Learn to Play by Ear with this Audio Software

Riff Master Pro

If you’ve been wanting to learn your favorite songs or guitar solos, but are having a hard time, there’s a great software out there that could be the perfect solution.

How many times have to played a complicated solo on your mp3 player to try and learn it. You have to replay it over and over and it takes forever and you’re never sure if you got it quite right. This software called Riff Master Pro will help.

Click here to learn more about Riff Master Pro!

Before we get into what it does, you should know that this software is available for PC or MAC and will work on your iPhone or iPad.

Riff Master Pro lets you play any audio file, such as an mp3 or wav file, and lets you slow down sections of the song so you can learn exactly how it’s played. It let’s you pick a section of the song that you want to learn and loop it, allowing you to practice it without having to fumble with your CD player or mp3 player. Spend more time focused on your playing.

It has an equalizer which allows you to zero in on a certain frequency. This will help you hear the parts you want to hear, such as the guitar solo, and help hide the parts you don’t want to hear. Plus, you can save the EQ settings.

So, to sum it up, you can loop the solo, slow it down to hear each note, play along with it at your own speed, set the EQ and save those settings, play an entire song at a slower speed so you can play along and gradually work up to real time.

This software will save you a lot of time and let you learn those difficult guitar parts on any song.

Learn more about Riff Master Pro

How to Play by Ear

If you want to learn how to play a song by ear there are a few little tricks you can do to help you figure out the basic chord progression to start off with. To learn the chords to a song start out by listening to the song several times and really concentrate on listening to the guitar parts, and to the bass notes as well. When you’re ready to start learning, have you iPod, or CD player within reach because you will be pausing the song often.

Your first step is to figure out what key the song is in. This can be done by playing a simple pentatonic scale while the song is playing. Play the scale in different keys on the fretboard until you find the one that matches the first chord of the song your listening to. Once you have figured out what key the song is in, you can start figuring out the rest of the chords.

For more experienced guitar players or musicians, the part comes a little easier. Basic music theory tells us that there are certain chords that naturally go together and are commonly played together. For instance, if a song is in the key of G, the chords C and D are likely to be in the mix. With experience you will be able to make an educated guess as to what chord comes next.

Another method, which still involves some guess work and listening carefully, is to pick out the bass notes or root notes of each chord change. Start playing a single base note as the song is playing and when you hit one that matches, then you’ll know what chord you need to play. The bass generally plays the root note of the chords played by the guitar.

Learn the guitar in sections. Most popular songs consist of certain patterns that include an intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus and bridge. Learn the song one section at a time and write down the chords as you learn it. It’s a good idea to print out the lyrics to the song and write down the chords making yourself a nice little lead sheet.

Once you learn the chords you can move on to focusing on picking patterns, solos and other intricate parts of a song. Before you know it, you’ll be playing it like a pro.

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