Learning by ear [FRUSTRATING]

....

I "sing" the riff.
I know in my brain which note is what...

I get my bass in my hands and nothing!!!!!!!

I need some advice, some steps that I could use to do it right. To pass the note from the brain to the hand.

Pweety pwease?

Here's what I use...

Windows Media Player
EQ set to Rap (because I find the bass sounds clearer)
SRS WOW settings as high as they can go without the bass sounding... odd
A headset with excellent bass response (Creative Fatal1ty), sound set just quiet enough so the bass is still clear.
Bass and amp on normally. Amp volume set so I can hear it through the headset clearly.
If your computer has a bass boost option, use that.

Here's what I do...

I find a note in the song that I want to figure out. Usually it's the first note of the second bar.
I put the seek bar (whatever it's called) right at the beginning of the song (or about 5 seconds before the note I want to figure out)
I press play, then when the note arrives I play a note that I think sounds close to the one in the song. It'll either sound perfect - in which case hooray for luck - or it won't, in which case I put the seek bar back and try a different note.
The rest of the notes should be easier. Once you've found one, the rest aren't likely to be far away from each other.

I hope that makes sense, I'm not the best at explaining things . For repetitive basslines it's much easier because you don't have to bother with the search bar as much.

(also it seems like a silly reminder but make sure your bass is tuned )

Sounds very good as a tip, my friend.

I will check it out tomorrow and post some results...

Dunno if itll help, but this is what im doing.

Im not really into figuring out songs by ear just yet (still being somewhat of a noob) but some songs more or less came intuitively. As of now Sunshine of your love and White Room by Cream, i figured out completely by ear. Of course the basslines of these songs fills alot, and that surely is a point to take into consideration when trying to figure out songs by ear. Is the bassline actually noticable? These were.

Just set the music on repeat and the amp nice and loud, and figure out the very first tone of the riff. From thereon, its all about recognizing the pattern. That too, for me at least, was just a session of trial and error You can clearly hear when you hit the wrong note anyways, so its all about moving around on the fretboard. Though you are usually well aware if you are way off or if its just half a tone away from being the right.

I guess the songs you wanna figure out, is music you hear alot and know in and out, and so forth. That means you already know when the notes go up and down, and as pippynip said; once you have one note, the others arent far away


TL;DR blast the music you wanna learn on repeat and smack your bass at a specific note until you hit it right Let your intuition guide you and keep the respective song on repeat. Just keep listening to it with your bass in the hands, and itll come to you.

If you can match pitch with the song vocally, just continuously hum the note you're looking for and then match it with your bass. Even if you have to do it note by note, it's the best way.

I also do that sometimes. Usually I'm a quarter step out because I'm not a great vocalist but it sets me on the right direction. It's kinda convenient that the lowest note I can get to is the low E

Wow thank you all for your useful tips!

I think after trying for hours with the song playing and the bass on knees, the last option is the humming and strumming as DTL said! That might work better because I DO know tthe song in and out, and also I wont be all the time like "darn, move the slider 0.01 seconds back".

Thank you all, you are all very kind sharing your thoughts!

The above tips are great!

This is one of those things that takes time. It's a skill that you'll have to train. Some people are naturally better at it than others. It took me ages to figure out songs by ear, when a lot of my other friends could do it quite easily! That was annoying, but I perservered, and can do it quite easily now.

Time, and perseverence my friend

Of course, having tabs as a place to start or as a backup also helps the learning-process greatly.

Dmanlamius wrote:The above tips are great!

This is one of those things that takes time. It's a skill that you'll have to train. Some people are naturally better at it than others. It took me ages to figure out songs by ear, when a lot of my other friends could do it quite easily! That was annoying, but I perservered, and can do it quite easily now.

Time, and perseverence my friend

Yes I am annoyed too. Guess my ear needs more training! Time and perseverence!

Lassepetri wrote:Of course, having tabs as a place to start or as a backup also helps the learning-process greatly.

