Do you envy those musicians who can play by ear? Or perhaps you are one of them and wonder how it all works? Well generally it’s all about the patterns. Here’s some ideas to think about…
Look for the patterns in the song:
Most songs have easily identifiable sections like a verse , chorus or bridge, but within those sections, if you look closely, you will see that there are other patterns within those sections. For example, the drummer may play the same general groove for 8 bars and then play a fill, then repeat that for the next part of the verse.Also the guitar/keyboard chords are often repeated phrases. If you can begin to spot those patterns it makes memorizing songs much easier. In fact, you will see similar patterns popping up in other songs too.
Listen to the tune of the chords:
Just like the tune that the vocalist is singing, the chords also make a tune but it’s one that we don’t often listen to. After a while of listening to chord patterns we start to recognise them and put them into our internal musical library just like we do with the main melody of a song. Check out the chord intro to Wild Thing by the Troggs and try to hear the tune of the chords. Then listen to the intro of Summer Loving from Grease. The two songs are in different keys but the sound of the riff is a very similar tune.
It’s all relative:
Actually music is really easy until you put the note names in (eg Bb, C# etc). Western music consists of 12, equally spaced notes. You can start a tune anywhere within those 12 notes and follow a pattern. Start the pattern elsewhere and you’ll get the same tune in a different key. You kinda know this already because when you sing Happy Birthday at a friend’s party you don’t have to ask what key it’s in first! Wherever you start from in those 12 notes, the rest follows on, relative to that first note.