Practicing ear training

**jasona** · Feb-06-2015, 1:37pm

One of the things that is becoming quite apparent to me from going to weekly jams is that I need to get better at picking melodies up on the fly. Most songs folks like here have simple melodies, so this should not be too big of a challenge. I figure I will start by working out simple melodies of songs I have in my head but not under my fingers, and then add basic ornament as I master them. And I will try to audibly hum or sing as I go (although singing training I do NOT have, nor a vocal range that is friendly with the "high lonesome" sound)

How do you work on the brain--fingers connection?

**jasona** · Feb-06-2015, 1:40pm

And just for the record, I have already considered having my dog teach me

**JeffD** · Feb-06-2015, 1:52pm

Three ways:

One is I listen a lot to the music I am going to play. I don't necessarily mean mandolin players. Right now and for the past many years I have been on an old timey binge. I have almost 100 CDs ripped to my mp3, some 4800 tunes. I put it on random and let it settle in my soul. You absorb not just the tunes but also the phrases and emphasis and styles that are part of that genre.

Eventually you will hear a new tune and say, oh, its one of these and a descending one of those and two more up a string, instead of it being like memorizing a new phone number.

Two is that in normal practicing at home I sing or hum as I play. Tunes and exercises. I sing along. More of the brain gets involved. I find eventually the connection between the singing in my head and the fingers becomes almost automatic.

Third is I often play along to my mp3. I have it on random, so I don't know what's coming, and I just do my best with it. Its great ear work, but its also amazing fun.

**fatt-dad** · Feb-06-2015, 2:48pm

babel, imitate, read, study theory. I'm somewhere between steps 2 and 3. I liken such learning to the way babies learn to speak.

f-d

**Micah Bost** · Feb-06-2015, 8:06pm

What you should do is practice playing songs you can hum (but don’t know on the mandolin) songs like amazing grace, Yankee Doodle, America the beautiful etc… This really helped me in my jamming
Btw, focus on pentatonic and chord tone scales. They really help if you get lost at a jam.

**Ivan Kelsall** · Feb-07-2015, 2:23am

JeffD has it !. I've been an 'ear player' for over 50 years because that's all i had. It really does mean that in order to learn a tune by ear,you have to listen to 'whatever' a lot. Get the tune in your head,& then break it down into small sections,so that when you play the recording again,you know what's coming up. Take each section & work on them one at a time. I usually break the tune up into sections that i can recognise up to the point where the melody changes. The 'change point' becomes the end of the first section & so on. One other thing,i always practice any new tune by picking along to the recording. That way,even though you have the tune in your head,you've got the real deal to help you with the tempo. & you can practice your chops to the ''no mando'' sections,that's important as well as sometimes the chord changes can be very subtle. The one greatthing about ear training/playing,is that the more you do it,the more you can do it.It becomes easier to pick up tunes on the fly as you say. It takes time,but it really is worth it. If it's Bluegrass you're into,most tunes are fairly straight forward & you'll get used to the chord progressions involved to such an extent, that you can anticipate the changes coming along. Stick at it & you'll be amazed at what you'll be able to do. It's never 'easy',unless a tune is very simple,but ear playing,IMHO is essential even if you can read music / TAB. I'm currently working on this one - "Norabelle" played by Darrell Webb,
Ivan