Re: [Harp-L] singing ability



John Dekker asks:
...My question is this: is the ability to play by ear a natural talent that you either have or you don't, or can the ability be learned, and if so, how? After six months of serious effort, I can play single notes well, and bend them fairly well, but I am getting frustrated by my lack of ability to play anything without having the tabs in front of me.

Any help or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

John

Isn't interesting how different people's talents manifest themselves? I have a lot of trouble transferring tabs into melodies inside my head, but I can play lots of melodies by ear after a couple tries. As a total ear player (well, given sufficient time I can decipher tabs and standard music notation), I have to have a melody "in my head" to be able to play it. For me, getting a melody into my head is pretty easy and that's been my downfall for learning to read tabs better. I have more trouble getting a melody out of my head than getting it in.


So how did I cultivate my ability to play songs on my harmonics by ear? In a word, I whistle. I whistle along nearly with every tune I hear, no matter where it is (within reason). I have gotten myself into trouble from time to time because, for reasons I can't fathom, not everyone within earshot wants to hear my lovely renditions (after a lifetime of whistling like this I have gotten pretty good at it).

The other habit that has contributed to forming my musical ear is the fact that I have some kind of music playing nearly all my waking hours. My iPod is attached to my ear a lot. I have stereos in my living room, my study/music room and my truck and the first thing I do when I enter one of these spaces is turn the "sounds" on.

It couldn't have hurted that I played tuba in school bands for a number of years (several with the now famous jazz guitarist Bill Frisell), though I've long since forgotten anything I learned there.

So, John, since music has been such a large art of my life for so long, I can't say how long it might take for you to develop your ear. But the sooner you start whistling and making music a constant part of your life, the sooner it will happen.

Good luck,

Michelle




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