How to Learn Music By Ear For Beginners

Introduction

Like all things in life, learning to play music by ear takes practice and patience. In order to understand music on a much deeper level requires understanding the basic fundamentals first. It's important to learn not only to hear certain notes but also understand it's place in both music theory and the creative application.

Before jumping too far ahead, mastering note by note is vital to learning music by ear. Perhaps not the entire range of a piano or guitar, but instead 5 notes. 5 notes may not seem like many, but the way those notes clash or harmonise with each other can give a feeling of more complexity than the theory would suggest.

Here are 5 notes below: C D E A G

Regardless of the notes name, each note is different in sound. Click the shuffle button to change the order and listen again.

Below are example 2 melodies, each with the same notes specified above. See if you can guess which notes are being played in the song?

Track 1

Track 1 is an example of a tune with no rhythmic change. Each note (also known as the beat) is clear and at an equal duration and speed.

The bar (the distance between 1 and 2 noted at the top) is divided into 4. This therefore gives 4 beats to the bar. These beats are called Crochets (or Quarter notes).

Track 2

Track 2 is an example of a tune with most of the original notes in the previous example, but with additional of 2 new notes and a slightly changed rhyme.

The first bar of track 2 contains the same notes as track 1 however with a slight difference on the 2nd and 3rd beats. Repeating both track 1 and track 2 will help you to distinguish the note patterns.