Description
In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to find which notes to target (or land on) by using your ear alone. This simple formula works, even if you don’t have a good sense of pitch yet. Here’s a link to Part 2 where we introduce the Flat 7
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This is great I am a technical person, and need help with the “sound” or “ear”part of music. Great lesson.
This lesson has been a revelation to me.
Thank you Brian.
Hey Brian,
Another fantastic lesson. I’ve been a premium member for years now and we’ve communicated a couple times here and on YouTube. You are undoubtedly one of the top two guitar teachers on the entire internet and I’ve learned more from you than anyone. You’ve changed my playing and life for the better. I have one potential suggestion: Can you add a “Random Lesson” button on your homepage that will just shoot me to any random you’ve done, from the first one to this one today? I find myself searching for ever trying to decide which lesson do. It’s one of my favorite things to pick a random lesson if yours and just get it down top to bottom. Just another bullet in the chamber of things to play at any given moment! That’s all I have for ya haha thank you my friend. Here’s to you 🍻
Who’s the other?
I’m my opinion it would be Ian Stich. Stich Method on YouTube. He’s a fantastic teacher
Hi Sam,
Maybe try a random number generator (e.g. https://www.random.org/)? It lets you set the parameters (e.g. 1 – 570). I’m a fairly new member so I’m trying to do two weekly lessons – one from present and chronologically one starting from when the tab player came in ( I struggle without the player).
This is a great idea! Ear training is a skill I desperately need. Thank you Brian
Wow Brian!! Ditto to Sam L comment… I will spend time on this one, it’s got exactly what I need! I really much rather “hear” that it sounds right to me. Thank you sir!!!
What a great lesson on ear training, it is exactly what I need. Thank you.
Another little gem of a lesson.
Liking the sound of this old Western progression. Love that 175 too!
Ear Ear. Thanks Brain 🙂
Thank you Brian for this excellent lesson.The mark of a great teacher is the ability to make a difficult subject sound interesting and “doable “ to the student, you’ve done that for me.
Strange…I was randomly watching stuff on Youtube this week on ear training for guitar. One guy was describing a time when he was at music college and the tutor randomly picked a student to play Happy Birthday by ear and they struggled…it seems like this is a neglected area for many of us.
Perhaps the most impressive skill any musician can have is being able to hear a new tune and just play it ‘by ear’. I once met a severely mentally disabled man who could barely speak but if he had his accordion and you named a tune he’d play it perfectly straight away.
Frankly this is the lesson every musician should have early in music. Instead we get years of picking away at notes and have no idea why a composer uses anything.
Probably every guitarist should do this one lesson for a month before moving on to a new one.
Keeping it simple, I like it!
Very cool, thanks Brian. It’s great to have another reason to work with the major scale.
I can’t believe I hadn’t stumbled across this “clunker avoidance algorithm” myself years ago and am excited to start putting it into practice.
Thanks Brian, I really needed this.
Great lesson Brian, I haven’t seen this kindof lesson before was only able to watch it but looking forward to practicing this. Also, man do you have a lot of cool guitars!
I like this helped me a bunch Thanks
Absolutely awesome lesson and insights….more like this!!!!!!!
One of the best lessons on how to hit that right note.
Hi Brian Great lesson and very good suggestions to organize this lesson with other similar ones. May I suggest a sub category entitled “Land on Notes” .Lesson EP527 fits in this category.
Brian, this is an excellent lesson. Simplifies the concept of ear training into a composite approach that works great! Thanks!
Nicely Done! Sweet little melody.
This simple system is so valuable for playing the right target notes that make solo’s sound sweet.
Great lesson !!Excellent .
Newer subscriber and long time YouTube listener.
I am loving the lessons. Thanks for all you do.
Nice, thanks Brian. Adding in the extra slides, bends and pull offs certainly applies more nuance, as well. Somehow forgot how to hear the next note after about 20 years off not playing, sorely needed this reminder!
Great lesson Brian!
I’ve been doing this by trial and error for years and never realized that a “good” note was always just one scale step away. In the future, if the first guess doesn’t work I’ll just pretend it was an intentional passing note 😉
Don’t know how you can it make it any easier to understand. Another great lesson.
