Guitar Hit Songs
How do you learn songs by ear on the guitar?

I just can’t do it. I listen to what it is I want to play over and over again and when I go to play it, I have no idea where to play those notes. The same goes for improvising, my guitar teacher said that when you improvise you have to listen in your head to what you want to play next then play it. I know exactly what i want to play but I have no idea where to play and what frets to hit.

You’ve really asked two different things: how to learn by ear, and how to improvise. They’re both related, but approached differently. In both cases, scales and chord theory are going to help you. When I started learning 45 years ago, nobody told me this. Of course, I absorbed it all over the course of time without putting a name to it. You can save yourself a lot of time by jumping right into it.

What scales and chord theory do is to help you make educated guesses as to what notes or chords might go together. You see, music follows rules, and it also is repetitive. Although there are hundreds of chords and possible combinations of notes, very few of them will occur in any single song. Knowing those notes is like finding the corner pieces to a jigsaw puzzle. In fact, learning a song by ear is very similar to solving a puzzle. It works best if you approach it in a logical progression.

Even before you understand the reasons why, you’ll probably observe that there are chords that commonly go together. If you’re playing a song in the key of G, it’s a good bet that the other chords will include C and D, and perhaps an Am or Em. The more you play, the easier it will be to recognize these relationships.

A good exercise is to play different forms of a chord and learn to recognize them: A – Amaj7 – A7 – Am, etc. Learn to recognize a major chord when you hear it…as opposed to a minor chord or seventh. This is important ear training.

Let’s say you have a recording that you want to learn. The first thing to establish is the “key” it’s played in. This will go a long way in defining what potential chords you’ll be working with. A lot of music follows standard “chord progressions” and with some practice, you’ll be able to recognize them. In 90% of popular music, the bass plays the root note of the chord. So listen to the bass. Play every note on your low E string until you find the one the bass guitar is playing. Chances are good that you’ve found the chord. The opening chord to a song is frequently…but not always….the key. Listen to the chord progression and try to determine where the cycle starts and ends. There will be a chord that the music seems to resolve on. That will be the key.

Use the “follow-the-bass” method to find other chords. Now that you know the key (and some chord theory) you can make some educated guesses as to which chords to try. Yes, there’s a lot of trial and error. To figure out a lead or riff, you need to know what chord it’s being played over. The notes will almost certainly be contained in the scale of the chord. This is why scales are important…..they help you make more educated guesses.

This brings us to improvisation. There are two methods I use when I improvise. The most basic is to use scales. If you know what chord is being played, any note in that chord’s scale is fair game. You may not create a work of art, but you won’t play any sour notes if you just stick to the scale. You can play random notes in the scale, try to pick out a melody, or play arpeggios.

The other tool I use in improvisation is what I call my “bag of licks.” As you learn songs, you’ll come across little riffs that might be useful in other songs. I’m showing my age here, but listen to the intro to Johnny B Goode. Then listen to Roll Over Beethoven, Fun Fun Fun (Beach Boys) and you’ll recognize similar licks. Variations of that lick are used in hundreds of songs…learn it and put it in your bag-of-licks for future use. Eventually you’ll have a small library of standard riffs that you can dig out, mix, and assemble into improvised leads. Your music teacher’s advice is good. Unless you are thinking ahead of your fingers, you’ll always be playing catch-up to the music. Be thinking of the next chord and what riffs you know that can be played with it.

There is probably a lot more to improvisation and learning by ear, but the elements I’ve outlined will get you headed in the right direction. I’ve been doing this for over 45 years, so a lot of it is going on at a sub-conscious level which makes it hard to articulate. That’s exactly how it should be, and will be for you too: automatic and sub-conscious. Just keep practicing and everything will become easier.

Guitar Hit Songs

Two Great Easy Electric Guitar Songs

When first deciding to play guitar, you will have a choice to make. Is it your long-term goal to play the acoustic guitar to the best of your ability? Or is the real purpose of taking guitar lessons to master the electric guitar? For those in the latter category, there are a couple of great and easy guitar songs that are worth mentioning. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Before trying to play anything, be sure to work on the exercises and activities that help make you a great guitarist. If you have an instructor, he or she will walk you through these things.

But once you have gone through the chords, strumming, tablature, hand positions and all those details, you will be just about ready to start playing some real music. For the electric guitar player, two of the easiest and best songs to learn are “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, and “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd. These certainly are easy guitar songs for beginners to try their luck. It may not sound pretty to begin with, but with a bit of practice and dedication some amazing things might begin to happen.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” is not only one of the more famous songs written and performed by Nirvana, but a great example of power chords. If you do not know what those are right now you will later on in your lessons. It also helps you build your overall guitar playing skills, hitting on important techniques that any guitarist should have in mind when playing.

“Wish You Were Here” will be a bit more of a challenge. Though an easy guitar song, “Wish You Were Here” has a solo that will take some time to master. There are several other advanced techniques and guitar terminology that will come into play when you take the tablature for this song to your instructor.

Remember that any song you find online to play will take a lot of practice and hard work on your end. Songs are, by their very nature, a step up from what you start out working on. They are difficult, time-demanding, and yet altogether worthwhile. These two electric guitar hits are great easy guitar songs for beginners to get their feet wet with. So find the music for them, have your instructor take a look, and perhaps they will be incorporated into one of your coming lessons.

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where can i dowload songs that have lyrics with acoustic guitar chords? pls help me what particular site?

i mean 2 sites. 1 for OPM or All Filipino Music songs with lyrics and acoustic guitar chords. and 2nd is the international hit songs with lyrics and acoustic guitar chords.

http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/

http://www.iol.ie/~murphypj/index.html

http://www.chordie.com/

http://www.pegusisfreeware.com/musicdb/

Hit Song – By Tommy Knox

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