Good Ear

[max52]

So I've been playing guitar off and on for many years and not that great I might add. I find taking lessons is the spark that gets me playing when I've put it down for awhile so decided to take the plunge and try to learn some jazz. I always figured I'd never get my head around the theory, but find I'm doing OK with that. Problem is my ear isn't the greatest and I'm wondering if you guys think it's possible to improvise at least decently by just knowing the scales, arpeggios,etc...thanks..Max

[jmstritt]

Try to start be hearing intervals. Get in your head what a major 3rd sounds like, what a tritone sounds like, what a minor6th sounds like, etc. There are many good ways to do this. Jamey Aebersold has a Jazz Ear Training book that I would highliy reccomend.

Once you can hear the intervals it will be easier to hear complex chords, etc.

Welcome to the forum, and good luck in your quest!

[colduc]

just knowing those things are going to get you by, but you're going to lack a lot of the "language" of jazz: the rhythms, the common licks, the phrasing, etc.

think of it like someone who's learning a language, if you spent all your time only learning the alphabet and conjugation in a classroom, when you head out into real conversations you're going to sound like a robot (functional, but not "authentic"). but when you learn it in a real environment, you're going to pick up the dialect's quirks like contractions and slang, and sound more like a native speaker.

learn some transcriptions of your favorite players. apply the theory you're learning to what they're playing - identify the scales/arpeggios and understand why they work against the harmony. this is going to put your theory to use, and also get you closer to playing with a jazz feel.

[max52]

Is there a website or book where I can find some common licks and/or transcriptions? I can read pretty good.

[JensL]

The book Joe Pass guitar style has a lot of good solo etudes to learn bop language from, at least in terms of constructing 8th note lines.

Jens

[Gramps]

Transcribing solos or parts of solos you like is a great way to build vocabulary. Work out the phrase than figure out why it works over the changes than apply it to other songs with the same types of changes.

[errandboyforrhythm]

Practice triads. You could, for example, divide the extensions of a minor chord to 4 different triads. For Gm (aeolian) it would be Gm, Bb, Dm, F. There's more about this in Garrison Fewell's book often recommended here. I think it has helped me identify different sounds and helped me hear better

[eddy b.]

Steve Masakowski's ear training book from Mel Bay is very helpful.

[max52]

Thanks for all the input. I ordered the Joe Pass book as well as a book by Ted Greene on chords. Have also been finding some good instruction on You Tube.

[swampguide]

There's a good on-line ear training tool here - IWasDoingAllRight - Jazz Blog, Ear Training, Jazz Trumpet, Atlanta Jazz.

There are exercises for intervals, chords and melodies. You can download the tool to your computer as well (go to the bottom of the page to download).

[jmstritt]

Originally Posted by max52

Thanks for all the input. I ordered the Joe Pass book as well as a book by Ted Greene on chords. Have also been finding some good instruction on You Tube.

Which Ted Greene book?

Be forewarned, Ted's stuff is great, but most of his books are more like an encyclopedia than a method.

I have 3 of Ted's Books, Chord Chemestry, Modern Chord Progressions, and Single Note Soloing. They are all great, and highly reccomended!

[pauln]

The best ear training may be to figure out the progressions, chords, melodies, and solos by listening to them and figuring them out on the guitar without reading anything or writing anything down, just listening, playing along, and figuring them out.

[AmundLauritzen]

Learn as many tunes as you can. They will be your vehicles for applying abstract concepts to a real life situation so you can intuitively learn how to use them in a musical way.
Practicing scales is fine, but as soon as you have a visual picture of the scale on the fretboard, just running up and down the fretboard with it is not going to help your playing. It just makes it more probable that scale runs will show up in your improvisation. Once you have the visual patterns of the scale mapped out on the whole fretboard, start playing it in thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths etcetra. Anything to avoid scalar runs, unless you like that kind of metal shredder sound. Learn licks using that scale, and invent your own. Then apply what you practise to tunes so you can tie it up with something real. It is important that you let your brain associate these concept to musical situations and not just gymnastics.
So actually applying the concepts you learn to a tune will really help you train your ear. Try guide tone lines, and transcribe a lick from a player you like to work in the tune you are practising.

My 2 cents.

[Kojo27]

As our esteemed forum member, Morten Faerstrand, pointed out to me, maybe the best *method* approach (and I believe in methods) to building a GREAT ear is David Burge's Relative Pitch Ear Training Course. Burge teaches you to recognize intervals (harmonic, enharmonic), and chords.

NOT his "Perfect Pitch" course - although this one might seem favorable, it isn't, imo. Morten used the relative pitch course for a short time in high school and when he went to Berklee, he tested and placed in the final semester of ear-training, as a beginning student. Morten works hard, of course.

That's my 2 cents.

[train_ear]

I also recommend you the Ear Training Radio exercises Ear Training Radio

[ejwhite09]

Honestly it's easy to improvise without knowing ANY of that. All that stuff is just devices to help you. Like Pneumonic devices...knowing PEMDAS doesn't make algebra easier, it makes it easier to remember how to do algebra. Scales, chords, arps, are just devices to help you organize information. You could know them all and not be able to improvise one bar. Just like many people know what PEMDAS and FOIL mean but coulndn't get three algebra problems right for the world.

The point is to ingrain sounds in your mind. The BEST technique for building your musicianship is to without any musical aids, THINK of a song in your head that you know well. And just pick out the melody from memory. Getting the time between mental recognition and physical execution as close to instant as possible is what you're after.

When people say people 'don't have training' or aren't 'thinking when they play.' They are saying the person has ingrained musical language in their soul so much that they have made near instanenous the time between recognition and execution. There is really no shortcut for this skill. You got to get in the mud and sing melodies and scales over and over and over.

This is the BEST ear training device you're going to get.
http://www.iwasdoingallright.com/too...training/main/

Just do it in your spare time AWAY from guitar, that way you make sure you're learning sounds not simply learning positions on the guitar.