Re: learning songs by ear
- From: "Lumpy" <lumpy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:41:59 -0700
tysteel wrote:
...I have no relative pitch, or
extremely poor skills in that area. The other night I pulled out the
beatles "white album" and played some of the songs on my CD player,
and I would hone in on any given melody note in the vocal line at
random. Then I would listen to what came next. In a lot of cases, I
couldn't figure out the interval distance, especially if it was less
than a 3rd.
For instance, in the beatles song, "julia", I listened to the first
several words of the song"half of what I say is meaningless", and
tried to figure out the movement of the vocal melody. I listened to
it and guessed that the vocal must've alternated up and down by a 2nd,
back and forth. But then I checked out my beatles fakebook and for
their transcription of "julia" they noted the vocal melody as being
the same note under those first few opening words of the song. So I
was way off...
I'm not sure how I can improve my relative pitch. It's really the key
to playing by ear...
Try this -
Pick any note roughly in the middle of the range of your guitar.
Let's say G on the 4th string fifth fret.
Play that note. Sing that note while you play it. Doesn't
matter if you sound like Sinatra or Dylan or Homer Simpson.
Quality of your singing vox doesn't matter. Just sing the
note you're playing WHILE you play it on the guitar. Sing/play
it in slow tempo, maybe on quarter notes
Da da da da or loo loo loo loo, whatever syllable you like.
OK so far?
Now play a note on the guitar that is an EASY interval
for you (more than a 3rd). Like play a 5th or D on the
3rd string seventh fret. Sing that note the same way
you did the G note earlier.
OK so far?
Now put them together. G D G D, slowly.
You can even sing the NAMES of the notes or
the DEGREE as you sing them
G - D - G - D or ONE - FIVE - ONE - FIVE etc
Now you're singing a melodic interval (one note
at a time) and you're playing it on guitar
at the same time.
Without having to think too much about it, you're
making your "listening brain" familiar with the
perfect 5th interval.
When that seems comfortable, change the interval
you're playing to something like a Maj 3rd and
repeat the exercise.
Pick different intervals, all within your singing
range. Do easy ones (for you larger than a 3rd)
and alternate with challenging ones (m3, M2 etc).
The guitar in the above tricks is there to "keep your
voice honest" or to give you a reference to match
with your voice.
Overall the goal is to get your listening brain to
recognize the intervals you hear. A GREAT way to
help that happen is to let your singing brain
produce the intervals. That's like the difference
between watching a video on how to strangle a
spammer vs actually strangling a spammer. When
YOU do the muscle movements, instead of just
passively experience it, you surely learn it
a lot quicker.
Lumpy
Linus Digs Lucy
www.digitalcartography.com/LinLucy.mp3
.
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