Does anyone play completly by ear?

[VoodooChile]

I've been playing for about 2 years and for the last year or so I've given up conventional guitar methods and have improved drastically. I began guitar by learning scales and a lot of acoustic and electric styles of all the "great" guitarist. After a while I started to pick up on styles by listening and then emulate them with my guitar. With that I learned to play in virtually every style from blues to african percussion to bluegrass. I mainly just sit around with friends listening and smoke/jam. Through this I developed speed on the acoustic atleast as fast as Tim, I'm fairly comfident... Eventually I started to leave all the guys I played with in the dust. Anyway, just wondering is anyone else plays by ear and plays only that which they feel?

[juineaux]

I never learned all that much from scales and patterns and I eventually gave up on them as well, instead just listening to cds and jamming. I got pretty fast, and I would freely improvise songs with a band. I eventaully(about a year ago) got tired of the speed challenge though, relizing there would always be someone better than me and it just wasn't fun anymore.

I've actaully gotten worse(technically) at guitar in the last year, but I'm developing my own style, so I'm happy.

[filmdude100cms]

i dont know if your looking for compliments or to bow down in your greatness or neither. but i usually take from tabs, then add a lot to stuff. also i play how i feel too, if i get into a deep jam it gets really emotional when i play because i just start goin crazy and adding soo much that its very different from the original thing i was doin.

[charliemike]

For most of my playing I've tried to learn songs by ear rather than tabs because tabs get me bogged down so technically that I can't focus on tempo.

But with Dave's stuff, it's damn near impossible if you don't know how to play all Dave's chords

Well, not impossible, but difficult to play accurately. You could play #41 with Am, Bm, Em7, and that variation of "D" (I suppose). Doesn't sound exactly the same but essentially that's what Dave is playing (IMO of course).

[guitardmb]

I dont play entirely by ear but a good deal. Whenever I want to learn a song I will sit down and figure it out by ear, then check it with a tab site. Normally I get pretty close.

[freshead16]

i do most of my soloing by ear now. If someone tells me waht key the song is in I just pretend to understand. If i needed to i could figure it out theory wise but i just need to find my starting note and play what sounds right. (improvising) If that makes sense i dont know? ahah.
But most songs that are simple chording are very easy to play by ear. (pop or country) But as far as more complicated songs or more complex songs, like dave songs for example, are harder for me to do. I think it helps tat i played trumpet for so many years.

[i am sam2]

i think its best to know the technical stuff, but not use it to create what you play, but rather to help other people (i.e. telling them what key/time sig./scale/whatever you are playing in).

i play the bass but essentially its the same. when my band jams, no one asks about the key or anything, we just play what sounds good, and if we ask me, we're good at it. but when we have someone come in to jam with us who isnt used to jammin with people by ear or whatnot, like a classically trained pianist(who blows us all away in theory) its good to be able to say "we're in A major" or somethin of the sort

so the moral of the story: its great that you play by ear, but ultimately you should know what youre playing so that you can tell other people. as victor wooten says, music is a language: you can learn to speak it, but if you dont have a big vocabulary(theory) or the ability to communicate it without speaking(playing) it, then youre limited with respect to other musicians/people.

[stoca2]

i suck at guitar

[You_Enjoy_Myself]

i suck at life

[mattinbeloit]

i do most of my soloing by ear now. If someone tells me waht key the song is in I just pretend to understand. If i needed to i could figure it out theory wise but i just need to find my starting note and play what sounds right. (improvising) If that makes sense i dont know? ahah.
But most songs that are simple chording are very easy to play by ear. (pop or country) But as far as more complicated songs or more complex songs, like dave songs for example, are harder for me to do. I think it helps tat i played trumpet for so many years.

that's funny i'll be playing with a band or something just jamming and they tell me shit like what key it is and other stuff and i just pretend to understand them and figure it out by ear, i can so relate to that, haha funny...

[i like tictacs]

i do most of my soloing by ear now. If someone tells me waht key the song is in I just pretend to understand. If i needed to i could figure it out theory wise but i just need to find my starting note and play what sounds right. (improvising) If that makes sense i dont know? ahah.
But most songs that are simple chording are very easy to play by ear. (pop or country) But as far as more complicated songs or more complex songs, like dave songs for example, are harder for me to do. I think it helps tat i played trumpet for so many years.

that's funny i'll be playing with a band or something just jamming and they tell me shit like what key it is and other stuff and i just pretend to understand them and figure it out by ear, i can so relate to that, haha funny...

as much as you like to think you are, you probably aren't

[i am sam2]

i do most of my soloing by ear now. If someone tells me waht key the song is in I just pretend to understand. If i needed to i could figure it out theory wise but i just need to find my starting note and play what sounds right. (improvising) If that makes sense i dont know? ahah.
But most songs that are simple chording are very easy to play by ear. (pop or country) But as far as more complicated songs or more complex songs, like dave songs for example, are harder for me to do. I think it helps tat i played trumpet for so many years.

that's funny i'll be playing with a band or something just jamming and they tell me shit like what key it is and other stuff and i just pretend to understand them and figure it out by ear, i can so relate to that, haha funny...

as much as you like to think you are, you probably aren't

are what? are doing it by ear? yeah i kinda agree...i mean, sure you may say you dont know the theory, and maybe you dont, but it all comes back to theory...is that what youre saying?

[i like tictacs]

i highly doubt he is staying with the right keys and modes over the chord changes just 'by ear'

[i am sam2]

i highly doubt he is staying with the right keys and modes over the chord changes just 'by ear'

oh gotcha....that could be true...although you dont have to change scales for your solo as the chord changes because it can still sound fine...but i see waht youre saying and agree

[NoNotThat]

I dont play entirely by ear but a good deal.