Ear training after intervals

Ear Training
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I have been doing ear training for a while and am done with interval training.Wanted to know what I should do next to be able to transcribe full songs.
Thanks.

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Hi Akshin -

To learn to transcribe songs, you need to start transcribing songs. I don’t mean to be flippant - but you have to jump in and give it a go. It’s a very different experience from the controlled environment of listening to intervals - in the ‘real world’ there are all sort of other things going on and you have to pick out the bits you want to transcribe from the background sounds.

If you want to transcribe lead lines or solos, then start with something that’s fairly easy to hear and not too fast. (I’ve been doing the solo from John Mayer’s ‘Gravity’ today, that’s not too bad). Initially work it out one note at a time, use a tool like “Transcribe!” that will slow and loop songs, try and hit stop straight after the note you want to find so it’s the last thing in your ears. Then find it on the guitar - try not to play random notes until you find it - play a note and think ‘do I need to go higher or lower’ … ‘by how much’ - use your interval training to make an educated guess.

If a full solo it too much right now, then try some riffs - Satisfaction by the Stones for example - pick a song you like, there are tons to choose from.

If you are trying to transcribe chords, then start with simple songs - often those using a lot of power chords are easier. When I started out I transcribed everything Greenday had written - most of those (but not all!) are straightforward.

Transcribing is a skill and you need to practice regularly - when I started out I did a minimum of 5 minutes a day for the first 2 years - your ears will improve, it does get easier, I’ve still got a long way to go , but I’m a lot better than I was :slight_smile:
Good luck.

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Must get back to doing this again, this year !

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JG has a transcribing course on the website.

Menu—>Courses—>Transcribing

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There are also transcribing lessons sprinkled throughout Justin’s Grade 3. Just put “transcribing” in the search bar on the Justin Guitar site.

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Hi @Akshin,

Paul @mathsjunky has given good advice.

Some other things you may want to think about.

Have a think about why you want to do it - that will help to guide what you focus on.

  • Do you want to be able to play a lead line in your own home or in your band?

  • Do you want to be able to do requests at an Open Mic night?

  • Do you want to be able to make an educated guess at a chord sequence if someone calls a song out at a jam night?

  • Is it the intellectual / musical challenge?

All of those, and no doubt others, are valid reasons for wanting to train your ear. And an additional one, that I think is more a means to an end (the end probably being one of the above):

  • Do you want to be able to isolate song parts without reverting to one of the AI tools?

In my situation (a regular jam night attender as a bass player), being able to make an educated guess at a chord sequence if someone calls a song out at a jam night, is the most useful for me. So my recent ear training has to a large extent focussed on that. It’s not just that I wanted the confidence to do it, but also that I thought others may ask me to play more if they thought I could do it (that’s partially been the case).

So the things I did:

  • Listen to ear training from on-line bass teachers. I think this would also be useful for guitar players, and keys players as the bass line often gives a good hint as to where the chords are moving. This is the reason I also trained myself to isolate parts and individual instruments in a song.

  • I paid plenty of attention to this lesson from Justin: https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/5-common-chord-progressions-bg-1011 . I sometimes sit down at the piano and play those chord sequences (I should do it more on guitar).

  • Made myself play lists of songs that have the same chord sequence.

  • When I get a new song, try to work out the chord sequence before looking for a chord chart.

All of the above are ongoing. They’ve worked for me as I can now make decent educated guesses as to which chord is coming next.

I’ll also add that knowing music theory around “chords in the key” and where the notes are on the fretboard in a major scale are important for my case (also other scales but the major scale is IMO the best start point). It will depend on what you want to do as to which bits of music theory are helpful for you. I think learning the bits of theory you need, when you need them is a good way to go.

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Hi thanks for replying.Its basically for jamming with my friends and listening to a song and transcribing in a short period of time.How long does it usually take you to transcribe a song?Also did interval training help as in real music there are so many other things going on.Haven’t found it too useful so far.

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Totally depends on the song and what level of transcribing. Getting the chords for a simple pop tune might take 5-10 minutes if it’s an easy progression. If you want to transcribe Cliffs of Dover then it’s going to take a bit longer :rofl:

It’s a start, but I’d get on to real songs asap if that’s the goal. In my opinion, some theory will help too. For example if you want to find the chords of a simple song, then finding the key, knowing the diatonic chords in that key and understanding common progressions can make it very straightforward. If you are transcribing a simply melody then a major scale might be a good place to start etc.

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For the purpose you describe, I’d say similar to Paul @mathsjunky 5 - 10 minutes for an easy progression. My definition of “Easy” is probably something like: it begins on the 1 chord; it includes no more than the 1, IV, V and vi ; the chords don’t change more than once a bar; there are no more than 2 progressions (one for the verse and one for the chorus). I can kind of do it on the fly at a Jam where I’m playing bass, but any educated guess on a note from the parent major scale, will usually sound ok - so it’s not really transcribing.

At the longer end, I’ve taken a couple of hours to transpose a more complicated song. But that was before I’d got into ear training (the time taken was one of the things that prompted me to do it). Also, it was for a song I expected us to do to an audience, so I wanted to get it right.

I’ve always been able to look at a chord sequence and sit down at a piano and play chords plus a melody line (or if not always, I don’t recall having to put much if any effort into learning it 25+ years ago). So my interval recognition must always have been pretty good - hence it’s difficult for me to answer accurately. I would say that my ability to recognise wider intervals e.g. 1 to vi, is probably not as good as for the intervals closer together e.g. a 1 and iii; maybe that is better now as a result of doing interval training.

I am much better now at recognising chord sequences than I was a couple of years ago. I think that had more to do with the reasons I listed in my original response, rather than interval training though.