How To Learn Guitar Chords & Songs By Ear

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[lucasmontenegro]

Perfect lesson. I hope everyone realizes how good this lesson is, and it's so good because he doesn't try to teach the magical never-seen-before misterious effortless way to play by ear, but the real way. Sit your ass down and study theory and then go practice!

[gfunkehauser]

good lord, I am so jealous that kids today can pull THIS GUY^ up on YouTube and learn from him. what an incredible guitarist AND teacher

[RWaarden]

Youtube please do its thing. This deserves so much more love.

[jessiej]

I would also say don't get stuck on a song you can't figure out. Go to something a bit easier and work on it. The more you do it the better you get and you can go back to the ones that gave you trouble.

[davidgiffel]

Such an underrated channel, great lesson!

[adam__mark]

Dude this is such a thorough video. From someone striving to be more pro- this is such an underrated skill. Thanks so much for sharing your approach man 🙏🙏

[allanjeong]

Thanks for explaining the process on how to make an educated guess on what chords to play with song melodies!

Based solely on the melodic notes of the song played on the strong beats, I narrow down my educated guesses on the root notes to only three options instead of five.

The other day, I realized that the common rule to finding chords to go with a melody (“find the basic chord that carries the melodic notes played in the strong beats” and “play the chords that are in the melody’s key signature”) can be rephrased or reframed into much more immediate and concrete terms as “play the melodic note on the strong beat as note 1, 3, or 5 of the chord”. Or put in another wat “play the root note at 1, 3, or 5 note intervals below the melodic note”.

This deceptively simple change in wording can bring so much more clarity! This simple reframing and rephrasing of the rule for finding chords for a song (and the root notes or bass notes) literally enabled me to quite suddenly add chords to and extemporaneously play songs by ear on piano and play songs in any key (and without actually having to identify the key of the song). It was an amazing ah-ha moment for me. :-)

Any how, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic as it is alway interesting to see how different people explain this process.

[guitarDad]

Very helpful. I never heard of the third of the five chord but I will keep this in mind when trying to play by ear. Thanks for sharing this lesson

[kevisp]

I just found this video, and although it seems very simple (when you're showing how it's done) it's not like that when I'm in my living room alone!! Nothing ever sounds "just right" and that is the frustrating part that makes me keep second guessing myself. I love how you figure the chords out, play a few, and then break into blazing runs up and down the fretboard!! If we could all be so smart!!

[jessejohnson]

Those fills are wonderful to listen to

[mikegood]

Awesome video...just starting to learn more theory through your subscription courses and this beautifully pieces together the theory to learning by ear!

[guitarheelify]

Maybe the best guitar lesson I have ever seen. Michael, would you consider doing a Course on this?!!!

[jamessanborn]

I had to smile as I checked this lesson out, Michael. The song you chose happens to be the same one I named one of my daughters from. I take that as a sign that I have made the correct decision in joining GuitarGate, and should delve deeper into your lessons. 😉🎸🎶🙌

[japaneseimmersion]

This is one of the best lessons any guitar player can learn! Glad you made a video about this!

[Bisquick]

I've always done this, mostly just because it works, but never seen/heard it laid out like you did so I always assumed I was just taking shortcuts and not really learning anything from using it for improvisational fun. For whatever reason this made me think the process was "unprofessional", but framing it as you did made me realize that unconventional/experimental doesn't necessarily equate to incorrect, especially when it clearly works. So thank you for illuminating this and making me realize its usefulness in learning not only guitar, but the underlying music theory that makes it all fall into place

[jordanlee]

Awesome video and channel Michael! I've yet to find another teacher who explains things so concisely!

[dave]

Great lesson! I've been learning the melodies to songs by ear, but have never thought to apply chords to rhythm. Loved the methodical approach to it as well.

[jamesondye]

Michael talked about the 7th chord in the c minor scale was diminished but according to what I was taught the diminished in a minor scale is on the second chord. For example:
Minor diatonic chords-
i, ii(diminished), III, iv, v, VI, VII
Major diatonic chords:
I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii(diminished)
I am relatively new to music theory, so if I got confused let me know.

[adityapatil]

Saw a lotta videos. This made the most sense.

[stewmcleod]

Yeah cool. Kinda know this but at times it’s too easy to reach for tab. This will be my go forward from now on, thank you. This gets me listening. Your lessons are great.