when he said advanced guys hear a group of notes i went like “BRAH D:”
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Wow I’m struggling a lot with this exercise. I keep trying happy birthday but only succeeds with the first few notes. Once it gets more into high pitch (or at least that’s how I feel it), I’m at a loss. I’ve been trying for a week now and feel stuck. Any advice for me? Should I try a different one and come back to this one later? Thanks!
I’m just finishing up beginner grade 1 course. I started learning a few months ago. I can play a few songs following the tabs, and feel like I know the basic chords pretty well. Is this too early for me to start ear training?
Hi Fabio, welcome to the Community! I think it’s never too early to start ear training. Go for it!
If you have a minute, consider heading over to the Introduce Yourself topic and telling us a bit about how you found us!
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What does Justin mean in the description when he said “avoid learning the whole melody”?Does that mean i can just play 4-5 notes in the melody and then maybe try to move to another part of the fretboard, maybe using a different finger as a starting point this time and play the same 4-5 notes in the melody? And can I move to the other lessons while doing this exercise? @Richard_close2u
The comment to ‘Avoid learning the whole melody’ isn’t about the length what to play, but about the ‘learning’ part. This excercise is for trying to play what you hear. However, if you’ve learned the melody and don’t have to listen to find the next note anymore, you can’t use that song to practice your ear anymore.
Hope that makes sense!
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Thanks, so song melodies that I already know how to play on the guitar cant be used anymore, is what you meant right?
You want to train translating what you hear to the notes on the guitar. If you already know the notes/how to play the melody, you’re not training that specific part anymore (which was the goal of the excercise).
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Thanks @Jovatov , that settles my question 
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Hi folks, I’ve just started the ear training course after nearing the end of Grade 1 beginner guitar. Glad to join you all.
This particular exercise is fun and a little frustrating, but one thing I found that actually helped was to stop looking at the fretboard. Find your starting note on or close to fret 5, regardless of what string, and plant your index there. Then try to find the rest of the notes between frets 5 and 9 by “feel,” across all six strings, without watching your fingers.
I’m still awful at it, but less awful when do it this way. More listening and less thinking.
FWIW, thanks!
Steve
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I just finished grade 1 beginner, and you suggested coming to ear training next, but even mentioned most students skipped it. I can 100% see why. I went from “here’s 8 chords and some strumming” to “find happy birthday by ear!” Um WHAT!?
Hi guys, I want to ask for example I learned by ear marry had a little lamb and started on the 5th fret, now do I have to learn it in each string like it starts of the note E, do I learn it from where the E is located in the other strings and frets? And if i do so, like the intervals are still the same so i just reuse the learned “pattern” ? Or am I too advanced for this case haha
Well, I’m pretty sure the intent of the exercise is to use your ear only and not memory or music theory. So, you could leave a few days in-between so you forget the pattern from memory. Try not to write it down and guess it on the spot from your ear. Or use a different starting finger for the first note(like finger 1 vs finger 4), so it will throw off the memorization a little since you need to stay in position . And after that, try with a different starting notes and finger in a few days once you forgot it.
Hi, I just finished grade 1 and I am in the middle of polishing my beginner skills. I love learning music theory and now I want to delve into ear training. I have tried to play Happy birthday, but I just suck. Should I keep on practicing only this part. I would like to practice the intervals as well, but I am confused about the part when to move to that section. Thank you for any answers.
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Welcome to the forum Lukas. We all suck when starting out with ear training. Practicing intervals will be a big help in figuring out Happy Birthday.
So I’d leave Happy Birthday for a few day or a week and start on intervals. The go back to HB. You’ll surprise yourself how much easier it will be.
Ear training is hard but very rewarding. It also has a lot of light bulb moments where something that seemed impossible all of a sudden is really easy.
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Hi Stitch, thank you thank you for your respose, I will give it my all at the interval training and come back to HB later. Have a good one!
GOSH!
A little overwhelmed in my head with the requirement here, just watched the first two videos from Justin, fumbled on the guitar for Happy Birthday with no prior knowledge, found I could mimic the first line of the song on one string by ear…second line went wrong…
Is this simply it, I should keep a tune very basic and try and mimic it on the guitar through trial and error with no prior knowledge of this whatsoever, then try using the close by strings to limit hand movement to fill in those gaps for the second line?
I found I got irritated with myself almost instantly lol.
But really just looking for clarification that this is exactly what I should be doing at this stage and that I have not missed anything.
I am at the end of my Beginners Grade 1 module, so just spending time of some basic theory and learning five songs to a half decent play level and doubling down on all the things I can before considering Module 2.