November 27, 2011
Why You Should Learn Guitar By Ear
There are a lot of people out there who would like to learn how to play guitar. There are so many teachers and courses out there that it is hard to choose just one path. So you may be wondering what the best way to learn guitar is. It is the method that most great guitar players have used to learn guitar. It is not reading tabs. It is also not by learning music theory.
Reading tabs is like cutting corners. Sure you will be able to learn songs much faster at first. But there will come a time when you realize you cannot translate songs on your guitar just by listening to them. In other words you will not have developed your ears for music. You will have gotten so used to reading tabs that you will not be good at transcribing music which is how great guitar players have learned.
To be a very smooth guitar player that people would like to listen to you need to put a lot of practice into simply playing your guitar. When you start to listen to music and translate it on your guitar you will start to develop a feel for music. This is a more natural way to learn how to play guitar. You start to become more of a musician when you learn to transcribe music.
Guitar players in the old days did not even have guitar tab booklets or even teachers to learn from. All they had was their guitars and music to listen to. So they had to start out from scratch. They had to learn the chords on their own just by spending all day learning by ear. So if you would like to become an adept guitar player I highly recommend learning by ear. Start training your ears by listening to music and playing along as best as you can.
Go ahead and learn how to read tabs. Learn the major and minor chords. You can even learn some basic guitar theory so that you have a good understanding of the fretboard. You have to get your fingers used to playing which takes a while. But after you get past the basics with the help of another guitar player or online guitar lessons you should start training your ears.
You will need to break the habit of reading guitar tabs to figure songs out. Reading tabs is more of a mechanical skill. Learning songs by ear is the more natural way to learn. Think back to when guitar players like Jimi Hendrix were around. They did not learn through tabs. They focused on listening to music and tried to feel music as best as they could. This is what it is all about.
Before you exit and learn how to play guitar be sure to check out this guitar course called Jamorama. It is loaded with online guitar lessons that teach you the basics as well as how to play by ear.
Filed under Music & Music Players by Harvey Vitti
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