Do This ONE Thing To Help Connect Your Ears To Your Instrument! Ear Training

“Discipline is money in the bank.”-HenryRollins Great video and advice! I’ve been training my ears for several years and it’s really paying off. Have a degree in classical guitar instrumental performance and could play Bach, etc., but if somebody asked me to play happy birthday, I’d be fishing around for notes back then. I think if you ask a lot of shredders or guitar players in general to play the melody to a Christmas Carol or a simple well known children’s melody, they would have trouble. Had to work to remedy that situation for myself. Still working on it every day! The harder you work, the better you get!

What worked for my ears is something I’ve heard described as tonal gravity. I noticed long ago that I could hear the sound of 4 wanting to resolve down to 1…end of phrase on Let it Be for example. I noticed I could hear 5 wanting to resolve in either direction towards 1. Over time, really focusing on listening to bass lines, I noticed this tendency in all diatonic notes. The more bass lines I listened to the more I noticed different tendencies of resolution towards the tonic and other places that roots like to move and hang out on. That changed, and continues to develop in more detail over time, to hearing a melody note against whatever the bass note is at the moment. I still have a long way to go in terms of middle voices but the point is…it all started with hearing tendencies of resolution in the bass voice. My two cents. Take it for what it’s worth. Thanks as always Levi.

You've got it! I sing along to my instruments constantly. Also, sing along to everything else e.g. background music while shopping, birds, machines. Music is everywhere, and it has rhythm too. Also, tap your foot while practicing, even if you use a metronome. That's just as important as singing. I hear many guitar gurus on Youtube fumbling the rhythm, especially on the one. Don't do that!

This connection to the instrument is something I've not been able to do even after 35 years of playing, but have always wished I could. I KNOW what it feels like to be able to do it, as I can whistle anything I want at any time. I could whistle any song I hear, or improvise over anything regardless of genre. THAT is what I wish I could do on guitar. Best I can do is hear guitar in my head, whistle it, then try to figure it out on guitar. Not exactly improvisational material there hahaha.

Really thank you for all your videos , they give me so much clarity for learning music by myself !!

I couldn’t agree with you more!!! I have found that singing what you are playing is the best way to keep your mind FOCUSED on what you are playing and in connecting your brain to the SOUND you are making.

Yes Levi - good reinforcement of the need to "hear" in your head first. I often hear first and simultaneously visualize what I play without even looking at the fretboard because, as I think you suggest, always looking at the fretboard can actually create an obstacle to making that connection b/t the brain and what you play (i.e. less creativity, more patterned).

one thing that helped me with this is to start with some licks I know really well... that showed me that I can do this, not 100% of the time, but definitely some of the time.. To me after that it's just been about getting more sounds into my hands and ears. Like for example.. I think a lot of people could sing an E and then play the high E string, because it's been so ingrained in you from tuning your guitar. After that, can you sing E G E and play it on the high or low E? Just that little phrase from E minor pentatonic. Probably easy.. once you know you can do this, then it's not so daunting to continue on with more ideas.

I'm really liking this little ear training series you've got going on. I've been working on my ear training. There are a million "right ways" to do it, but thus far I don't know if any of them have worked (yet?). I've seen you transcribe so I definitely trust your ear training regiment, so thanks again!

Levi, thanks for the videos man this is stuff I really need to work on. Richie Kotzen does something similar to what you’re talking about, he has a lot of solos in his solo career and his stuff with the Winery Dogs where he hums or scats the notes as he’s playing them. (One notable one is his solo on the Winery Dogs Hot Streak) The guy is an amazing guitarist. Maybe you could transcribe some of his stuff sometime? Thanks again for the great videos. Keep it up.

How about recognising chords Levi? Any chance of you doing a video on that? Thanks

This is the best guitar channel on YT. 🤘

I also generally hum the notes as I play them. Most guitarists fingers forget that there’s actually a brain attached…

What do you charge to transcribe rock songs chords dyaids and solos

A ha! Got ya! How can you sing the notes before you play on a wind instrument? #lawyered

Is this different than relative pitch. It sounds like your talking about memorizing tones , or do you start off with a key you already know we'll. Sorry but I'm a bit dense 💯

Thank you Levi - such great and helpful advice - I won't listen to evil Tom! 🤣

Blow that Read Lou😊

It's a hard pill to swallow, but most of us will never be on your level Levi