JFRocks Ear Training 101 Problem page                                                     Copyright © 2005-2006 JFRocks

This page contains no tabs.  This is a page that contains an Audio lesson in wma format that contains a riff or solo for you to try to figure out using the tips that Jeff gives you as a guideline.  If this is an older problem and already has an answer page there will be no opportunity for you to submit a tab of how you think this problem is played.  If however it is a new problem and has no answer posted as of yet you will be able to anonymously submit a tab of how you think Jeff is playing the problem.  Be warned these are designed to help your ear and are designed to fool you most of the time.  Please don't cheat and do the answers too fast if they are available.  You are only depriving yourself of a great learning opportunity if you do that. 

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Be sure to listen to the whole audio file.  The answer to this problem will have a video and detailed lesson.

Audio

Contains the problem riff or solo to be figured out

Think you know how this problem riff or solo is played ? Or even what effects may or may not have been used.

Problem Tips: 

This is a very common thing you will run into when figuring out a song or chord pattern in general.  "How and where is the player playing these chords or chord riff?" 

What I'm going to do here is give you a problem of chords and a single note pattern that you will need to figure out but also MEMORIZE what the chords sound like.  Some of the chords will be in the open position and some will be bar chord type.  You will need to listen to the chord each type has its own sound to it and this is part of the key to figuring out where and what position songs are played in.  It's not an exact science but it is a key tool in your arsenal of knowledge when figuring out songs.  DO NOT just listen to the chords and say oh that's an E or that's a C# but rather listen to each individual note being strummed and try to determine where it is.  A C bar chord contains a different note configuration than an open position C chord does.  You might hear the 8th fret 1st string in there.  Well hearing that would be a tip off that it's probably not the open position C chord you are going for. 

There is a deductive process at play here.  An example of what I mean by deduction is, "Well this note is there so it can't be this chord it must be this chord." 

Over time you'll realize this and you will listen to a song and know what the chords are roughly right off the bat based on what you've heard before.  This is what I mean about mindlessly learning covers.  Most of us know enough covers already to have a base knowledge of what certain chords sound like to be able to figure them out on our own.  Sadly people spend more time playing covers and not enough time analyzing them or learning from them as I was forced to do as a kid figuring them out on my own through trial and error. 

Here's a basic example, most of us know the first chord hit in Panama from VH is the E chord in the 7th position of the fret board.  Well I know that he has a flat tuning when he does that.  I also know that I remember what that chord sounds like so when I hear it in other songs I know what the chord is.  Make a mental imprint of what these chords sound like on the guitar. 

Rule number 1 for figuring out chord patterns like the one I will give you in this week's problem is to follow the root notes first.  Basically play bass on your guitar on the 6th string only or the 5th and 6th string and find the root notes of all the chords.  Just find the chord pattern.  Then once you know the chord pattern i.e. D G B are the root notes.  Then go back and figure out what those chords are and where they are being done on the fret board.  Is it a D in the open position or is it a bar chord?  Is the B a B minor instead of a major and where is that on the fret board.  (These are not the chords for this weeks example by the way.)  lol

One thing you can do to help yourself is go around with your guitar and hit a bunch of chords and remember what they sound like.  Hit the E in the open position and the D in the open position and then hit the E and the D bar chords higher up the fret board.  Try to notice the difference in sound that each of those have.  It will be very important for you to know this and have this skill, and part of my task here will be to make sure that you can do it. 

Sometimes weird chords happen in songs.  A suspended 2nd or D suspended 4th or A7 or some stuff like that.  Same rule applies with these chords.  Know what they sound like.  Take a lesson from songs you know.  Most of you know that Panama or Unchained from VH starts with a major chord to a suspended 4th chord.  Know what that sounds like when it happens.  And know what it sounds like at all speeds.  You do this by playing them yourself and listening to what you're playing.  Rock music in general and Blues too on some level really repeats a lot of stuff.  If you can spot the patterns in Rock music there isn't much riff wise that you can't figure out.  Solos are another story but we'll cover that later.  There are some tricks of the trade there as well.  

This week's lesson is still skill level 1.  Very easy but it's very very important that you know what these chords sound like.  Most of you will NOT get this right.  I know that and I expect that and you should not let that discourage you in any way. 

However, if you get a couple of them right or parts of this week's problem right then you're all set.  Because you can learn why you got the ones you got wrong and build on that.  We will of course have a detailed lesson for all of this when the answer for this problem goes up.  If it is already up, please don't cheat.  This is a great chance for you to learn your own songs and learn a lot about the guitar in the process. 

I've been asked via email why is learning songs yourself so important?  Why not have the tabs just there for you to give you the answer and have you play things exact?  My answer is below for all who are interested.

As I said on the intro video for Ear Training the skill of learning songs by ear is a lost art thanks to too many tabs available these days.  Sadly that skill of learning songs by ear is one of the key learning tools for not only developing a style of your own on the guitar but also through all the trial and error involved it's about learning how to create on the guitar and innovate and take it in a new direction. 

This very same learning process is where guys like V.H. and Hendrix and SRV, Clapton and Page and Jeff Beck, developed their styles and learned what they know about the fret board, the list goes on and includes, Vai and Satch and Nuno and Vito, etc.  Learning songs on your own forces you to try things and experiment and see what works, and more importantly what does not work. 

There is a huge difference between playing guitar being a guitarist.  A guitarists not only understand what he's playing but can write it or something similar if he had to and also expand on it a.k.a. embellish on something. 

This ear training page is something I'm taking very seriously and if used properly it should help a great deal of people become guitarists instead of just guitar players.  Which in the end is my ultimate goal with JFRocks.com and all of my CD ROMs.  Improving your ear is very important to writing music of your own and riffs as well as I will talk about on the video lesson for this answer.