When a song has tabs this is very good and helped me recognise some notes on the fretboard when I listen to them! But I play one year now, and some songs I am really eager to play dont have tabs! Or even live performances to peak (I know it's not good) on the bassist.


We have some news though,
I tried all your tips;

The seeking bar tip is so frustrating, really; I thought it was the best but I cant have the bass on my hands and my mouse in the hand and the eye on the exact milisecond that the note is gonna play. Guess I am very very impatient, lol!

The tip with the humming worked though;
I was in the house doing misc things and hummed the melody, and I knew there would be an E open string there. I was right! I went afterwards to my bass and had 2 or 3 chances to play it right, I had 2 combinations in my head.

The intro is only 3 notes, but I knew that if I find those 3 notes I will find the next measure bar and so on.
I tried the one combination, didnt sound right, so I tried the second and with the rythm was right!
I guess it means nothing to most of you, since we talk only for 3 notes, but for me is a very good sign that I can "build" my ear slowly and I am proud!

Also I 've noticed that I can slightly "get" when a note is next to the other on the same string, like

E-----0------2-----3.

I dont know how it does happen, It seems like I can translate in my brain that those are next to the other!

As I see myself there is really a chance for me to play by ear and if I get the improvisation theory, why not stop being a juke box!

Thank you everyone, you really mean a lot to me as a community!

out of curiousity, what song is it :-)?

Lassepetri wrote:out of curiousity, what song is it :-)?

It's a song by "Seraphim Shock", I won't say the title cause I know the bassline is fairly easy to figure!

Pippynip wrote:I also do that sometimes. Usually I'm a quarter step out because I'm not a great vocalist but it sets me on the right direction. It's kinda convenient that the lowest note I can get to is the low E

i can do a C# on a good day
tis not very loud though

Hehe, I dont think anyone where is going to judge As I see it, this is a place for total newbies coming to learn, and rugged veterans coming to share.

I've never sat down and just 100% focused on learning by ear. When i play bass, its just a state of mind about trying new stuff. Sometimes I try figuring out a song by ear for 4-5 minutes, and then I abruptly start practising my slapping instead, totally abandoning the learn-by-ear. If i sat down for 30 minutes or more, just trying to figure out how to play a song by ear, Id get frustrated too

Lassepetri wrote:Hehe, I dont think anyone where is going to judge As I see it, this is a place for total newbies coming to learn, and rugged veterans coming to share.

I've never sat down and just 100% focused on learning by ear. When i play bass, its just a state of mind about trying new stuff. Sometimes I try figuring out a song by ear for 4-5 minutes, and then I abruptly start practising my slapping instead, totally abandoning the learn-by-ear. If i sat down for 30 minutes or more, just trying to figure out how to play a song by ear, Id get frustrated too

I do that to; many times I ve abandoned my learn-by-ear practice starting playing randomly something irrelevant...

OK I know nobody is going to judge, I just feel bad for myself, that I am old to play the instrument hehe

Here's the song:

I gotta admit, metal (in general) seems like a hard genre to learn by ear. With all the distortion involved as this song. I prefer tabs for that (fx. muse-songs) whereas 60-70'ies rock-bands imo have a more raw bass-sound, thats easier to distinguish.

Lassepetri wrote:I gotta admit, metal (in general) seems like a hard genre to learn by ear. With all the distortion involved as this song. I prefer tabs for that (fx. muse-songs) whereas 60-70'ies rock-bands imo have a more raw bass-sound, thats easier to distinguish.

I agree but I dont really play rock songs that much except if its an oldie like Eric Clapton's songs which I trully like...or RHCP (no slapping yet my bass and I suck @ slappin') or Queen, stuff like that!

The bad thing is that my genre, doesnt have that much of tabs


I believe in the particular song tho that the bassline except the fills is just like the guitars, so it might be easier for me.

I actually quite like that song. Didn't expect to, but I do

Pippynip wrote:I actually quite like that song. Didn't expect to, but I do

They are quite good indeed