Re: [Harp-L] singing ability

[Michelle LeFree <mlefree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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