Getting Started Playing By Ear, Final Lesson

 

Welcome to the final lesson in the Getting Started Playing By Ear course.

In the first two installments in the course, we reviewed how to go about finding the melody for songs (music with words) and tunes (music without words), the latter being the slightly more challenging of the two.

(If you need a refresher, click here for Part 1 of the course, and click here for Part 2)

In this last installment, we’ll continue to develop and refine those skills with 8 more “find the melody” exercises, which will get slightly more challenging as you go. In all, you’ll be finding the melody for 5  songs (music with words) and 3 tunes.

Your assignment for each of these is to listen to the demonstration video, pick out the core melody for the piece, and then find it on the banjo.

To assist in this process – should you need it – I’ve provided some hints. For the first 3 songs, you’ll again have the fretboard diagrams to help narrow down your note search (though I’d recommend first making an effort to find the melody notes without consulting the diagram).

For each song, you’ll also have a clip of the melody being played on the banjo, and you can consult this if you need help in distilling down each song or tune down to its core melody.

For the sake of simplicity, all of the songs and tunes here are in the key of G, and it is intended for you to locate the melody in standard G (gDGBD) tuning.

[RELATED: If you’ve enjoyed this series of lessons, and are interested in digging deeper, then you may enjoy the 4-part Learning To Play By Ear series that’s part of the Breakthrough Banjo course. It begins by covering some of the ground we’ve reviewed in this series, then moves on to topics like how to hear chord changes, how to take a melody and chord progression and create your own arrangements, in any style (e.g. “rhythmic,” “melodic,” “Round Peak,” etc.).]

 

Song and Tune Video Demos

(use the playlist menu in the upper left to toggle between the 8 videos)

 

Melody Tracks (banjo only)

(use these if needed – see below for instructions)

Section #1 – SONGS

SONG 1: Freight Train

Step 1 – Listen to the video. Do so enough times to where you can hum or sing the melody to yourself.

Step 2 – Find the melody notes. See if you can locate the notes of the melody on the banjo, using the strategies discussed in the prior two lessons.

Hint 1: If you need some guidance on finding the melody on the banjo, first listen to the melody banjo track for this tune and see if you can match it.

Hint 2: If you need additional guidance, consult the diagram below, which narrows down the potential locations for the melody notes (only the orange dots are places where the melody notes will be found).

Step 3 – Check your work. See how you did by checking with the answer tab below:

SONG 2: Bury Me Beneath the Willow

Step 1 – Listen to the video. Do so enough times to where you can hum or sing the melody to yourself.

Step 2 – Find the melody notes. See if you can locate the notes of the melody on the banjo, using the strategies discussed in the prior two lessons.

Hint 1 – If you need some guidance on finding the melody on the banjo, first listen to the melody banjo track for this tune and see if you can match it.

Hint 2 – If you need additional guidance, consult the diagram below, which narrows down the potential locations for the melody notes (only the orange dots are places where the melody notes will be found).

Step 3 – Check your work. See how you did by checking with the answer tab below:

SONG 3: I Saw the Light

Step 1 – Listen to the video. Do so enough times to where you can hum or sing the melody to yourself.

Step 2 – Find the melody notes. See if you can locate the notes of the melody on the banjo, using the strategies discussed in the prior two lessons.

Hint 1 – If you need some guidance on finding the melody on the banjo, first listen to the melody banjo track for this tune and see if you can match it.

Hint 2 – If you need additional guidance, consult the diagram below, which narrows down the potential locations for the melody notes (only the orange dots are places where the melody notes will be found).

Since this song has two parts – a verse and chorus – I recommend dividing your search accordingly. Thus, you’ll find two separate tabs below, one for the verse and one for the chorus.

Step 3 – Check your work. See how you did by checking with the answer tab below:

For the last two songs, we’re going to take the training wheels off, so to speak. For these, your job will be to find the notes of the melody without the diagram to assist you.

Good luck!

SONG 4: Mountain Dew

Step 1 – Listen to the video. Do so enough times to where you can hum or sing the melody to yourself.

Step 2 – Find the melody notes. See if you can locate the notes of the melody on the banjo, using the strategies discussed in the prior two lessons.

Hint – If you need some guidance on finding the melody on the banjo, first listen to the melody banjo track for this tune and see if you can match it.

While this song does have a verse and chorus, the melody notes are the same, so it’s a 2 for 1!

Step 3 – Check your work. See how you did by checking with the answer tab below:

SONG 5: I’ll Fly Away

Step 1 – Listen to the video. Do so enough times to where you can hum or sing the melody to yourself.

Step 2 – Find the melody notes. See if you can locate the notes of the melody on the banjo, using the strategies discussed in the prior two lessons.

Hint – If you need some guidance on finding the melody on the banjo, first listen to the melody banjo track for this tune and see if you can match it.

Since this song has two parts – a verse and chorus – I recommend dividing your search accordingly. Thus, you’ll find two separate tabs below, one for the verse and one for the chorus.

