Isolating Instruments In Your Mind, benefits ear training / jamming
Bogdan Radovic
Oct 8 2014, 11:54 PM
Bass & Beginner Instructor
Posts: 15.614
Joined: 30-November 07
From: Belgrade, Serbia
I often find myself, when listening to music, to be isolating different instruments in the mix. Basically, I would shift my "ear focus" and listen to what the bass guitar is playing exactly, than rhythm guitar, fills guitar, drums etc. Thinking about it now, it feels really cool to be able to do it. Basically it is like you increase the "resolution" and zoom in on just specifics which make up the whole song. On the other end, it can become a curse as well if you start doing it unintentionally. This can also be done when attending live gigs and concerts, it is even somewhat easier to do depending how good the sound is.

I was wondering if anyone has been doing this?

Guess it would be something only musicians can effectively do when listening to music. It is our super power and curse.
I'm writing this as it opens up one important subject related to practicing and learning how to play - LISTENING.

When I try the described "focus thing", it always hits me in the head how much I'm not usually listening actually, when listening to the music/backing track etc.

It can be a great drill and you can do it like this :

1. Turn on the song or backing track
2. Listen to only the bass guitar to the point that you can hear the individual notes and what is going on
3. Shift your focus to drums and focus when kick and snare drums are playing, than shift focus on hi hat and try to see what notes values/rhythm is played there
4. Listen to the guitar and try to figure out different layers of guitars (if they are present in the mix)

Why would you do this and how does it benefit? When we can't play well against the backing track, we tend to not on purpose, not listen fully. It can be hard to focus on listening and your playing, but that is the only way to really get to know the backing and be able to play nicely and in timing over it (if you are having issues like keeping time and rhythm over the backing track). This is especially important when playing live with other people as there will be no fixed tempo you can just lock in with your foot and be alright. Tempo will shift and vary slightly and organically by each player in the band and in order to play as a "group", each musician needs to listen and anticipate how others will play the song. Over time, by practicing listening you'll start doing this automatically. When playing a backing track, you'll pick up some clues to the rhythm/timing be it hi hat, drums as a whole, just the kick drum or rhythm guitar. This will open up space to focus more on your playing as you'll be at the same time actively listening to your rhythm/tempo guide, even if you don't push yourself.

Try isolating lines a bit and you'll see your ear opening up. The same principle is used later on when trying to learn songs from the recordings by ear. Only difference is that this time you are also trying to figure out which notes exactly are being played.
For start, it is perfectly fine to just focus on "hearing the individual notes" and what is going on with each instrument.

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