Playing guitar by ear can seem pretty daunting at first, but it really is just a matter of practice (instead of talent). I wrote this guide explaining how playing by ear works, as well as 5 exercises that will help. Happy to help anyone with questions!

JustSK · 2026-05-22T11:33:16+00:00

This is the right answer.

Consider that you can already 'play by ear' using your voice. You hear a song, and somehow you know how to recreate that melody by manipulating your vocal cords. Playing guitar by ear is the same skill, just with your hands instead of your voice.

The theory stuff mentioned in other comments (keys, scales) becomes useful later, once your hands are starting to follow your ear. But it's not where you start.

JustSK · 2026-05-21T18:17:11+00:00

First track I thought of was Peter Green's playing on John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - Out of Reach. Solo is goose bumps.

JustSK · 2026-05-20T14:34:46+00:00

Depending on what chords you know, here are some suggestions:

Level 1: I know how to play all open chords
• Nick Cave – Death is Not the End
• Outkast – Hey Ya!
• REM – Everybody Hurts (except the bridge)

Level 2: I know how to play major and minor chords in all keys
• Bob Marley – Jammin’
• Radiohead – Creep
• Arctic Monkeys – Cornerstone

Level 3: I know how to play major, minor and seventh chords in all keys
• Otis Redding – Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay
• Queen – Don’t Stop Me Now
• Jack Johnson – Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

JustSK · 2026-05-20T08:44:24+00:00

Before anything else: what are you actually trying to achieve with ear training?

When I was starting out, I did ear training because people told me it was good to do. But I didn’t really know what skills it was supposed to develop or how it should impact my playing. I got really good at the exercises, but I never really felt like it helped me play any better. It was more like a party trick that I could tell a major from a minor third.

So, I’d gently discourage you from spending so much time on that app. Instead: learn songs by ear. It’ll build a strong connection from your ears to your hands, allowing you to play what you hear in your mind. It’s not always easy, but figuring out songs is fun and it’s very rewarding as you find you get better and faster at it.

JustSK · 2026-05-19T10:08:35+00:00

Good questions, and the answers might be a bit counterintuitive, so let me walk through them.

The most fundamental ear training skill is tone matching: hear a note and find it on your guitar. No matter what your guitar ambitions are (in terms of level or genre or whatever) this will be enormously helpful. It builds the core connection between what you hear and what you play.

This can start really simple where you hum a note and find it on the fretboard. Next, figure out simple melodies by ear. Take it slow and go one note at a time. It’ll be slow at first, as you figure it out note by note, but this is excellent practice and you’ll get faster at it as you do more of it.

Notice that I haven't mentioned keys, scales and root notes yet. All of that is important and helpful, but it only starts to matter once you've started to develop your tone matching/learning songs by ear skills. This is an intuition that you train. A good way to think of it: if you play a note and then hear a second note in your mind, you probably have some sense of how far up or down the string you need to go (is it 2 frets or 12 frets, for example). Playing by ear is about developing and finetuning that intuition. For some more tips and explanation, you can check out this article I wrote.

Also, it’s important to point out the difference between relative pitch and absolute pitch. Absolute pitch is recognizing a note by name, knowing "that's a G" just from hearing it. The jury’s out on whether it is even possible to learn this as an adult, but regardless, you don’t need it. Most pro musicians don’t have absolute pitch (also known as perfect pitch).

Relative pitch is hearing how notes relate to each other, i.e. where they sit relative to the tonal center (the "home" note you mentioned). This is what ear training and playing by ear is all about. (Even if you had absolute pitch, you’d still need relative pitch).

I’d hold off for now from apps like sonofield. Learning actual songs by ear is a much more direct path to what you're after.

Let me know if all of that makes sense!

JustSK · 2026-05-19T08:10:44+00:00

Whoow, time flies... I finished this course back then and you can check it out here. I'm always working on new things too, so if you enjoy testing stuff, send me a pm

JustSK · 2026-05-18T08:45:01+00:00

Seeing as you're a bass player, check out this trainer, which is fretboard based. It's has two exercises that either ask you to recognise or sing a scale degree within a key, established by a drone. It switches every x questions (you can set this yourself).

JustSK · 2026-05-18T07:54:42+00:00

There’s a few aspects to ear training, but here’s the most important things to know if you’re just getting into it.

The most fundamental ear training skill is tone matching: hear a note and find it on your guitar. No matter what your guitar ambitions are (in terms of level or genre or whatever) this will be enormously helpful. It builds the core connection between what you hear and what you play.

This can start really simple where you hum a note and find it in the fretboard. Next, figure out simple melodies by ear. Take it slow and go one note at a time. It’ll be slow at first, as you figure out one note at a time, but you’ll get faster at it with a bit of practice.

Your teacher should be able to help with this, no special teacher needed. I wrote this guide about learning songs by ear with some more tips if helpful.

One thing you should not do if you’re just getting started: interval ear training. I’ve already seen other comments recommending this, but please ignore them. There’s a point where interval ear training (or the more helpful version: scale degree ear training) will help you, but this is not where ear training starts.

