Playing By Ear IV

Now Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. As I said, unlike Mary Had a Little Lamb where nearly every note is right next to the following note, this one has a big jump or interval. When you hum it, can you hear the interval I'm talking about? All of the notes are right next to each other with the exception of these 2.

You should have come up with this:

-----0-0-2-2-0-X---------------
-----------------1-1-0-0-------
-0-0---------------------2-2-0-
-------------------------------
-------------------------------

That big interval I was talking about is between the 2nd and 3rd notes - G to D - and it's called a fifth. The reason is because there are 5 scale notes between these 2 - counting the first note as 1: G(1) A(2) B(3) C(4) and D(5). When speaking of intervals we only count the notes within the scale.

Now if you couldn't get these 2 tunes figured out, then you'll need some ear training that I can't do on a blog. If that's the case you need to stop here because the rest of the lessons will probably be much too frustrating. The good news is that your ears should improve somewhat just by practicing and playing your banjo. Don't be afraid to sing as you play.

j

Playing By Ear III

Were you able to find all the notes? You should have something that sounds like this:

---------------------------0-0-
-0-------0-0-0-X---------0-----
---2-0-2---------2-2-2-X-------
-------------------------------
-------------------------------

(If you tap your foot once for each note, the Xs are where you tap and don't play anything)

Did you get it? If not you should go back to the scale and play it while singing or humming along. Then try again.

Let's try another one. Let's do Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, same melody as the alphabet song. This is a good one to do next because, unlike Mary Had a Little Lamb where each note was right next to the following note on the scale, this one has a big jump or interval, where 2 of the notes are pretty far apart.

So go ahead and see if you can pick this one out. Again you'll only be using the notes on the scale you've been practicing.

j

Playing By Ear II

Now let's start by picking out a melody on the banjo. We're not going to be trying to put these in a Bluegrass context yet, just play some simple children's tunes. So before you move on to the next lesson I want you to pick out Mary Had A Little Lamb. Strum the open strings and see if you can find the first note. If so go ahead and work out the complete tune. Take your time and try it on your own before reading any farther.

If you're having trouble I'll walk you through it. First try and get the tune in your head. The first note is on the open B -2nd string. Now the second note, the 'ry' in 'Mary', is that note higher or lower than the first? Try to 'play' the melody in your head and then sing it. Would you go up or down from that first note? Is it a big jump or a small one? Find that note on the banjo.

Then the 'had' in 'Mary had', is that note higher or lower than the last note? Again, is it a big jump or a small one? These 3 notes make up almost the entire song. In fact there's only one more note to find so keep going and listen for where the melody repeats itself or where it goes backwards and then go to the next lesson.

Playing By Ear I

Just as there are very few people who have perfect or absolute pitch - the ability to name a note just by hearing it - I'm convinced that there are really very few people who are actually 'tone deaf'. I think most of those people who would think of themselves in this way are merely unused to singing or playing melodies. I don't want you to think of yourself in this way, learning to pick out a melody is a skill and can be learned like any other skill.

I've taught people with all levels of musical ability but I'm going to aim this at those who'd describe themselves as not being able to carry a tune in a bucket. So, let's start by finding some simple melodies on the banjo. This is more a matter of ear training than it is one of learning to pick but just like anything else, the more you do it the better you'll be.

Before we get started I want you to get familiar with the diatonic (do-re-mi) scale on the banjo. For most of these lessons these are the only notes we'll be using.

---------0-2-4---4-2-0---------
-----0-1---------------1-0-----
-0-2-----------------------2-0-
-------------------------------
---------------0---------------

You should get familiar with the sound of this scale and where to find these notes, they are the only ones we'll be using for now. Play this scale over and over untill it's second nature.



j

Playing By Ear intro

I haven't put anything up here in a long time and I've spent that time thinking more about playing by ear.

This seems to be the big hurdle that all beginners want to get over. They've learned their rolls and several tunes, maybe from Tab - and let me just say that you need a good grasp of your rolls in Scruggs Style and should be able to play several songs before you tackle what is in these lessons. You should also know how to read Tab - but when they're asked to play a tune that they haven't 'learned' they're lost; they can't play 'by ear'.

I think there are 2 approaches to this. The first is the way I learned. I would play along with the record - yeah it was a long time ago - just doing my rolls, usually the forward-reverse, and every now and then I would hear that what I was doing was the same thing as the record. Then I would notice that a lick here or there was something I had heard in a tune I had already learned. Gradually I could hear more and more melody notes inside the rolls I was using. It was a long slow process before I felt confident that I could approximate just about any tune after hearing it a few times.

So that approach was basically finding the melody inside the roll. The 2nd approach, the one that's more teachable and the one we'll be discussing, is just the opposite; putting the roll around the melody. For this we first need to know how to find the melody and so that will be our first lesson

j