Step 3 – Check your work. See how you did by checking with the answer tab below:

Section #2 – TUNES

For this section, we’re going to turn our attention to tunes, or music without words. In general, it’s a bit more challenging to pick out the melody on an instrumental than it is a song, so we’re moving here to a more sophisticated skill.

There are a couple of main reasons why instrumentals are a little trickier:

Reason #1: The notes are being played on an instrument, rather than being sung by the human voice. Whether you realize it or not, if you ever sing – which I imagine is true of just about anyone – you’re already used to singing “by ear.” In other words, you’ve already practiced discriminating various notes sung by a human voice.

And you’ve also had experiencing taking those sung notes you hear and matching them to your own voice (singing is just matching a pitch you sing to an imagined pitch reference in your mind).

One way to remove this obstacle is just to sing the melody before you play it. In other words, listen several times to the tune until you’re able to then hum or whistle it back to yourself. Once you can do this, then you can try to match the melody notes you’re singing or whistling to notes on the banjo.

Reason #2: Distinguishing the melody from the “decorations.” Many times, an instrumental version of a tune contains both the melody notes and “decoration” notes, or embellishments, that a particular player has decided to place around a melody. This is especially true of banjo tunes, where in many instances there are more notes being played that aren’t in the primary melody than are in it.

And the main way in which you figure out how to separate out the melody notes from the decoration notes is through listening. Just as it is with learning a new language, the time you spend listening to the sounds of that language, the more you understand the various sonic elements of that language and the rules for how those sounds are combined. The same is true of music.

Each of these are considered “fiddle tunes,” and each one has both an A and a B part, which I recommend working out separately.

TUNE1 : Nail that Catfish to a Tree

Step 1 – Listen to the video. Do so enough times to where you can hum or sing the melody to yourself.

Step 2 – Find the melody notes. See if you can locate the notes of the melody on the banjo, using the strategies discussed in the prior two lessons.

Hint – If you need some guidance on finding the melody on the banjo, first listen to the melody banjo track for this tune and see if you can match it.

This song has an A and a B part, so I recommend dividing your search accordingly. Thus, you’ll find two separate tabs below, one for the verse and one for the chorus (note that in both the A and B part, the melody is repeated twice).

Step 3 – Check your work. See how you did by checking with the answer tab below:

TUNE 2: Georgia Railroad

Step 1 – Listen to the video. Do so enough times to where you can hum or sing the melody to yourself.

Step 2 – Find the melody notes. See if you can locate the notes of the melody on the banjo, using the strategies discussed in the prior two lessons.

Hint – If you need some guidance on finding the melody on the banjo, first listen to the melody banjo track for this tune and see if you can match it.

This song has an A and a B part, so I recommend dividing your search accordingly. Thus, you’ll find two separate tabs below, one for the verse and one for the chorus (note that in both the A and B part, the melody is repeated twice, as is often the case with fiddle tunes).

Though this is considered a “fiddle tune,” you’ll note that I sing along at times with the B part, which is a tradition with certain fiddle tunes (because sometimes you just want to sing!).

Step 3 – Check your work. See how you did by checking with the answer tab below:

TUNE 3: Leather Britches

Step 1 – Listen to the video. Do so enough times to where you can hum or sing the melody to yourself.

Step 2 – Find the melody notes. See if you can locate the notes of the melody on the banjo, using the strategies discussed in the prior two lessons.

Hint – If you need some guidance on finding the melody on the banjo, first listen to the melody banjo track for this tune and see if you can match it.

This song has an A and a B part, so I recommend dividing your search accordingly. Thus, you’ll find two separate tabs below, one for the verse and one for the chorus (the A part melody is repeated twice, and the B part melody is half as long as the A part).

Step 3 – Check your work. See how you did by checking with the answer tab below:

NEXT STEPS – Keep it going!

So what should you do next to keep working on developing your ability to play by ear?

Start trying to do this for yourself. Again, songs will usually be easiest. As you get more comfortable, start trying to see if you can pick out instrumentals, starting with ones played on the banjo.

After that, start trying to see if you can pick out melodies that are played on instruments other than the banjo, like the fiddle or guitar. Just remember that if you’re going to do so out of standard G tuning, your source tune will either need to be in the key of G, or you’ll need to transpose it to the key of G (i.e. you’ll change the key of the song to play on the banjo).

As with anything, the more you practice it, the easier it will become. But hopefully working through this set of exercises has equipped you with the confidence that playing by ear is, like everything else with banjo picking, something that can be learned by anyone.

 

Finding the Chords

The next foundational skill for being able to play by ear is learning to hear and find the chord changes. And having been through these melody-finding exercises, you’ll be well prepared to do so.

If you’d like further guidance on this process, as well as how to then turn the melody and chord progression into a full fledged clawhammer arrangement in any style, then you may enjoy going through the entire “Learning To Play By Ear” set of modules that’s part of the Breakthrough Banjo course.

You can learn more about those by clicking the link below. There you’ll find a video that walks you through all of the “Learning By Ear” modules.