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Close the Book! Learning Music by Ear
JGT Contributor Zakk Jones shares a valuable lesson regarding ‘learning music by ear’.
What’s the first thing you do when you decide to learn a new piece of music? Let me guess…you pull out a lead sheet, download a dark web PDF, or grab your dusty Rick Springfield tab book? If your initial answer has anything to do with “reading” some notes on a page, then I would like to firmly, yet lovingly, offer you some salvation from your dark and evil habits. As professional musicians we most likely have been told plenty of times that you MUST know how to read if we could ever possibly think about playing for a living. You probably had some JK Simmons looking teacher screaming; “Your ability to eat up those black dots and squiggly rests will keep you from the poor house! Now gimme 20…reps of Kreutzer etudes!” Sounds familiar right? Okay…maybe not. But time and time again I’ve see this awful conflation;
My musical reading ability = My ability to learn more music.
I would like to assert the notion that your musical comprehension, retention internalization should have almost nothing to do with reading. Instead, it’s all about the ears. You don’t need to look very hard to find overwhelming research about the powerful relationship between music and memory. Musical information is stored in an area of the brain separate from where our long-term memories are located. This is why those suffering from Dementia and Alzheimer’s can still play and sing songs from or recall vivid stories just from listening to something they grew up with. On the other end of life, it’s been studied that students who are involved in their school music programs can see higher rates of productivity across all areas of learning. But you don’t need me or a neuroscientist to tell you how important your Led Zeppelin records are, so let’s talk about why I think it’s vital to your success as a musician to start learning everything by ear
Sheet music has a funny way of letting us think that we have everything we need to learn any given piece of music.
Tempo, meter, key, form articulation are laid out right in front of you, so what else could you want? My answer is style, mood, timbre, phrasing, and nuance. These are elements of performance that are ascertained only through repeated listening of not only one but many recordings. Masterful artists are not just merely reading notes on a page to create a facsimile. For the educators out there that lead ensembles I’d like you to ask your students these questions:
How many of you have listened to a recording of this song?
Have you listened to it more than once?
How about more than 5 times?
Have you listened to more than one particular recording?
More than 3?
Could you sing the melody?
How about play the melody?
Do you know what instruments and sections have the melody in the arrangement?
How many times does the melody get passed around?
As both a student and educator I’ve seen in-person the answers to these questions and they reveal an existential crisis in how we approach learning music. A lot of times there is a fatal lack of awareness when we’re playing music by looking at a stand. You may be saying to yourself “I have a BAD ear, I simply cannot learn things by memory, how dare you tell me to simply burn my ealbooks…” But fear not! I have the crash course in utilizing your ears first and not your eyes.
#1 – Play the simplest melodies you can think of
Happy Birthday, Mary Had A Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle, London Bridge…these are all childhood melodies that virtually everyone sings at some point in Kindergarten. You know them by ear. You can sing these, and probably a dozen others, right now on the spot if I asked you. Now play them on your instrument. Is it a little harder? That’s okay. Although it may seem literally childish, songs like these can help you identify weak spots in your musical ear as applied to your instrument without having to learn entirely new material.
#2 – Separate musical elements
Too often we forget that we can learn music by getting to the nuts and bolts of the particular piece. Are you having trouble with the rhythms of a syncopated melody? Try playing an entire head on just one note so you can stop worrying about getting the notes right and focus on your time, phrasing, articulation and dynamics. Look at this reduction of the blues tune “Sonnymoon for Two” by Sonny Rollins. By working out the basic elements of rhythm, swing and articulation, you will be surprised at how complete it will sound once you simply add the notes. Tie this in with an understanding of how the melody fits within a key via intervals and scale degrees, and you start to build crucial connections in your ear between all of these elements.
Where else can you play the melody in the same octave, on a different part of the guitar?
Can you play it in different octaves?
How about different articulations?
Now transpose the tune to another key!
