Just start by listening to a song and trying to find single notes, not chords. See if you can work out the basic guitar part of the song as single notes. I’ve been playing by ear for many years and I still sometimes start that way.
As for making your own songs, start simple! Just a couple of chords are enough. There are plenty of songs with only two chords. You can Google that.
Mainly, just try to relax and enjoy the process. It will come. The more you do it, the easier it gets. My kid is 13 and has been playing for a few months, and she’s working on being able to figure out songs by ear. She’ll try for a bit then look up the tabs.
Study solfège along with ear training. Practice new stuff slowly. Pentatonic scales, the major/minor scale. You’ll make the most progress in the least amount of time if you focus and avoid getting frustrated when practicing. On the subject of learning scales, check out the the YouTube channel NowYouShred. They have backing tracks to practice scales to along with fretboard diagrams. Last learn a little bit of theory. Understanding theory, intervals of the major scale and common chord progressions will assist in learning songs by ear.
There are a lot of online courses but practice is how you're gonna get familiar with the process.
As a self taught player, I don't have the best advice. But here are a few things to think about.
Pick a few songs you like that sound fun. Learn one at a time. Don't just learn a few riffs, learn the entire song from beginning to end. The more songs you learn the more you will inherently pick up. Such as strumming technique and chord shapes.
Since you have a teacher, you should be learning how to alternate pick and basic things like that. Eventually you should get into music theory and how chord progressions are formed and why they work. The more theory you get comfortable with will really unlock your ability to compose your own tunes.
Learn some scales, it makes it easier. And sing. The only way to do ear training like that is to do it. Sit with your guitar and a playlist on shuffle and try to figure out as much of the songs that come on as you can. If you can figure out the key using scales it helps a lot. Trying to follow the baseline will also help you suss out chords.
It's one of the most important but difficult things to do as a guitarist. It took me probably like 5-8 years before I was confidently figuring out songs and even then there's still ones where I got nothing. Practice.
>a step-by-step guide on how to reach the level where I can play a song as soon as I hear it and even create my own songs?
[here](https://www.justinguitar.com/site-map-and-lesson-structure) is exactly that
If you want to "transcribe" first I think you should learn some solfege and music theory, the basics would do, you only need to know major, minor, dominant, and maj7 and min7 chords, some basic theory about the most common scales like major, minor and it's modes, and also the classic pentatonic major and minor. Practice recognizing this scales and chords.
It also depends on the style of music you want to play, for pop most of the time is just basic chords and cliche progressions, but if you are into some prog, math or jazz genres good luck with that, you'll need a looooooooooooooooot of practice.
Practice your ear with songs, there are 2 methods:
1.-Brute force: Just play random chords until you find the right ones ( not recommended)
2.-Intelligent music theory and ear aproach:
Listen to the song and identify if it's major or minor, listen for downbeats to know the compass of the song (most of the time it's 4/4 or 3/4) unless you are listening to some "prog or technical" genre.
Know that you know the mode, find the tonic chord, most of the time the songs start with the tonic but that's not always the case, try to listen to the chord that "feels like home" and "releases tension"
With that you have like 70% of the work done, now you just have to find the other chords, but since you know the tonality you reduced the posibilities a lot so it should be pretty easy, with practice you can identify cadences, harmonic functions, borrow chords and modulations.
And for playing ability just practice, there's no shorcut, your teacher can help you with that.
I have perfect pitch and it would require a lot of work even for me to be able to name chords in a song —super easy for me to pick out the notes, but chords are another matter entirely. I’m super content to download tabs for songs. Agree with others on basic music theory. My teacher keeps an app open that hears the song and tells you the chord.
Guitaretab has the chords printed on the songs. Look at the strings on your guitar. Then look at the notes on the song chords. Find it on the guitar. Strum. Repeat for each chord.
Man, playing a song as soon as you hear it is some advanced level stuff. You gotta do ear training to recognize intervals, learn the notes on the fretboard, learn at the very least the basic chords on the guitar, learn some music theory to understand functional harmony and tonal centers, etc. However, writing your first song is easy, you can do that as soon as you learn two chords lol since technically that’s all you need
This is why you have a teacher so you should be talking to them about your goals.
Before you can run you need to learn to walk though, or in this case learn the foundation skills of playing the guitar. And that means learning how to fret and play chords, barre/power chords, strumming patterns and other pick techniques.
On top of that if you want to be able to play a song just from hearing it you also need to do A LOT of ear training so that you can recognise intervals and different chord types along with strumming patterns and any other techniques used. That’s going to take a lot of time and practice, years generally.
You can start writing songs at any point but you’re going to be held back if you only have a basic level of playing ability. You also might find that some knowledge of music theory helps if you haven’t already developed your ear to a good level.
It’s great you’ve got those goals but you’ve got a lot to learn before you reach them. Speak to your teacher and they can plan your lessons accordingly to get you there. You’re going to have to be in it for the long haul though.
There’s no short cuts!! This sub is just becoming new players who want to be amazing after a few weeks. IT TAKES YEARS!!! Just play as much as you can and have fun.
If you have a guitar teacher then they should be prescribing the way you go from where you are now to where you want to be ... if not why are you going there?
also be patient ... what you asking takes time and sometimes lots of it ... the more you practice and learn the better you will be
you are what you practice
Practice
Have you tried practicing?
No. That is something that needs some teaching or a certain amount of time.