Hello Brian,
I never thought I would understand improvisation. Your lessons and different approaches have really fulfilled my dream of understanding how improvisation works. With this lesson, playing the target notes so that it no longer sounds wrong is also within reach.
A big thank you,
Georg
I LLLLIiiiiikkkkkeeee it. 😎😎😎
A great lesson on getting back to the ear
Really original and helpful lesson. Explains why in the key of A the 3rd (C#) doesn’t work over the IV chord, similarly for any key. How about a follow up focussing on using the pentatonic scales in the same way?
Wow Brian you are getting way better at putting complex things into simple context, You’re an awesome teacher. thank you!! Can you maybe do something with some natural and artificial harmonics sometime soon.
This is one of my favorite lessons. I need the ear training for sure because I rarely concentrate on it. I’m able to improvise over this backing track and it sounds so mellow. Nice job!
Thank you Brian for another great lesson and one that I needed for ear training. Nice melody to help too. I will work on this and try to transpose for the four and five chords.
Brian
Every one of your lessons are practical and always challenge and stretch my learning capacity!
THANK YOU!
Brian, all your lessons are excellent. I don’t know where to comment on an older lesson, but I will do it here because it meant so much to me – for learning about major and minor pentatonic scales. EP489 (Demonstrating how to use the boxes to improvise.) I never felt like I understood the major and minor scales, although I did really know Pattern one of the minor Pentatonic scale. But, this EP489 lesson really gave me a “light bulb” realization of the two scales – and so easy to visualize!
Thank you!!!
Brian. Tying this lesson on hearing and understanding what I’m playing while I’m playing it, to other lessons from you on connecting notes to shapes (plus ideas I’ve stumbled upon over the years but haven’t understood until joining you) has deepened my joy of playing when I needed it most. At age 71. Thanks.
For this lesson, what is that gorgeous gibson hollow body you are playing with a single p90 pick up?
Scott F.
that’s an old Gibson ES-175
What a great way to remind us all that often less is more – Brian – your grasp of how important the simple fundamentals can be is amazing – Thank you !
Hi Brian, Please forgive my ignorance but could you tell me the chord progression of the backing track?
This is another great lesson, Bain. You will not find this in the Netherlands. Thank you very much.
Don’t know about the rest of you, but if you’ve been with AM long enough, you can begin to combine lessons and build mini master classes around common topics. Example, if you combine this lesson with EP497, you are armed with some very powerful stuff. I’ve been doing these combos for years here and the substance and links provide a gateway to build some unique lesson threads.
Perfect timing for me…I’m trying to understand how to build chords, 1 3 5, root 3, root 5, root 3 flat 5, etc. This lesson illustrated the basis of chord/harmony relationships in a way that I understood. Thank you AM!
Great lesson Brian! So clear and easy to unterstand and to keep it my mind. You open a big additional block of improvisation instruments. Never get so easy any songs just on fly. And most important for me, it is also a way to play something independend from Pentatonic.
Thanks a lot.
Brian – That lesson — EP570 on ear training — is just great stuff, It gets me closer to my goal of making my guitar playing much more intuitive. I’m a hard worker and I practice, but you are helping me become better. This kind of lesson separates you from other teachers, many of whom are very good in their own way. Thanks again. Brian B
Just got to say that there must be hope for me soloing on the violin (well fiddle) with all your great lessons.
THIS WAS THE MOST “EYE” OPENING for my ear training and jumping through the four chords of the key does
not require the changing of strings or position. JUST STAY IN THE SCALE and learn the different number notes then key
changing is a piece of cake remembering the positions relation to the the scale. The two octave scale for the key is all I need
plus the heads up on the chord changes and which notes and why. Loving you lesson more each day.
Dan…
Hey folks, do me a favor if you don’t mind. Go read and respond to the pinned (first) comment on this YouTube post and let this guy know if you’ve found this lesson helpful. I would appreciate it!
