The melody is the tune. It's the line you would sing if you were singing a song. The chords harmonies rhythm & the bass are left behind - coz you canny sing everything at once - & you extract the melody from the music. It's one of the more obvious lines to play & a good place to start.

Every melody has a first note. Your task is to find that note on your instrument. Isolate the note by pausing the recording immediately it's sounded. Sing it first then play a random note on your instrument.(If you can't sing it try to find it on your instrument after holding the note in your mind). If you're very lucky - you'll hit it first time. But more often it'll be higher or lower in pitch than the note your singing.

The next crucial step is to establish if your note is higher or lower than the one you're looking for. If you can do this without a problem, you're half way there already. If your note is too high, play a chromatic scale downwards until you hit it. If it's too low, play a chromatic scale upwards in the same way. If you're not sure, you'll have to do both.

Don't be too hasty & be very methodical. Play at least a whole octave (13 notes - all semi-tones) before deciding to go the other way.. Your note you're hunting down may not even be in this octave, but if you've played a whole octave, you will have played it in another octave - which you may spot. Listen very carefully to the interval between the two notes.

Got it? Good, now do it all again for the second note.... & the third.

You will get much quicker at it as you do it. Eventually, you'll know straight away whether note 3 is higher or lower than note 2 - and you may even know the interval, so you can hit it straight away.

And that's all there is to it! Not complicated really at all. Now you just need to do it lots! - & join the dots... Put all your notes together, & hey! you find yourself playing your tune. There are lots of other aspects - rhythm, dynamics, feeling etc but finding the tune is the foundation.

Though playing the melody is a good first step in learning to play by ear, it's rather boring - so try some of the other aspects - harmonies, ad-lib, etc.

Harmonies

Adding harmonies to your favorite music is great fun & very satisfying. Professionally produced music generally has all the harmonies it really needs - but you can always find one or two to stick in there. Where you can't, simply duplicate any of the existing ones & weave between them.

Playing '3rds' - playing a line a 3rd below the melody usually works and is a good thing try.

Also: Try playing long notes over the chord changes & simply change the note when it doesn't sound too good! In a lesson we will analyze what it was that sounded best. Some theory may be necessary but don't let that put you off. Some musicians instinctively know what sounds right without necessarily knowing why.

Most verses have between 2 - 4 chords. In playing by ear, you don't necessarily even need to know what these chords are - so long as you can spot when the note you've chosen to play fits. Out of the 12 notes in the scale, only 3 or 4 of them will usually fit within a chord. Some of the best harmonies happen when the note you've chosen to play also fits the following chord. And it's dead easy to play coz you simply hold the note through the change. Sometimes a single note can be held though a four chord sequence.

Now playing one note through the whole verse may be a little dull! so... once you know a D for example fits a certain sequence, try other notes too. In playing a verse over & over you will build up a bank of notes to play as the chords change.

You will need eventually, (usually) to start to listen to the bass lines. These give massive clues to the chords which are being played. The Bass usually plays the 'root' note of the chord being played at that given moment. It usually does this on the first beat of a bar...& whenever the chord changes.

If that's Double Dutch to you, count 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 to your music. You should get the feel of where the '1' is. It's the strongest part of the repeating sequence & if you turn up the bass you should here the bass drum thumping it out.

Ultimately: your goal is to be able to Put on Radio 2, Real Radio - whatever is your bag, & try to play along to the next song that comes on. From here on, you probably need no further help.

Unfortunately a bit of quick tuning is sometimes required but you should be able to do this in seconds for brass & woodwind & under a minute for a guitar / bass. Pianos are trickier unless they are electronic & transpose.

This is because some recordings are between keys. This happens during recording / mixing when a track is slowed down or speeded up slightly for effect. Your ear should eventually be able to tell if you need to tune.

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