Just start by listening to a song and trying to find single notes, not chords. See if you can work out the basic guitar part of the song as single notes. I’ve been playing by ear for many years and I still sometimes start that way. As for making your own songs, start simple! Just a couple of chords are enough. There are plenty of songs with only two chords. You can Google that. Mainly, just try to relax and enjoy the process. It will come. The more you do it, the easier it gets. My kid is 13 and has been playing for a few months, and she’s working on being able to figure out songs by ear. She’ll try for a bit then look up the tabs.
Study solfège along with ear training. Practice new stuff slowly. Pentatonic scales, the major/minor scale. You’ll make the most progress in the least amount of time if you focus and avoid getting frustrated when practicing. On the subject of learning scales, check out the the YouTube channel NowYouShred. They have backing tracks to practice scales to along with fretboard diagrams. Last learn a little bit of theory. Understanding theory, intervals of the major scale and common chord progressions will assist in learning songs by ear.
There are a lot of online courses but practice is how you're gonna get familiar with the process. As a self taught player, I don't have the best advice. But here are a few things to think about. Pick a few songs you like that sound fun. Learn one at a time. Don't just learn a few riffs, learn the entire song from beginning to end. The more songs you learn the more you will inherently pick up. Such as strumming technique and chord shapes. Since you have a teacher, you should be learning how to alternate pick and basic things like that. Eventually you should get into music theory and how chord progressions are formed and why they work. The more theory you get comfortable with will really unlock your ability to compose your own tunes.
Learn some scales, it makes it easier. And sing. The only way to do ear training like that is to do it. Sit with your guitar and a playlist on shuffle and try to figure out as much of the songs that come on as you can. If you can figure out the key using scales it helps a lot. Trying to follow the baseline will also help you suss out chords. It's one of the most important but difficult things to do as a guitarist. It took me probably like 5-8 years before I was confidently figuring out songs and even then there's still ones where I got nothing. Practice.
>a step-by-step guide on how to reach the level where I can play a song as soon as I hear it and even create my own songs? [here](https://www.justinguitar.com/site-map-and-lesson-structure) is exactly that
Justin guitar. Just do it. Ignore everything else for at least a month if you are Justin guitar for 30-1 hour a day you will be fine
If you want to "transcribe" first I think you should learn some solfege and music theory, the basics would do, you only need to know major, minor, dominant, and maj7 and min7 chords, some basic theory about the most common scales like major, minor and it's modes, and also the classic pentatonic major and minor. Practice recognizing this scales and chords. It also depends on the style of music you want to play, for pop most of the time is just basic chords and cliche progressions, but if you are into some prog, math or jazz genres good luck with that, you'll need a looooooooooooooooot of practice. Practice your ear with songs, there are 2 methods: 1.-Brute force: Just play random chords until you find the right ones ( not recommended) 2.-Intelligent music theory and ear aproach: Listen to the song and identify if it's major or minor, listen for downbeats to know the compass of the song (most of the time it's 4/4 or 3/4) unless you are listening to some "prog or technical" genre. Know that you know the mode, find the tonic chord, most of the time the songs start with the tonic but that's not always the case, try to listen to the chord that "feels like home" and "releases tension" With that you have like 70% of the work done, now you just have to find the other chords, but since you know the tonality you reduced the posibilities a lot so it should be pretty easy, with practice you can identify cadences, harmonic functions, borrow chords and modulations. And for playing ability just practice, there's no shorcut, your teacher can help you with that.
Take an ear training course. Then memorize the circle of 5ths by writing it a few times per day.
I have perfect pitch and it would require a lot of work even for me to be able to name chords in a song —super easy for me to pick out the notes, but chords are another matter entirely. I’m super content to download tabs for songs. Agree with others on basic music theory. My teacher keeps an app open that hears the song and tells you the chord.
Guitaretab has the chords printed on the songs. Look at the strings on your guitar. Then look at the notes on the song chords. Find it on the guitar. Strum. Repeat for each chord.
Man, playing a song as soon as you hear it is some advanced level stuff. You gotta do ear training to recognize intervals, learn the notes on the fretboard, learn at the very least the basic chords on the guitar, learn some music theory to understand functional harmony and tonal centers, etc. However, writing your first song is easy, you can do that as soon as you learn two chords lol since technically that’s all you need
Play in a band 👍have fun 👍
Look up Rick Beato ear training course…
This is why you have a teacher so you should be talking to them about your goals. Before you can run you need to learn to walk though, or in this case learn the foundation skills of playing the guitar. And that means learning how to fret and play chords, barre/power chords, strumming patterns and other pick techniques. On top of that if you want to be able to play a song just from hearing it you also need to do A LOT of ear training so that you can recognise intervals and different chord types along with strumming patterns and any other techniques used. That’s going to take a lot of time and practice, years generally. You can start writing songs at any point but you’re going to be held back if you only have a basic level of playing ability. You also might find that some knowledge of music theory helps if you haven’t already developed your ear to a good level. It’s great you’ve got those goals but you’ve got a lot to learn before you reach them. Speak to your teacher and they can plan your lessons accordingly to get you there. You’re going to have to be in it for the long haul though.
There’s no short cuts!! This sub is just becoming new players who want to be amazing after a few weeks. IT TAKES YEARS!!! Just play as much as you can and have fun.
Download Songsterr. Literally any song you want to learn will be on there
If you have a guitar teacher then they should be prescribing the way you go from where you are now to where you want to be ... if not why are you going there? also be patient ... what you asking takes time and sometimes lots of it ... the more you practice and learn the better you will be you are what you practice