My Method to Learning ANY Song By Ear

For those of you saying, I wish I had Rick's ear/brain/etc, did you notice he said he has been working on intervals every day for 40 years?!? No doubt he is talented, but mostly he did the WORK. You'll get there if you do the work, too. Years ago, I was in a live band karaoke band (in addition to a series of other cover and original bands) and I had to learn about 400 songs, note for note, over the course of 3-4 years. At first, each song took a really long time and I probably didn't completely nail all of the nuances of the bass lines. By the end, after doing massive amounts of work, my ear and my knowledge really developed and I was often able to get a pretty good idea of how to play a song without even touching an instrument. It took, literally, thousands of hours to get there, but, to quote Jimmy Cliff, "you can get it if you really want."

I think I've learned more in 4 minutes then I have in like 15 years of being interested in music. What an amazing resource.

My grandmother was a Julliard trained pianist and was notorious for listening to a song once and faithfully recreating it, on the piano, and many times she made it better. Her rendition of stairway to heaven was worthy of an award. She once played Sunrise, sunset, from fiddler on the roof, but played it slower and in a little lower key, and it was dramatic! She said rock and roll was too easy.

I'm a great grandma and I'm still taking piano lessons (started about 50). I love all this theory stuff--exercises my brain and I really have to work at it. But I love it! Rick is a fun teacher. It's never too late!

I majored in music in college, so I knew all this. Just wanted to point out it's spot on AND...you get it here for free :-) I had to pay $80K to learn this haha! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!!!

It's like showing a dog a card trick. Most of it just bounced off my skull, but I do appreciate the effort and skill.

Sometimes I feel like I am a dog watching TV ...

My ear gets better with age, I'm finding. I'm 63, and playing my best ever.

Learning music by ears unlocks so many more possibilities to writing or composing, or simply just having a better appreciation for the music you do listen to!

In college, we called it sight screaming and ear straining.

I discovered the cycle of fifths was a lot easier to learn by just doing it on a bass or guitar. Play a major scale starting with the note C. What's the fifth note in the scale? G. So play another major scale starting on a G note. What's the fifth note in that scale? D. From there, A. Then E. Then B, Gb, Db, Ab, Eb, Bb, F, and finally back to C. Do this while looking at a picture of the cycle of fifths in front of you. Follow along with the diagram and you start to get the relation.

The Order of Sharps. Sounds like a nefarious secret society.

Rick I went to Dick Grove School of Music and learned this theory. Your teaching is just as good. I hope people appreciate this. Cheers James.

As a verified purchaser I can attest that the Beato Ear Training Program is seriously awesome.

Being hearing impaired and using hearing aids I was told I would have inherent difficulties learning music by ear, but this was so easy to follow and understand. Thank you, it's always a joy to watch your videos and learn.

My method to learning any song by ear: Clear your schedule for the next 2 weeks.

That interval recognition piece was insane

I started off enthusiastically, but after a few minuets I began to feel like the slow student in the class. I'll have to watch this more than once for sure. Thank you for teaching it! :)

I wished, I discovered Rick years ago. I always thought, that I do have solid musical theory knowledge. But Rick connects theory so brilliantly to songs, which is amazing. And he has perfect skills with respect to presenting to an audience

Hi Rick, I’m a beginner pianist (under a year) and beginner guitar player (couple weeks) and it is crazy how much I have learned about music just from watching your videos. Keep it up man!