In this lesson, we look at the benefits of ear training and why you might want to spend some of your valuable time developing your ability to listen better!
View the full lesson at The 7 Amazing Benefits of Ear Training | JustinGuitar
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Hiya! Iām currently in the third module of the First Grade, is there a certain level I have to be at to be able to ear train with my guitar? I donāt know what notes are on my fretboard, nor how to find them yet, and also wondering when Iāll learn that, or do I have to also take the music theory course? I just donāt know when to take certain courses, thank you!
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The earlier the better. Understanding intervals (which relates to ear training) is essential to being a great musician. I would say complete grade one first, then move on to this section. Also, just Google the guitar fretboard and spend 5 mins each day getting familiar with the notes on the guitar fretboard.
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Iām here because of Justinās suggestion at the end of grade 1. Iām excited to train my ears and maybe train my voice as well.
Hello and welcome
Both ear trarining and theory are introduced during the Beginners Course. You are at an early stage of your development so donāt fret just yet. The end of Grade 1 (Module 7) is a good time to start thinking about it.
I have discovered something interesting about the ear training part.
I do know the Happy Birthday song Justin talks about. But I come from Denmark and is not really a part of the songs we sing so much and we most likely also sing it in wrong pitch. (more than often actually)
So I find it hard if not impossible to find the right notes, unless I sit and hear a original tune of it, over and over again, which I found very frustrating. That made me change the angle of approach.
When it comes to Danish children songs, then my memory from childhood kicks in and I am able to find the right notes pretty fast. It is so ingrained into the subconscious of the mind.
There are some songs from abroad, that I got to hear a lot, like some of The Beatles songs that kept going on the radio day after day, year after year or later in my youth, where Pink Floyd was played every day over and over for months etc.
I picked some songs from the song list, I wanted to be able to play on the guitar, but at a point I realised it was not ingrained in the mind even I knew it. That made it extra if not impossible to start to learn as a beginner for me.
Now I have picked songs that are well ingrained into the subconscious and even I are no way near following along on the guitar, my mind still know where it goes and how the tunes goes. So when I spend like 10 seconds to get the fingers right on the frets, I can hold the tone in the mind, while the fingers struggle to find the right spots.
It makes it so much more easy for me, when the song I want to learn as a beginner, is well ingrained into the subconscious.
For people who have the same kind of struggle as me, I suggest to find songs from your own country, culture and language, and use those while being a beginner on the guitar journey. Itās like triple trouble to try getting songs learned and ingrained while also have to learn playing the guitar.
As I recall, Justin mention this in one of his videos, but I think it could be emphasized more on the beginner levels and especially when it comes to ear training. - Just my five pence on this.
Else I find the ear training lessons excellent and almost, if not equal important to Rhythm. They go well together, like the perfect partnership. When those two are in deep love and tied together in the mind, rest becomes so much more easy. 
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Iād like to share my experience in terms of ear training.
Until last year, I tried interval training with apps and although I got better at identifying intervals in training apps, that never translated to being able to identify them in actual songs.
Then I took a ājazz harmony and ear trainingā course. On week 1, the teacher gave us a jazz solo (2 choruses / 24 bars) along with its sheet music and asked us to be able to play it by next lesson.
It was very hard and I barely did it.
Next week, she gave us another solo (Miles Davis, kind of blue) and asked the same. This time without sheet music. I was expecting a gradual training but no, she just asked to learn it by ear and come back.
It was sooooo difficult and I did my best and played it in the next lesson. She pointed out my mistakes, gave some clues and asked me to fix them by the next lesson. And I got all of them right the next week.
For the following weeks, she asked us to transcribe increasingly more difficult solos. I got some right, some wrong.
Then the term ended and I was wondering if the course gave me any benefit and tried transcribing a blues solo.
It almost felt trivial! After all that jazz stuff, by knowing the key and that most notes are from the minor pentatonic scale, I could easily transcribe that one.
Since then, I stopped relying on tabs to learn new songs completely.
I still mostly look up the chords from a chord sheet but I sometimes can identify them as well. I can almost always transcribe rock/blues solos with ease (not virtuosic stuff). I can now figure out peculiar songs that I canāt fond tabs for. I transcribe vocal melodies with a keyboard.
Taking that course vastly helped me. Maybe not with being able to instantly know and adapt, but at least with transcribing.
And there was no ātrainingā as such. Just forced me to sit down and transcribe for hours and hours during 10 weeks.
Still canāt identify intervals.
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Hello, Iāve come to the end of the grade 1 course and followed Justinās suggestion on ear training. I have never played any of these songs before and I am getting very confused. Is it too early for me to be doing this course?
Welcome @tristankr \and have fun with the community.
Back in the day, before the advent of CDās, digital music, the internet and YouTube lessons, the only way to learn was by ear. Itās never too early to develop your ear. I donāt recall this particular course but Iām sure it wonāt hold you back.
The Happy Birthday song was rather difficult for me to pick out (I got it eventually) but Mary Had a Little Lamb was a lot easier to figure out and play all over the fretboard. You might want to suggest it to those who find the Happy Birthday song to be a little bit too complex to start out with. Thanks!