PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic How many of you can take a song you've heard before - with really simple chords in 1 or 2 keys - and

I didn't take the time to read all the former replies.... but some of them looked to be quite in-depth.

So, yes, I can do pretty much what you spoke about. Play a song I've never heard before the first time through without any major problems. I once was invited to set in with a band doing a gig... to "jam" as they put it. I had never heard many of the songs before. At the end of the gig second night, I was hired into the band as the lead guitarist and all around guitarhacker. I've been able to hear the changes coming in a song ever since I was a young child learning to play the piano. This made me pretty popular at church events like picnics and other such places, with my guitar.

Of course, knowing some theory is a valuable asset (thank God for the piano lessons) but probably more so is the natural, innate feel, that this is where the song is going next. In the band example above, the bass player would tell me, for example, that after the chorus there was a "certain different chord" and I'd be waiting for that chord. Not all country is 1-4-5 ya know....

The more fun trick, and I'm sure a lot of folks..... well, maybe at least a few here, can listen to a song you've never heard before and simply by listening to the color and texture of the chords, determine the exact key of the song and all the chords in it. To kick it to a higher level.... yep, that sounds like he's in D with a capo on the 3rd fret. In a different band, that was actually a sort of game we would play. Name that key.

Playing songs easily and correctly without much prior knowledge. Mostly I think this is a skill that can be learned. It comes from doing it over and over on all sorts of songs and styles. As a kid, when I first took up the guitar, I can't tell you the hundreds of hours I spent in my bedroom playing along with the radio. Find the key in the first few chords.... OK now you know what the 1-4-5 chords are now..... play. Pop music 60's top 40...what a variety of music to learn on.

Learning the chords, no matter if its the piano or the guitar..... the ability to instantly place all your fingers on the correct notes with 100% accuracy is crucial to playing in this manner, or any other manner for that matter. I went from forming chords to hitting chords in a matter of days. I decided that I needed to be able to jump straight to the chord and threw caution to the wind and just did it. The first few times were rough, but in a short time, I was amazing myself and the rest, as they say, was history. Now... if I need to learn a new chord... and yes, with well over 5000 potential chords on a guitar neck, I still need to learn new ones from time to time, I have the muscle memory to quickly form and hit those chords. A few tries and it's a done deal.

I hope this kind of answers the questions you were asking. Just do it.

EDIT: Now... if you really want to have fun.... go play with a church orchestra. The one I was in for a time, they called it a band but it was really an orchestra. Horns, reeds, strings.... and many of those instruments were the Bb or Eb variety. For some reason, they don't know how to play in any sort of a sane key like C... or G.... or E and asking them to play by ear????? forget that. They prefer Bb, Eb, Ab, and so on. The sheet music.... yep, they used sheet music for everything, was in those keys and they even put the guitar chord chart at the top of the staff. It totally blew the minds of the other guitar players ( there were several who rotated in and out depending on their teen church band schedule)when they would slap on a capo to play the song.... write out the "real chords" to use, and I would simply play the chords as written on the sheet music. It's all part of being a guitar player.