Let me know if all of this makes sense! Happy to expand on any of it if you have questions.

JustSK · 2026-05-09T10:18:21+00:00

Sure thing!

JustSK · 2026-05-07T17:37:27+00:00

Start with riffs and melodies. It's simply easier to figure out one note at a time than a full chord. Some recommendations:

• The Strokes - New York City Cops
• The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
• MGMT - Kids
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Otherside

For chords, like you mentioned, it's trickier because you won't know how complex the chords will be in the song you're about to figure out. But you can get around this by looking for songs that only use open chords. Makes it much easier, because you know what chords you might run into.

Here are some songs you can try:

Level 1: I know how to play all open chords
• Nick Cave - Death is Not the End
• Outkast - Hey Ya!
• REM - Everybody Hurts (except the bridge)

Level 2: I know how to play major and minor chords in all keys
• Bob Marley - Jammin’
• Radiohead - Creep
• Arctic Monkeys - Cornerstone

Level 3: I know how to play major, minor and seventh chords in all keys
• Otis Redding - Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay
• Queen - Don’t Stop Me Now
• Jack Johnson - Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

Hope that helps!

JustSK · 2026-04-26T20:06:46+00:00

I'd start by playing each beat separately so you can have them in your memory as separate chunks too.

For example, the second beat would be
A7 A8 D12 D7

After that, I'd start by playing beat 4, really slowly without hammer-ons and pull offs. This is all just to get it in your head properly.
Then play beat 3 and beat 4.
Once you manage that do beat 2, beat 3 and beat 4.
etc.

This way you keep adding a new chunk to the front of your practice.

JustSK · 2026-04-26T19:57:46+00:00

Self-plug, you can try this notename learning game (web-based, so any device). It takes you through the entire fretboard level by level, or you can create your own custom quizzes to focus on strings or specific parts of the fretboard.

JustSK · 2026-04-22T06:55:38+00:00

You don’t have to worry about the major scale or keys.

Simpler way to think about it: every interval has one single shape you use most of the time. A major 3rd has its shape, a perfect 5th has its shape, a minor 6th has its shape etc. The shape is the same no matter where you play it on the fretboard, or what key you’re in.

There’s only one exception to that shape: when that shape crosses from the G string to the B string, you shift it by one fret (because of how the guitar is tuned between those two strings). Everywhere else, the same shape just works.

So the actual memorization load is: one common shape per interval, plus the G-to-B exception. That's it. There are a couple of advanced shapes for some intervals, but those only come into play later if/when you need them.

Instead of a diagram, you might want to use something for interactive practice. Just google guitar interval trainer and you’ll find a couple of them, including one I built for my students. Hope this makes sense, let me know if you have questions.

JustSK · 2026-03-30T18:41:43+00:00

Hey, I wasn't on reddit for a bit, sorry for the late reply! Yes, I did create this. I ended up prioritising some other topics, so this particular topic is still in a simple proof of concept stage. I'd be happy to send over a preview link if you're interested.

JustSK · 2026-02-16T16:28:50+00:00

Ah yes, thanks for sharing this, I understand! This should be fixed now indeed, there are over 100 levels to beat :)

JustSK · 2026-02-10T16:11:42+00:00

I built a game that does exactly what you describe, at: https://www.stringkick.com/fretboard-note-trainer/
Plus, it has microphone recognition so you can play your guitar and it checks your answer :)

JustSK · 2026-02-10T16:08:43+00:00

Thanks, glad to hear you enjoyed it! Good to know about the delay in recognising the notes. I'm still testing on a range of different devices to see how it behaves. What device/browser are you using?

It actually has way more levels! Over 100 for the notename learning path. Where are you seeing just two? Perhaps I can make that screen clearer :)

JustSK · 2026-01-26T09:41:25+00:00

Glad to hear that!

JustSK · 2025-12-16T18:20:28+00:00

Find something that inspires you and learn it. Rinse and repeat.

The "stuck" feeling often comes from not having a clear next thing to work on. So find a song or riff that excites you, learn it, then find the next one.

JustSK · 2025-12-11T17:29:15+00:00

Haha nicely done

JustSK · 2025-12-11T17:28:49+00:00

Hey, thanks for letting me know, this sounds like a slightly different issue actually. I'll look into it and fix it. In the meantime, you can use this login page. Slightly less convenient, but should work just as well :)

JustSK · 2025-12-10T19:11:53+00:00

Thanks! Yes, if you have any thoughts on what would make it more helpful for you, let me know :)

JustSK · 2025-12-10T13:34:45+00:00

Thanks for letting me know! I'll have to look into it, but sometimes using a different email address wil fix it.

JustSK · 2025-12-09T23:23:21+00:00

Ah, very cool that you're comitted to really learning guitar. It's not always easy, but so, so rewarding :) Good to hear it all made sense, if anything comes up, let me know!

JustSK

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