Help with Figuring out Songs

[Rundle]

Can anyone give me some tips on figuring out songs by listening to them.
I have started figuring out a song (Sandman by America) by listening for major and minor and going from there.
Is this what i should be doing? and any tips for figuring out picking bits. (Sandman is a chords song.)

[_HiGhVoLtAgE_]

get the tabs off the net and stop wasting your time trying to tab them yourself

[VanHalen2]

no figure them out yourself so you can train your ear

[silverburst9]

get this

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/s=amps/search/detail/base_pid/241255/

[Pom-Bear]

get the tabs off the net and stop wasting your time trying to tab them yourself

Dont even try and follow this


The best thing u can ever do is train ur ear...

Jimi hendrix for instance knew no theory whatsoever and he primarily lived off his trained ear to music

If u have learned chords and play them alot ull beable to hear them in the song

jsut take it one step at a time at getting each chord right and after u think uve learnt it by ear check it with a tab

[HoefNugz]

I started with tabs to get used to the fingering of chords and such, but as of recently something clicked and ill find myself listening to a song and ill pick up my guitar and start either soloing along with the song or playing the correct chords, then ill double check myself by lookin at a tab for it later. Its majorly just a thing that happens over time, but what you are doing is great to get your ears trained early.

[Alive]

get this

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/s=amps/search/detail/base_pid/241255/

Or you could use Audacity, which you can get for free off the internet, or if you have an MP3 player that'll probably do it.

Look, I saved you $200 :)

[Cool Beans]

Just gotta train your ear I guess.

[moaner]

It can help to hum the root note, pause the CD and then find the chord.

It also helps to know your theory, so you can recognise the chrods that're being used.


WMP has a "tempo change" function, as does audacity.

[Bluesman]

get the tabs off the net and stop wasting your time trying to tab them yourself

DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS PERSON!


Ive been tabbing by ear since day one. its hard at first but all you need to do is tune up perfectly to the CD and start listening for root notes and open strings. Then listen for familiar chord progressions. you prob know most of them already. then just play what you hear. start off with easy 3 chord songs like wild thing or 12 barr blues stuff.

Once you get experiance pick up a phrase sampler and start working on the leads the same way.

I find most tabs sites can be highly inaccurate in relation to the real song and some are not even close at all. thats why they show like 4 or 5 versions of the songs and neither are usually correct.

[MrMorden]

yes, keep playing by ear. not only does it make you a better player, but i personally love it. i find it more challenging, and when i finally do figure something out, the rewards are much greater.

there are several times when i do resort to tabs though, and here goes:

1. on most bass parts. this is because ive yet to invest in a stereo with good subs, and my computer has a sh!t sound system. i simply cant hear the bass part well enough to tab it by ear. so ill either resort to the tab, or make something up.

2. when i cant hear a certain guitar part very well, or the music is just at a confusing point-too confusing to distinguish certain instruments.

[Bass-AKIRA]

Or you could use Audacity,

Damn, audacity is confusing....

[Alive]

yes, keep playing by ear. not only does it make you a better player, but i personally love it. i find it more challenging, and when i finally do figure something out, the rewards are much greater.

there are several times when i do resort to tabs though, and here goes:

1. on most bass parts. this is because ive yet to invest in a stereo with good subs, and my computer has a sh!t sound system. i simply cant hear the bass part well enough to tab it by ear. so ill either resort to the tab, or make something up.

2. when i cant hear a certain guitar part very well, or the music is just at a confusing point-too confusing to distinguish certain instruments.

Yeah, my bass levels suck too, can anyone reccomend a fix for this?

[Bluesman]

the bass lines can be a PIA cus us as guitarist use different technics then they do. It took me forever to learn the walking bass line to hey joe. they sometimes start on the 5th play that scale til the next change then start on the 3rd if its major etc and play that scale. best advise is to talk to a bassman that knows what he/she is doing and ask for advice. Plus like you said its sometimes hard to pick out also beacuse we're not tuned into it.

[Rundle]

thx for all the help, i really appreciste it.