
They're just in different keys. You see, the other big part of that is, is that you get used to hearing the difference between major and minor sounds. So, for instance, G or C or D have this kind of uplifting sound where if I play E minor or A min, it has a bit of a darker, more melancholy sound. So that's another part that can really help you when trying to figure out songs by ear. Or again, maybe you're watching somebody play and you're going to play along with them. You can get used to hearing these things. So study of real basic music theory might be something that's really beneficial for you. Chord theory, we can call it.

Steve Stine [00:04:15]:
And then from a guitar perspective, learning to hear the difference between major and minor chords, getting used to understanding that G and C and D are all used together for a reason. Why? Because they're part of a key. And in theory, we call those chords a 1, 4, 5. They're the first, fourth and fifth chords in that key. Again, it's okay if you don't understand all that, but that's a great place to start. The second part of this whole thing is learning to hear things, Learning to hear songs moving up or down. Now, because I grew up in the 80s, and a lot of the metal that I was listening to, rock metal stuff that I was doing, what I started recognizing that the songs that I like to listen to Tended to move in two fret increments, right? So if I was thinking, like rainbow in the dark.

Steve Stine [00:05:04]:
Right?

Steve Stine [00:05:05]:
Or so I'm moving five, three, and one, those are my motions. Again, the order can change. Or if I was playing Mother by Danzig, and it goes. So that's 7, 5, and 3. Again, it'll move in whatever order it needs to. Or if I was playing.

Steve Stine [00:05:23]:
Right?

Steve Stine [00:05:24]:
So there I've got seven, five, and three on both the six and fifth strings. So I started recognizing, even though I didn't know anything about theory, I started recognizing that the music that I like to listen to tended to move in two fret increments. Like that.

Steve Stine [00:05:41]:
Right.

Steve Stine [00:05:41]:
That sort of thing. Or sorry, you know, that sort of thing. And that was big for me because then when I was trying to. What we'll call ear train, when I was trying to learn songs by ear, as long as I could figure out the first chord and then figure out if the second chord either moved higher or lower than that, I had some idea of how I would approach that. Okay, now, again, this. I could make videos of this. This conversation for a long time. But it's just trying to get you to start thinking.

Steve Stine [00:06:17]:
If you want to move away from always having to read chord charts or, you know, read tablature or something, this is a great place to start. Develop your ear by taking something very basic, like some of the things I've been talking about, and get used to trying to be able to hear them moving up and down. And you could always just use the six string to begin with. Like, I could play, you know, I can play that whole thing on the sixth string by just hearing things move up and down. Like, when I hear that first chord and then I hear, am I able to identify that that sound went down in pitch and it didn't go up?

Steve Stine [00:06:52]:
Right.

Steve Stine [00:06:53]:
And then I can start restructuring it. If you know your fifth and sixth string power chords, you could always, you know, move that over. And when I started learning how to do that, then I could hear the distance, how far down it would go, moving from the fifth string to the sixth string. So basic ear training, learning how to do this. I used to use the Ramones, you know, Sex Pistol songs, things like that, to teach students just real basic songs like that. Mother by Danzig was another one I would use all the time, and I would send them home to just try and figure out what the chords were for that song. And it's okay if they didn't play them. You know, if it was a bar chord and they're playing it as a power chord.

Steve Stine [00:07:32]:
I wasn't concerned with that. It was more can you dial in the chord itself? We can worry about the majors and minors later. If it's a student that doesn't play power chords, then we would deal more with the logical theory, like getting used to the key of G. G goes to C or G goes to D. These three chords work together a lot, and there's other chords that fit in there as well. So this is a great place to start. And you can, of course, keep studying after you get the basic idea here, and which direction would make most sense to you on the music that you like to list to.