Playing by ear

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grh

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How rare is the ability to play music by ear? I wan't to pay someone to help me learn how to play my own songs/compositions from a long time ago. (I can not play by ear, so I have no way to remember the music.) Is it difficult to find someone in this area?
 
I don't think I can answer the question "how rare" but I think it's pretty common to be able to remember a melody, hence the intervals that form it. The play by ear is very broad, some people can name a note they hear, others can find that note by simply hearing it and then playing it. I have come across some people who when playing notes on an instrument, are unable to make a distinction between note intervals which makes it difficult to find a melody even if not in the original key. Speaking is often melodic, I sometimes string a sentence together which makes no sense at all using words I speak naturally which will form the melodic phrase I have in mind, I then replace the nonsense with my actual lyrics, it's a method which I find useful. If you have absolutely no record of the music then it might be case of using lyrics if you have them to find the melodies, then you can get a musician to play some chords around the melody until you find the progression you want.

Good luck

Tim
 
I ONLY play by ear. I can't imagine sight reading.
 
3 tips,

Play the root note of the chords,
write them down,
try different tonalities of the chords, major, minor, sus2 etc

Problem sorta solved
 
grh said:
I want to pay someone to help me learn how to play my own songs/compositions from a long time ago. (I can not play by ear, so I have no way to remember the music.)
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Do you remember the actual melodies of the songs ?
 
grimtraveller said:
Do you remember the actual melodies of the songs ?
Click to expand...

Thank you all for taking the time to respond. I have everything recorded, someone just needs to listen and be able to play the music. They are not songs, they are short compositions with no lyrics. I know this is the songwriting forum, but I did not know where this would go. Do you believe I will be able to find someone local who can help?
 
grh said:
Thank you all for taking the time to respond. I have everything recorded, someone just needs to listen and be able to play the music. They are not songs, they are short compositions with no lyrics. I know this is the songwriting forum, but I did not know where this would go. Do you believe I will be able to find someone local who can help?
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I'm a little confused here. What exactly is recorded and what's the purpose in someone playing the music you've recorded ? Is it for a live performance ?
As for whether you'd be able to find someone local that can help, I don't know because I don't know who you are or where you live. Even if I did, there's no way that I could know which musicians that play by ear are near you.
Thus far, you've been mysteriously vague.
grh said:
They are not songs
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grh said:
I wan't to pay someone to help me learn how to play my own songs/compositions from a long time ago.
Click to expand...
 
grimtraveller said:
I'm a little confused here. What exactly is recorded and what's the purpose in someone playing the music you've recorded ? Is it for a live performance ?
As for whether you'd be able to find someone local that can help, I don't know because I don't know who you are or where you live. Even if I did, there's no way that I could know which musicians that play by ear are near you.
Thus far, you've been mysteriously vague.
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They are short pieces of music some may refer as music loops/samples. The reason I need someone to play them for me is because the sound quality of the recordings are terrible. However, my music and playing is incredible. That is the reason I need to make new recordings with myself playing.
 
Technically, I can read music in that I can figure out note names on a page and know a whole note from a 16th, but I'll learn a new tune a LOT faster by listening than sheet music.
 
There are dozens of ways to start.
If you play nothing but can hum the melody or sing it then you could download Songsmith which allows you to enter a melody via a mic, guitar, keyboard etc & it will generate a backing arrangement with a range of specs you give it. It's a little crude but will give you the chords that you need to accompany your song.
band in a box may help there are a squillion way in.
I know a bloke who couldn't play but developed his own notation system for HIS voice and he successfully wrote, then with the help of friends, arranged and produced 2 or 3 quite successful amateur musicals.
Personally, I don't "Sight Read" but can read music to some degree, (bass clef funnily enough but it takes time & energy for my poor brain to translate into doable stuff), but I also don't have a very good ear so can't play just by sound. I use chords as the basis for building an arrangement & those doz chords I know get a work out.
 
Why don't you post your stuff up... easier than talking about it.

The old forgot what you wrote thang... we've all been there.
 
rayc said:
There are dozens of ways to start.
If you play nothing but can hum the melody or sing it then you could download Songsmith which allows you to enter a melody via a mic, guitar, keyboard etc & it will generate a backing arrangement with a range of specs you give it. It's a little crude but will give you the chords that you need to accompany your song.
band in a box may help there are a squillion way in.
Click to expand...

I think the request was a little stranger than that. He said both his playing and music were incredible (i think those were the words), but he doesn't know how to play it anymore and the recording quality is crap. He can't play by ear and doesn't know how to re-create what he previously created, and needs someone to listen and transcribe his own music, so that he can read the notes and re-create the incredible music and playing, this time around with better recording quality.
 
rayc said:
There are dozens of ways to start.
If you play nothing but can hum the melody or sing it then you could download Songsmith which allows you to enter a melody via a mic, guitar, keyboard etc & it will generate a backing arrangement with a range of specs you give it. It's a little crude but will give you the chords that you need to accompany your song.
band in a box may help there are a squillion way in.
I know a bloke who couldn't play but developed his own notation system for HIS voice and he successfully wrote, then with the help of friends, arranged and produced 2 or 3 quite successful amateur musicals.
Personally, I don't "Sight Read" but can read music to some degree, (bass clef funnily enough but it takes time & energy for my poor brain to translate into doable stuff), but I also don't have a very good ear so can't play just by sound. I use chords as the basis for building an arrangement & those doz chords I know get a work out.
Click to expand...

I have never used Songsmith nor have I used band in a box. That is interesting that songsmith provides that function. I am still trying to find help from a human being lol. When you do a search for play by ear you get millions of results. You would think there would be someone out there who could help me.
 
grh said:
I have never used Songsmith nor have I used band in a box. That is interesting that songsmith provides that function. I am still trying to find help from a human being lol. When you do a search for play by ear you get millions of results. You would think there would be someone out there who could help me.
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If my post was right I would post something like the following in a new post to make it clear - "I need someone to listen to a song and transcribe it into sheet music for me".
 
chuckduffy said:
I think the request was a little stranger than that. He said both his playing and music were incredible (i think those were the words), but he doesn't know how to play it anymore and the recording quality is crap. He can't play by ear and doesn't know how to re-create what he previously created, and needs someone to listen and transcribe his own music, so that he can read the notes and re-create the incredible music and playing, this time around with better recording quality.
Click to expand...

That is a good description. Thank you for using the word incredible.
 
Armistice said:
Why don't you post your stuff up... easier than talking about it.

The old forgot what you wrote thang... we've all been there.
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hahaha. Glad I am not the only one. Go ahead and email me sometime, after all you are the son of Yoda lol. ( I am only joking about about Yoda not about you emailing me.)
 
chuckduffy said:
If my post was right I would post something like the following in a new post to make it clear - "I need someone to listen to a song and transcribe it into sheet music for me".
Click to expand...

Will they get mad if I start another similar thread?
 
I learn by ear and by sheet music about the same amount of time. When learning by ear I almost always listen for bass/root notes first all the way through the song. Then I go back with those bass notes in mind and try to find the right-hand chords (granted, I usually do this on a piano). The trickiest part for me is knowing the difference between the root note and the upper chord. For example, if the root/bass note is G and the chord in the right hand is a Gmaj, that's easy. But when it's a G in the bass with a Emaj in the right hand, that's where it gets tricky and I just have to go with what sounds best.
 
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