Play Guitar by Ear, Episode 8

Identifying harmonies, part 2

By Darrin Koltow

Welcome back to the Playing Guitar by Ear saga, where we explore ways of recognizing what chords, melodies and rhythms we're hearing in our favorite tunes.

We've covered playing melodies by ear, playing rhythms by "feel," and we touched on identifying chords by ear last episode. We're going to continue learning how to identify chords by ear with this episode.

How do you identify chords by ear? Why does figuring out the chords to a tune sometimes seem so difficult? I went through the phase of thinking that identifying chords was difficult, so if you're still in that phase or mindset, take heart: there are lots of ways out. The main thing is to focus on your desire to play by ear, to recognize and recreate the chords you hear in the tunes you dig the most.

Then, take the time to transcribe or "co-compose" a bit every day -- even if you feel you're not yet "getting it." Also, learn just a bit of music theory every day. Pick any resource for this you like. I recommend Mark Levine's The Jazz Theory book. And MusicTheory.net is another excellent learning tool.

I also want to communicate to you what *not* to do when confronting the "I can't figure out the chords mindset." When you surf the net, and communicate with many other guitarists, maybe most, what you're going to hear a lot of is stuff like this: "Where's the tab for that solo or tune?" "Web site XYZ has lots of tabs," and other comments expressing a focus on the *visual* part of learning music -- which is *not* a part you need to learn to make music. Ask Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Jeff Healey. Then, you'll go to dig around for a book on learning guitar, and 99 times out of a hundred you'll find absolutely no instruction about how to listen to a tune and figure it out on your own.

After learning a set of basic guitar skills, including a set of chords and some knowledge of theory, you then have all the tools you need to learn many tunes or works by ear. Plus, by learning tunes this way, you'll be able to learn future tunes with more confidence *and* enjoyment.

Okay, enough sermonizing. Let's summarize what to do to figure out chords by ear.

- At first, just *listen.* Listen deeply, with headphones, many, many times, to a passage you're working to identify the chords to. Listen with the graphic equalizer set with all sliders at the top, then at the bottom, then at settings selected by your dog or resident poltergeist.

- Then, sing the melody. Yes, working out chords begins with getting the melody. Get that sucker. Based on the melody of the section you're working on, get the key center. Common key centers in popular tunes are C, F, G, D, E and A.

- Get the "bass melody," or the bass line. You won't always hear it. Sometimes it's just not there. Sometimes it moves too fast. But many times you can hear it.

- If you're listening to a pop, rock, or folk tune, assume the bass notes are the roots of the chords you're working to recognize. So, if you know you're in E major from the step called "sing the melody," and you hear a G# in the bass, you might be hearing a G#minor. From what you know about the harmonized major scale, from reading just a wee bit of theory, you know that the chord built on top of G# when you're in the key of E major is G# minor.

- what's the *quality* or feeling of the harmony you're aiming at? Is it sad, happy, neutral? Or, does it remind you of a movie or person? Some chords have sounds so distinctive that they leap right out at you. Getting a handle on the chord type is actually getting a handle on the impressions and inner sensations that chord makes on you. So, in a sense, physically hearing the chord is a tiny fraction of everything your mind uses to *listen* to and recognize the chord. In a real sense, you're listening within yourself, to the memories the sounds of this chord bring out.

And how many truly different chord types are there? Do you need to try out a zillion different chords with crazy colors and extensions? No. There are really only four types of chord qualities you'll want to know when assigning chords to melodies: minor, major, augmented and diminished. And none of these sounds like any other. They all have their own, unique sound.

Practice for hearing chords

Let's listen to a tune and figure out its chords. This is going to be a Christmas tune, which means it's familiar to most of you. That will make hearing and harmonizing the melody easier.

We're going to work with the tune a portion at a time. Here's the four-bar portion for this episode:

http://www.MaximumMusician.com/PairFiles/012203.MID

We want to get right to the chords, so let's show the melody first. Here it is, for the first four bars:

Q Q Q. E Q Q Q Q
|-------------|----5--5----
|----6--6---5-|-6--------8-
|-5-----------|------------
|-------------|------------
|-------------|------------
|-------------|------------
|-------------|------------

Q Q Q E E Q Q H
|-8--8--8----6-|-5-----5----|
|--------------|----8-------|
|--------------|------------|
|--------------|------------|
|--------------|------------|
|--------------|------------|
|--------------|------------|

Duration Legend
---------------
W - whole; H - half; Q - quarter; E - 8th; S - 16th
. - note dotted
.. - note double dotted
Duration letters will always appear directly above the note/fret number they represent the duration for. Duration letters with no fret number below them represent rests.
++++++++++++++++++++++

This is all *diatonic* stuff in these beginning bars. What does that mean? It means it stays within one key. No modulations happen here. How do we know it doesn't change keys? Your ear will tell you. You can probably already identify key changes when you listen with full concentration to a piece of music. You'll hear something that makes you say, "Ah: there's something happening there; something is different." You might not (yet) know exactly what's changed, but you can recognize a fundamental shift in the harmony. Trust your ears. Relax and listen.

What key center are we in? Let the melody tell us. That first interval, a perfect fourth, and the stability of that first chord tell me that, whatever note that second note is, is the key center.

After I check with my trusty guitar, I hear that this second note is F. This first portion of the tune is in F major. *Remember that this is for this tune only. Don't finish reading this article and think, "Hey, piece of cake: all you have to do to figure out what key center you're playing in, is get the second note." No. Ask your ears this question: what note feels the most stable to me? What note is IT?

Now that we know the key center we're playing in, figuring out the chords becomes a matter of playing around with the chords in that key center while singing the melody. What *are* those chords? Refer to the harmonized major scale. For F major, we'll have these:

F major, G minor, A minor, Bb major, C major or C7, D minor, E diminished

And we remember, from a previous episode of Playing by Ear, that some of these chords don't show up too often: E diminished and A minor. We also know that we can often substitute some chords for other chords. F can sub for D minor; Bb can sub for G minor. Use your ear to guide you through this.

Look at what we have here: a list of only 6 chords to figure out the chords for this portion of the tune. (We'll hang on to the A minor.) That's a big relief from thinking you have to try out a dozen or a hundred chords before finding one that works well. And, once you listen to the *quality* of this portion of the tune, you'll narrow down those 6 to even fewer choices. In other words, is the quality happy, content, sad?

For a gross, but useful, generalization, a happy or contented sound will narrow our choices to just major chords: F, Bb and C. A sad sound will narrow our choices to minor chords: G minor, A minor and D minor. Listen again to the first part of the tune and ask yourself: happy or sad?

Also, to guide your chord selection, listen to the bass line in these first four bars. It's pretty distinct, and can lead you quicker to choices for chords than guessing can.

I'll publish the chord names I came up with in the next episode.

Click here to go to the next lesson in this series.

Click here for software that can help you play by ear. Use it for 30 days for free.

Guitar Chords (GC) builds your chops and helps you identify the most important chords by ear. GC shows you how to substitute and combine chords; play Jazz, Rock and Blues progressions; transpose songs; put chords to a melody; apply fingerpicking, alternating bass, arpeggios, and much more.

Return to top.