Originally Posted By: MarioD
My honest opinion is that a lot of this is BS!

One thing that caught my ear is the music education hasn't changed in over a century. Again BS! Look at all of the teaching aids around today. Many more instruction books, videos and Internet sources. Also some of the chord structure today is a lot different, in other words more complicated, than it was in the early 1900s.

Maybe someone with an extremely good ear could play the example he showed but the average guy probably not. Also with out some music theory they wouldn't know about inversions.

Many self-taught play by ear musicians do not have the proper techniques. I have seen this many times.

Every non-reading musician that I personally knew in the 60s no longer plays and hasn't played in a long long time. Everyone that could read is still playing. I should clarify that by saying every keyboardist, guitarist and a few horn players are still playing as many band musicians stop after high school or college.

Get a good instructor and practice, practice and practice. There are no short cuts. You must really want to play to put in the time to be a good musician.

A good instructor will teach the proper techniques, throw in theory, aim your lesson to your needs and what you want to play and teach you to improvise/jam.

Jim's method to play by ear is the best method. Today you have tools that slow the tempo but keep the pitch the same. We didn't have that or the tabs back in my day. I ruined a lot of my albums by listening to a short section of the song, picking up the needle, try to copy it, try to put the needle down in the exact spot and repeat. Scratch city!

My opinion is that a good musician can play, a better one can read and the best can read and improvise (play by ear) and to improvise they need to know some theory. I know that there are a few exceptions to the rule but not many. YMMV


While I admit I was trying to be funny (as in ha ha funny) in my response I really believe you just can't beat practice. You need to practice listening as well as practice doing. Like Mario, I ruined many records as I learned songs. One trick use to be playing a 45 rpm at 33 1/3 rpm to memorize a riff or licks then change back to regular speed to practice.

Learning some music theory helps understand what you're hearing or trying to play. I agree with Mario that it is best to find a good teacher to help guide you through your musical journey but sometimes that is easier said than done. I can say that, from what little I know from the forum, I believe I would enjoy having Mario as a teacher and am sure his students consider themselves lucky.

Jim Fogle - 2025 BiaB (Build 1128) RB (Build 5) - Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk Sonar - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home