Hi Brian
Even though I’ve played guitar for many years My improvised leads are lacking and I over play. I was pleased to see this lesson. The excercise reminds me that with a few (sure notes played with the added touchs you often point out I can play less with better results. Of course most of us know simply playing scales up and down is not the intention of this lesson. I find this ,as with all your lessons, interesting and helpful.
People like that come into our lives from time to time. They build our character!
Most of all, keep up your good work, there are many of us who are grateful and appreciative of your efforts! And what we learn puts smiles on our listeners faces! Enjoy the music! Thx Wade
Yes, so true!
Absolutely helpful and very much appreciated!
very very useful like many of your other lessons
Crazy comment. This video got me to upgrade to premium. I’m taking lessons and in a new band – this video really got me “out of my head fretboard shapes/spots” into playing and hearing the songs while improvising
wow – unexpected twist! thanks Andy! and welcome
Done
I did respond to that guys off-handed comment. But…he doesn’t exist, he doesn’t have anything on his YouTube channel…I think you would be better to unpin it, it’s just so he can get lots of comments and boost his ratings for something…I don’t know what. It’s definitely for his benefit not yours.
Thanks Michael – i’ll unpin it at some point. i’m not trying to promote him, he doesn’t have anything (as you point out)
Online messaging is normally black vs white/for or against, whereas the real world is nuanced. If you spoke to this person the discussion may be completely different. For me who has always struggled with soloing over chord changes this lesson is brilliant! Thanks, Mark
Well I would, but the poster is a flat-out troll, and I don’t feed trolls because that’s what they want.
Currently he is, IMO, in “sealioning” mode on the pinned YouTube post. Definition here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sealioning
That was definitely cool – now I need to get off my butt and try it….
OK I missed the comment but I love this lesson didn’t realise the chromatic notes would jazz it up so much 👍
Hallo Brian
Dankjewel voor deze les.
Voor de. Majeur toonladder geef je regels voor de corresponderende akkoorden: major, minor, minor, major, major, minor en diminished.
Zijn er ook regels voor de minor toonladder?
Vriendelijke groeten
Lucas
Methinks the ayes have it! Great lesson as usual. Lots of years, content and positivity. You MUST be doing something right. Thanks, Brian.
That was a great lesson, you always manage to find topics that I half know and then brilliantly and concisely explain the ‘HOW’ and the ‘WHY’ of it, it’s giving me the confidence to really push to find the sounds in my head instead of just fishing about and hoping for the best..
Keep em coming! 😎👍🎶
Very good lesson! Is there a corresponding system for minor scales?
I don’t see why not. It would work for the three minor scales using the same methodology, i.e. when in doubt hit the next scale note up or down.
The melodic minor scale could be tricky though, descending from the root to the flat 7, where it would hit the major 7 on the way up. But that’s a whole other interesting topic. I really must experiment with it.
Oh man, this is good stuff!
Played it for hours. Then played the entire back in g track on one string using all six strings one at a time.
Good lesson. I’m playing more by ear and less by tab all the time. Just makes sense to be able to hear the notes rather than relying on tab. Thanks for the lesson.
I’m thinking the best way to take advantage of this lesson and track is not to learn what Brian did. Play the track and let you ear and fingers do the walking
Yes Todd, I just tried doing that and actually surprised myself. It sounded half decent, different from the tabs. Great lesson Brian.
Wow, so simple, so good. This has pretty much been the way I’ve approached lead for the past couple decades, without realizing it until now 😂
Brian this a great lesson. I would recommend this for anyone learning guitar. It makes learning to play scales fun. You can pick any song from Spotify or YouTube, find the key and try to play along. It teaches you to hear the notes and learn the scale at the same time.
Hello Brian than you a lot for this very interesting video, maybe you should have put the chords on the tabs to get help, because i don’t know how to make a G# diminished , but maybe do you explain in the vids, but my english is not fluente so maybe i missed it
Great Lessos I´ve ever seen for those who started playng & improvising!
My best wishs for you Bryan ,here from Brazil!, & keep going .
Caudas Maramban
J’apprécie ces cours. Une remarque cependant: serait-il possible d’associer les notes aux tablatures dans les fichiers à télécharger. En effet certains d’entre nous sont plus habitués aux notes. Merci d’avance.