RE: [Harp-L] singing ability

["steve@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <swebb@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

John... When I first started playing harp, I had little or no ear for 
music and I was 39  years old. I started by playing some really simple 
things, like Mary Had a Little Lamb ... Twinkle, Twinkle, Little 
Star....
To work on hearing better (the music, not the volume), every night when 
I was on the computer I would listen to classic blues music while I was 
doing other t hings.
Then I morphed into learning how to play guitar and bass and found that 
my harp experience helped develop playing by ear, which is all I do. I 
can't play using tabs.
To put it simply, some people are good at playing by ear and some of us 
are not. I have known musicians who can hear  a song once and play it 
pretty well. for me, the more I listen the easier it becomes.
If you can learn the 12 bar blues progression on another instrument, 
that would also help a lot , in my opinion.
But when it all boils down, we all have to figure out what works for US.
Steve Webb in Minnesota (not a good singer, but getting better as a harp 
player and bass player.)


On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 3:39 PM, John Dekker wrote:

> It has been my observation that most good instrumentalists are at 
> least decent singers. That is, they can carry a tune and voice what is 
> in their heads. I suspect that this ability is directly related to 
> being able to play by ear, that is, to play a song after hearing it a 
> few times, without reference to written music or tabs.
>
> In my case, I can't sing a lick, and cannot play anything by ear to 
> save my life. I can play melodies by reading the tabs, but have great 
> difficulty in remembering or memorizing the tabs, and so cannot play 
> the melody of a given song without reading the tabs.
>
> 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