Continue to the remainder of the lesson…
#3 – Practice your scales in new ways
Practice your scales! Ok…DUH, but now I want you to work on them in entirely new ways. Have you played all your major scales beyond 3rds? Practicing in 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths and beyond can give you a new perspective in hearing larger intervals within a key center. A crucial step in learning music easily by ear is identifying the contour of melodies. High vs. low. Small intervals vs. big leaps. How about using new rhythms to creatively practice a scale? What if you played a G major scale but only the “and (&)” of 1 and 3. Or used just the rhythms of a melody applied to a scale? Take a look at these examples.
#4 – Sing, sing, sing!
You’ll hear this a lot, but using your voice no matter how “tone-deaf” you think you are is a seriously important tool in connecting your ear to your instrument. Our voice is a powerful weapon since we can usually sing back musical phrases and rhythms pretty quickly upon hearing them a few times or even once. Use your own imagination to practice call-and-response between your voice and your instrument. Sing a simple melody within a scale/key and play that back to yourself. If you can’t do it, get simpler. 3 notes. Long rhythms. Small intervals. Then slowly graduate to more complex combinations.
#5 – Read music
Wait what??? I thought this whole article was about NOT reading…well, yes. Sort of. I’m not saying you need to abandon the art of musical comprehension by sight. It IS a very important skill, however, we want to make sure you don’t use it as a crutch. You should still devote time in developing this skill, BUT. Try this out. Find a piece of music you want to learn. Before you dare pull out your axe please find a recording or five and just LISTEN. Spend time focusing on a different element. Notice what you like about the performance. Can you identify the key, tonality, or strong melodic/rhythmic motifs? Hone in on one instrument at a time. Jot down the elements you’d like to emulate or expand upon in your own interpretation of it. What is it that inspires you to want to learn this? Now take this informed listening experience and apply it to the instrument. I’d certainly bet that your ability to learn the notes on a page has sped up significantly since you’ve exposed yourself to what the music SOUNDS like, and not LOOKS like. You play the music. Not the other way around.
Practical Observations
The bulk of my work as a professional musician has been gigging for the better part of a decade. In that time I’ve had the great fortune of performing in a myriad of musical environments from Union pit productions, wedding/cover bands, touring rock/funk/soul groups and all sorts of Jazz configurations. The biggest impression left on me from my own idols and mentors is the importance of having a very strong ear, and the ability to learn lots of music quickly. My experiences as a sideman across many genres and scenes has solidified the fact that I internalize music much better when I initially spend the effort learning it entirely by ear. This skill is one of the biggest reasons why a musician can keep getting calls and referrals. In the past 3 or so years I’ve made a conscious effort to prepare for every gig through complete memorization. Although it was a lot of work at first to learn entire sets and hours of music, I ultimately put myself in a better position to really retain the information. This is especially important in my position when I sometimes sub for a band only every few months. Instead of having to relearn everything, go back through charts, or read on the bandstand, I’m able to “spot check” parts of songs and spend a lot less time prepping and a lot more time having fun and being in the moment when it matters most.
If your goal is to play within a certain style effectively you have to immerse yourself in it. Even if you have a strong ear, you won’t be transcribing complex modern jazz melodies, harmonies and rhythms if you don’t have a strong understanding of its history, language, analysis and recordings. These basic ideas on developing your ear can be expanded and utilized in learning all styles and levels of music.
Even in musical productions where your ability to read is crucial, I find that the best musicians in the pit are the ones that have their ears wide open and their eyes out of the book. Just because a sheet of paper “tells” you what’s going to happen next, does not mean it WILL happen. You want to be the one that can fix something on the fly by ear, instead of being flustered and shuffling through your book.
Remember, music is a very special form of art and expression that is uniquely personal and powerful to both the performer and listener.
Don’t let anything get in the way of that. Even if you have no aspirations of playing professionally, I encourage you to progress your musicality through your ear first and foremost. Challenging yourself is the only way to get better. Now, go learn somethin’ dangit!
More Zakk Jones JGT Lessons HERE