Drum Set   Everyone has seen a drum set. The bass drum is turned on it's side on the floor, a thinner snare drum sits horizontally on a stand, and the hi-hat has one fixed cymbal beneath another moving cymbal. The hi-hat makes two distinctive sounds - one long and one short - depending on whether it's opened or closed. Older Music   It's easier to tell which instrument is which in older music. Modern rock bands use synthesizers, effects and layered tracks. This makes it hard to tell, for instance, whether a synth horn is triggered with a keyboard or a guitar. Seven-string guitars and 6-string basses make it harder to separate a guitar part from a bass part If you can sound out which notes the bass guitar is playing, it can tell you which chords to play on guitar.

Analyzing Music   It's possible to 'read' music with your ears. As you learn your first few songs, you have the basic skills you need to take music apart by ear.

Let's start with the obvious. Different instruments play different parts, all at the same time. You may already be pretty good at telling which instrument is which. Also, music is made up of small movements which are repeated over and over. There's almost no music that doesn't have a lot of repetition. This means you may not have to learn very much to master a song.

Listen to the Drums   As a guitar player wanting to jam with a band, you want to identify the drums and bass guitar first. The same thing applies to any music track you want to analyze.

The bass drum, snare and hi-hat form the rhythmic pulse of the song. The things you do on the guitar happen in time with this pulse. Learn to recognize the bass, snare and hi-hat. Then listen for the drums in your favorite songs.

For more on this check out our page on counting rhythms. Also, you can download Free Drum Tracks from the Free Downloads page.

Listen to the Bass Guitar   The bass guitar usually has a set relationship to the drums. The bass guitar plays on some (not all) of the beats played by the drums. The bass guitar and the bass drum usually play together on the first beat of each measure, called the 'downbeat.'

The bass guitar usually follow the root chord progression of the song. In some songs, the bass guitar plays only the roots of the chords the guitar player is playing. When the bass guitar plays one note over and over in quick time, that part is called a 'pedal point.'

Even if there is a lot of melodic movement in the bass guitar part, the bass usually plays the root of the chord on the downbeat of the chord change. The note played by the bass on the downbeat of the chord change usually tells you what chord to play.

Measures Begin With Downbeats   A song may have a hundred or more measures, and each measure has a downbeat. These downbeats happen at very regular time intervals. By themselves, the downbeats in a song form a slow, very constant pulse. They give the listener a sense of repetition, and a sense that a short rhythmic cycle is completed with each one.

The pulse created by the downbeats are subdived into smaller, regular beats. Instruments in a band play in time with some (not all) of these beats.

Playing by ear is figuring out which note goes with which beat. It's not impossible. There are only so many notes and only so many beats.

'It's All Been Done'   Once you get a little deeper into this, you'll see that all popular music - rock, country, blues, jazz, you name it - is about 75% the same. The same few musical tricks get disguised and repackaged over and over. When you see it in action, you wonder how you ever missed it.

A '1-4-5' bass line is a simple, three-point shape on the guitar neck that you will use every day of your life as a player. It is contained in the Pentatonic and Major scales.

4/4 Beats & 1-4-5 Bass Lines   How many songs are based on a 4/4 rock beat? How many songs are based on a '1-4-5' bass line? On guitar, if you've seen one '1-4-5' progression, you've seen them all. Why? Because '1-4-5' always has the same shape on the guitar. Every sound has a shape on the guitar. Playing by ear on the guitar means recognizing a sound that you have heard before, and remembering what shape it was.

The best way to train your ears is to interact with a live sound source. A 'live sound source' can be a drum track, a CD, the radio, a live band, etc. Interacting involves listening to yourself, and listening to other instruments at the same time.

Ear training is built into all of the lessons offered through this site. If you are playing with recordings, you don't need to make any special effort to train your ears. It just happens. Recognizing patterns is natural. Lessons offered on this site are designed to help you recognize patterns: shapes, rhythms, and melodies.

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