Hi all. I’ve been playing about 7 years on guitar and 3 on piano.
I have a really bad natural ear for hearing and playing back melodies or knowing the key of a song and chord progressions.
I’ve tried apps, methods from you tube but never really seem to improve.
Has anyone who was ‘bad’ at this actually found a method that has improved them? As much as I enjoy playing songs from Justin’s books etc I feel like I am destined to never be even a little bit of a musician without this skill
Hi maybe this stuff helps…
Type …ear trainer … in the search venster and you will find more…good luck and welcome here Dan 
Greetings,Rogier
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Hi Dan
I’ve used various apps for ear training, interval training etc but the problem is that although I get ok at hearing intervals, pulling chords and melodies from real songs is much harder.
I think the best way is to dive into real songs. I started with fairly simple stuff (I did the Greenday back catalog for example) mostly I IV V and VIm stuff.
Just keep at it, I try and do a little transcribing every day.
Good luck!
Paul
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You probably already know this, but the Grade 3 course on the website contains quite a few transcribing challenges (I think there is one of these vids in each of these modules, but not 100% sure about this). These are awesome for this in my opinion, Justin gives harder and more complex challenges each module (starting with single notes, then power chords, then open chords etc.).
If you haven’t already, I recommend trying to do these (take your time, don’t rush through it), it is really fun in my opinion.
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Hey Dan, you already have the best ear training app you can buy - your guitar! Listen to it, really listen to it when you’re playing.
When you first start to train your ear, the intervals may seem quite close together but as you progress your mind will start to separate them and hear them better.
Follow Justin’s ear training course. Play an interval over and over.
Can you hear it in your mind?
Play the first note then try to hear the second note in your mind - then play it. Were you right?
There’s all sorts you can do on guitar that will help but don’t expect instant results. It takes time.
Another good one is to try to hear the individual notes of a chord when you strum it.
Start simple. Play the open Cmajor chord, just the lowest three notes on strings 5,4 & 3
The notes are C E G
Play the C note then strum all 3 strings. Can you hear that C note? It’s the lowest note.
Do the same with the G note. Can you hear it? It’s the highest note.
The hardest one to hear is the E because it’s in the middle!
It all takes time but if you keep doing these sort of things, you’re mind/ear will sort it all out.
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Thank you so much for all your suggestions.
I have heard about trying to hear the individual notes of a chord previously.
And assigning intervals to known songs i.e star ears perfect 5th etc.
I’m not sure if I’ve given enough time to whichever method and expected results too soon.
Most recently I saw a video on playing through the major scale while listening to a track and just switching to each different key until it sounded right, then working out the chords after when the key is identified.
Seemed decent with the sort of ‘backing track’ provided but not so much with real song with a lot noise more going on.
Maybe I should give Justin’s transcribing course a good go. I don’t think trying to score points on ear training apps is working for me!
Thanks again.
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This is definitely my problem, a common one at that.
I think trying to score points on an app isn’t a particularly good way to train your ear.
Combining all the things mentioned on this thread will be far better. Bit of this bit of that.
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Hi Dan, welcome to the community! I’m afraid there is no quick fix for this. My (long and winding) road towards a musical ear started with the lessons linked in @roger_holland Rogier’s reply, then the Transcribing lessons introduced in grade 3 - which is where I am now, making slow progress, because I’m always reluctant to practice something I don’t feel confident doing. Which, while it’s human nature, is kind of self-defeating. One of Justin’s maxims, which I really need to internalise, is “practice what you can’t do, not what you can”
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Hi Dan,
Welcome to the community 
I’m no expert but another suggestion that might work for you (pretty sure Justin mentioned it in an ear training video)
as well as really listening when you play songs or intervals or just playing a note, to sing it, even softly to yourself, so you also feel it and internalise it 
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