So I started with great hopes and aspirations for October 2013. I was going to participate in the Ultimate Blog Challenge and post a blog everyday of the month. Did I do that? No. Not yet. LOL. It’s the last day and I’m 3 blogs short. By the time I finish this blog, I’ll only need 2 more posts. What shall I write about? What to write? What To WRITE?

I’m open to suggestions on what to write. I Love music. I Love Life. I’ve tried to combine the two. In some cases it worked. In other posts it didn’t quite work. But I will continue to. I’ve got two more posts to go. Wish me luck. Or better yet –  Keep on smiling and take this day as another opportunity to Play It By Ear!

Well I thought they were a relic of the past, but the do exist. Cassette Recorders! Wow! This is what someone used in rehearsal TONIGHT to help them learn to play by ear. It through me for a loop because with the preponderance of smart phones and apps galore, it seemed kinda out of place to have a device like the cassette to record and then playback for the purposes of playing by ear.

The thing to remember is that you have to use the technology that you are comfortable with. I remember when I used CDs AND Cassettes to help me. In fact I used the Tascam Guitar Trainer (pictured below) to help me learn things.

Then I quickly moved onto the Tascam Guitar Trainer MP1 (pic below). This used MP3s and allowed you to slow down the song to be learned without changing the key just like the original guitar trainer.

With the advent of smart phones, it’s even easier to get a song and be able to slow it down to understand what’s happening with the song. I use an app called Audio Speed Changer on my Samsung Android. iOS devices can use Music Speed Changer, which functions in the same manner – It allows you utilize songs in your library and allow you to manipulate the speed as well as the pitch of a particular song

Additionally the advent of the Internet has changed the way that music is viewed. The Internet has made it much easier to get scores, guitar tabs and also brought a great program such as Audacity –  Audacity Link

I think the singularly most significant impact of the Internet on playing by ear is YouTube. It provides a forum for like minded people to chare ideas, to post how to videos and great concert moments. It’s an awesome resource. There are tons of schools that give free YouTube lessons. SoAll you have to do is find the right person to follow and you will be all set. My next question is, it right to use all of this technology to help you to learn or is it not good? You be the judge…. And remember to smile and know that today is another opportunity to Play It By Ear!

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “When Life gives you Lemons, Make Lemonade!” You may say this is so cliche. But I totally believe it. The reason I know that it’s so is because of how Lemonade is made. You take lemons, and you squeeze the juice out of them. Then you add water, and sugar until you are satisfied.

I recently was handed some lemons in my life as it relates to my job. Recently our family went from two cars to one car. There are other situations that I don’t like in my life such as my daughter is away at boarding school and we miss her terribly.

But in all these situations I can still smile and have a positive attitude because of my Faith and also for the friends and family who surround us as well as the love and gift of music in my life. I find myself singing songs of praise and songs of hope.

In all of the happenings around our family, we have been able to spend more time together as a family. It is such a beautiful thing. We have been able to sing together. Just this past weekend we were able to put together a birthday song for one of the kids uncles’ birthday while my daughter was home on leave.

This is my sugar and Water. It’s Sweeeeeeet! And remember it’s OK to smile at your Lemons and continue to Play It By Ear!
PIBE

This will be my shortest blog to date and it simply says – Your attitude goes a long way to learning to play by ear. It’s a mindset if you will. I have heard it said that “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” I have found this to be so true. Your attitude determines who you are and helps to define what you do in life.

If you have a defeatist attitude, you will be defeated. If you have a negative attitude you will have negative experiences all the time. The inverse is also true. If you have a positive attitude about yourself and about life and the things in life, then you will definitely be able to do so much more than you can imagine. Thoughts?

I’m smiling as I think positive. I know that today will be another opportunity to Play It By Ear

I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while. Sometimes when I play people tell me that I’m very talented. And they are right to a certain extent. But I do not think they see the thousands of hours of practice and all the mistakes that I made along the way.

I have had to take whatever “TALENT” I had, and use “HARD WORK” to get where I need I am today. One of the great examples of hard work augmenting talent is seen in the life of Pedro Martinez, RedSox pitcher. He said that he would spend 7 hours everyday working to improve himself. Because he had such a small frame (154 lbs that pitched 97 mph) he had to work that much harder to overcome the pain of pitching. He kept working hard. He kept his goals in mind.

If you don’t work on the talent that you have you will lose even what talent you have. The question is are you ready to work, to do the hard work necessary to achieve your goals? If you do, you will go far. You can overcome, but you have to put in the work…

So my daughter started high school recently and she has already been tasked with helping her classmates in some of their subjects. So I told her that it’s a proven fact that when you teach something to someone else you reinforce that concept in your own mind. Share what you’ve got. You only helps yourself at the same time.

So I decided to take my own advice and share a little bit that I did at a service recently. I apologize for the camera angle, and the quality of the sound as I used the camera on my smart phone.

The beautiful thing about this topic is that everyone has something good that they could share. Sometimes what you have to share is there but you don’t know it.

In music, I was able to learn as much as I did because I shared what I learned with my friends and they shared what they learned with me. So we built a community of common knowledge by learning from each other. In fact we still have “shedding” sessions from time to time where knowledge transfer takes place.

Share It. It’s a beautiful thing! You just might learn something in the process.

In a recent blog post – It’s All In their Bass – The Foundation, I talked about what I thought was a fundamental part of learning to play by ear – Hearing the Bass Line. This practice is not new but was used extensively with Figured Bass back in the Baroque period of music history (circa 1600 – 1750). This can be seen in the works of J. S. Bach and in his contemporaries.

Why do you want to listen to the Bass Line? Well, I think that the bass lines offer a way to map out the structure of the song. But what is it about the Bass Line that is so important? Well it leads to what is called the cadence. Cay-what? Cadence.

According to Wikipedia, cadence is defined as “a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates sense of repose or resolution [finality or pause].” Cadences give music it’s harmonic phrasing and provides points in the music for rests or pauses. In the language of music, cadences are seen to be somewhat like punctuation with the weaker cadences working like commas and the stronger cadences working as periods.

There are four major types of cadences: Authentic, Half, Plagal and Interrupted. They each have their own characteristics and knowing what they look and sound like is important when listening and learning a piece if music.

The Authentic Cadence is the strongest cadence and it usually is the last cadence that is played. (See Pic Above). It usually involves a movement from the 5 (V) chord to the 1 (I) chord. More on that later.

The Half Cadence also called the Imperfect Cadence is any cadence that ends on the 5 (V) chord.

The Plagal Cadence is defined as a Cadence that moves from the 4 (IV) chord to the 1 (I) chord. It’s also called the “Amen” cadence because of the preponderance of its use in Hymn settings.

And finally the Interrupted Cadence rounds out the lineup of cadences. The Interrupted is defined as any cadence from the 5 (V) to any other chord other than 1.

Regardless of the cadence listed, knowing what they are is half the battle. Now all you have to do is Practice Them and you will be all set!

Smile and remember that today is another opportunity to Play It By Ear!
P.I.B.E.