OK, my theory and whatnot is really thin.
Today I am mowing the lawn and I hear a song. I think, I like that, I would like to be able to figure what they doing.
How do I train myself to figure out keys, notes etc?
Full Version: Learning Songs
Mostly it will come after years of playing, when I first started I figured out easy pop songs by identifying the root note of the chords played, usually played by the bass. Then after figuring out a simple bass line, I would start figuring out the chords.
From there, little by little your ear will be trained to identify relative pitch changes, like from a G major to a D major, this is so common that when you hear it in a song you will clearly identify it. On some you will figure out the entire song just by hearing it once. Like the common chord progression CMaj, Amin, FMaj, GMaj, there so many songs with this chord progression, and as soon as I hear those intervals I know what it is.
It is simply a matter of ear training, start with easy stuff, then move on to more advance stuff, for the stuff you can't figure out on your own, find the tabs to help yourself, little by little you will see you will be able to figure out stuff by yourself because a certain interval or lick became familiar to you, you are probably relating it to another song.
Hope it helps
From there, little by little your ear will be trained to identify relative pitch changes, like from a G major to a D major, this is so common that when you hear it in a song you will clearly identify it. On some you will figure out the entire song just by hearing it once. Like the common chord progression CMaj, Amin, FMaj, GMaj, there so many songs with this chord progression, and as soon as I hear those intervals I know what it is.
It is simply a matter of ear training, start with easy stuff, then move on to more advance stuff, for the stuff you can't figure out on your own, find the tabs to help yourself, little by little you will see you will be able to figure out stuff by yourself because a certain interval or lick became familiar to you, you are probably relating it to another song.
Hope it helps
It just takes time. It will come with your skills and practicing. Every time you learn something new and you hear a similar thing in a song then you can recognise similar patterns and realize (hey I am familiar with this one). That worked for me to develop my aural skills and recognise chords and melodies without touching the instrument.
QUOTE (Toroso @ Sep 2 2008, 05:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
OK, my theory and whatnot is really thin.
Today I am mowing the lawn and I hear a song. I think, I like that, I would like to be able to figure what they doing.
How do I train myself to figure out keys, notes etc?
Today I am mowing the lawn and I hear a song. I think, I like that, I would like to be able to figure what they doing.
How do I train myself to figure out keys, notes etc?
learn scales -> Jam alot, sing alot, train you ear to regular keys and irregular keys. Notes in general really.
LOL
Hahaha 
But well, the others are right, your ears have to be trained just as your hands have to be trained if you want to play guitar, the more you work on this the better your ears will become. The only bad side effect is that after some time you might not enjoy some albums anymore, at least it happened to me, there were some albums that I loooooved 20 years ago and now I can't stand them anymore because the singer is sooo out of tune 
But well, the others are right, your ears have to be trained just as your hands have to be trained if you want to play guitar, the more you work on this the better your ears will become. The only bad side effect is that after some time you might not enjoy some albums anymore, at least it happened to me, there were some albums that I loooooved 20 years ago and now I can't stand them anymore because the singer is sooo out of tune
I would suggest learning the theory if your knowledge is thin there. You can't really figure out the key, harmony or scales within a song unless you're quite familiar with those right? So in that sense, it would be wise to learn theory a bit, and then using it, try to figure out a couple of songs. You will see that this is not hard at all, but start easy, and with some easy songs at first that have one or two keys at most. The more you work, the bigger your ability to recognize what composer tried to achieve.
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