Question for SELF-TAUGHT guitarists

I am self taught if that means never having lessons. But I bought plenty of good books and magazines and would study the lessons. I would watch musicians as they played and try to remember what I saw, and jammed with more experienced musicians whenever I could. So I had lots of help.

I mostly learned from listening to records and trying to copy what I heard. I would follow the bass line, usually that is your root note for chords. Then I would just listen careful to determine if it was major, minor, 7th etc.... If you spend a lot of time learning by ear you get real good at it after awhile, I can still learn most songs by ear in just a few minutes.

I also learned somewhere (can't remember when or where) that most songs are composed of the 3 major and 3 minor relative chords and that most songs start with the key chord. So if the first chord was C, I had a pretty good idea the song was in C. So the major C, F, and G, and the relative minor chords for C- Am, Dm, and Em (or E7) were where I could look for the chords in the song. Then I would try these chords by ear. This works well, you can probably figure out 90% of songs this way. There are exceptions, the flat 3rd and 7th chords are popular in Rock, so you might have a Bb or a Eb chord in a Rock song.

So, you kinda pick up some theory I guess. I have always liked Rock which is pretty simple anyway, so you really don't need a lot of theory for that. If you played Classical or Jazz I think theory would be far more important to know.

If there is one regret about not taking lessons, I wish that I could sight-read. I can read, but super slow. If you can sight read you can play any song on the spot. I usually need to hear a song to really play it well.

i'm taking lessons right now and my teacher is trying to show me how to play by ear and it's just like wes says above. listen for the roote note. then determine if the chord is major, minor seventh or augmented.

when I play along with a CD trying to learn the new song I look for the root note also.
I use the low E string and follow the changes. from that you can suss out the chord.

Here's my advice:

1. Work extremely hard on learning songs by ear, to the best of your ability. Of course you're not going to be able to do it off the bat, but what you can do is try to play at least something from what you hear. Even if you can't do it like they do, try to at least find intervalls, short melodies and stuff like that. I don't know how much you know, but forget about chords for now. I'd say; focus in the beginning on finding the actual notes on the fretboard. You need to know the fretboard before you get into scales, chords, inversions and stuff like that. Pause the section you want to learn and repeat it forever. You can loop it on an mp3 player or a minidisc if you want to.

2. Use a tuner and tune the first string with it. Then try to tune the rest by ear. Afterwards, check the tuner to see how close you were. Practice this alot.

3. Try to hum every note that you play. First, hum it after you played it. Then, hum it while you play it. Then, hum it, THEN play it. This will give you a great idea of where the tones that you want to play are.

4. Learn alot of melodies. It doesn't have to be hard stuff. Try with "Mary had a little lamb" on one string if you have to. Then on more strings. Then in more than one position. You should do this until you die. It doesn't matter if it's a commercial, the A-team theme, or even another instrument than guitar. Not only does it help your pitch, it helps you to understand how music works, not just guitar.

5. Buy yourself a choir director. Use it to identify the key or tones from every song you hear on the radio.

6. Download an ear-trainer, or buy one. They rule, seriously.

7. Find yourself lessons. Trust me, you won't regret it.
Hope some of this helps.

/Kaspen

I am self taught, but started lessons recently and am having a hard time getting into the technical aspects of playing. I'm so used to playing by ear. And many of the things I learned on my own have been a detriment to me (e.g., not cutting my nails short enough, so playing more on the sides of my fingers rather than the tips).

I listened to music every day growing up, got a guitar eventually (around age 13???), and couldn't even hold down a note at first! Unlike later in life, I was very persistent and eventually learned a few notes and a little technique, but only on the B string. I never learned chords (other than "cheater" ones) until recently. I did move on to other strings, though! But I still have to think about what string I'm on (E is easy, but the others I have to think about), what note it is, etc. I'm just now discovering that I can hear a song in my head and come up with the chords that go with it. It's very exciting, but I wish I'd done this in my youth! But I still have now, as we all do.

I have had a strong tendency to become very easily discouraged re: playing guitar. Since August of last year, I've successfully fought off the urge to give up because, for example, I can't play like Jeff Beck or whomever. My current teacher (who I began with last year, quit, and then went happily back to after trying 2 others) said one thing right away that stuck in my head: playing guitar is 90% attitude. In my case, I have a serious problem with lack of self-confidence. Every time I feel like it's no use, I think of the attitude thing and I also throw in that I have nothing to lose by practicing more! It's working so far! I'm now fairly easily playing with a pick (I used to use my right thumbnail or thumb only) and doing pinch harmonics pretty well. And I'm pretty good at all those patterns he has me learning (although I knew them before without realizing it, if that makes sense).

I don't have a conscious understanding of what I play yet, but I'm now trying to learn that in order to better (and speed up) my playing. I guess I'm in the reverse situation if you're unable to play by ear. I honestly have no desire to read music for guitar, but I want to be as good as possible, so I'm trying to get interested!

I hope this sorta answers some of your questions and helps somehow. One last thing: I recently ran into Derek Trucks (Allman Brothers, his own band, etc.) at the airport (I was too excited, but I do remember this!). I asked him for a guitar playing tip and he said "just keep listening...that's what I did." I assume he didn't really take lessons (though he was certainly around guitar players all his life, I'd think). His advice tells me that listening to music carefully and repeatedly, which I've done since I was very young, helps develop your ear to play. I believe it's true, but I can't play like him (slide!)!