Chapter 12:Transcribing What You Hear 157
Listening—Actively
Before we get into ear training proper, you need to learn how to actively listen
to music. This isn’t listening for enjoyment; it’s listening to remember, and to
analyze.
Start by isolating yourself from the hurly-burly of your day-to-day life. Turn off
the TV, close the windows, and block out all extraneous noises—the air condi-
tioner, the refrigerator, the hum of the air pump in your fish tank. Create an
environment in which you can focus on the music, without any distractions.
Prepare the music. This means setting up your audio system, with a good pair
of speakers, or even a quality set of headphones. Make sure the music source
can be easily accessed; you’ll be doing a lot of rewinding and fast forwarding.
Now get yourself comfortable. Find a comfy chair, or a couch, or even a place
on the floor, surrounded by pillows. Get comfortable, but don’t get relaxed;
instead, remain alert and ready for input. And don’t squirm. When you’re fully
prepared, it’s time to listen. Select a song, one of your favorites; then press the
play button ... and listen.
Begin by listening to the overall form of the song. Determine where one phrase
ends and another begins. Figure out where the verses are, and the chorus, and
even the bridge, if there is one. Get a feel for how the song is constructed, for
its internal logic, for the way it flows from one point to another.
Now listen to the song again, but this time focus carefully on the melody line.
Listen hard, and listen critically. Note where the melody goes up, and where it
goes down. Note where the melody changes; where the verse ends and the cho-
rus begins; and where any variations occur. Listen to it as many times as you
need, until you’re sure you can sing it back, verbatim.
Return to the start of the song, and this time don’t listen to the melody. Instead,
listen to the bass line. Listen to the tones played, and to the rhythms. Note how
the bass notes relate to the melody, and to the other parts. Listen to the bass
part and memorizethe bass part; then play the song back again and sing along
with the bass, from memory.
Again, return to the start of the song. This time listen to another part—the lead
guitar, or the piano, or the saxophone. It doesn’t matter; pick a part, and follow
it from start to finish. Listen critically, and hear how this part fits with the bass and
the melody and all the other parts. Listen until you have the part memorized.
Repeat this process until you knowall the parts of the song. Get to the point
where you can sing back any given part, without prompting. Let that song get
inside your brain; become one with the music.
Finally, listen to the entire song again and try to figure out where the chord
changes are. There might be a new chord every 4 beats, or 8, or even 16.
Figure out the time signature (probably 4/4), and then try to lay a map of the
chord changes over the form of the song.
When you’re isolat-
ing the bass line,
you might want to
turn up the bass
(and turn down the treble)
on your audio system, to
better hear the low notes.Tip