Advanced Guitar Player

Welcome to Perfect Your Pitch - Advanced Guitar Player's Free Online Ear Training and Sight Reading Course For Guitarists.

Perfect Your Pitch is my humble contribution to improving your Aural and Pitch Recognotion Skills - I really believe that by improving your Musical Ear, you'll become a better improviser, songwriter or guitarist.

In short, improving your ability to hear music and learning to distinguish pitches and scale degrees, will simply make you a better musician!

Why Have I Created An Ear Training Course For Guitarists?

The reasons why I've created the Guitar Ear Training and Sight Reading Course are firstly because a lot of people study on their own these days and if you don't have a teacher it's really difficult to know whether you're getting the notes right or not - having everything programmed as a Guitar Pro Tab File means that you can read the score and listen to it at the same time if you want.

Secondly, every class I've ever had on ear training and sight reading has been taught to me by a piano player - great musicians but they just think differently from us guitarists.

One of the ways I get to transcribe music when I'm sitting on a bus or underground train is by picturing the guitar fretboard in my head.

I listen to the music, sing it myself, work out what the notes are and then picture it on the fretboard - by the time I get to the rehearsal or gig I've pretty much learnt it.

I firmly believe that reading, singing and picturing the guitar fretboard at the same time is the way to go for guitar players.

How Does The Perfect Your Pitch Course Work?

This first instalment of Perfect Your Pitch - Guitar Ear Training concentrates on the Seven Degrees of of the Major Scale in C Major - so the first degree is C, the second is D, the third is E, the fourth F, fifth G, sixth A, seventh B and the octave or eighth degree of the scale is C. 

All the accompanying guitar tab files are available in Guitar Pro 6 format from the Downloads Link in the Top Navigation Bar.

So the first thing to do is to download the tabs - they've been programmed in Guitar Pro 6 so that's the programme they'll work perfectlyin but many other tab editors are capable of reading Guitar Pro files, so you're free to use the programme of your choice.

I will also be making the the Ear Training Exercises available as PDF files so you should download these as well - or alternatively, you can make each exercise into a PDF from Guitar Pro 6 itself.

Click here to visit the Guitar Pro download page.

Once you've got the tab file and the hard copy you can get started, but remember that if you're starting from zero even a Beginners Level Ear Training Course like this will require at least a couple of months hard work.

The lessons work progressively through the degrees of the C Major Scale beginning with C and E - the first and third degrees of the scale.

So in the first lesson you should read the music and look at the tab, use your mouse's right button to select a section of one, two or four bars depending on how difficult the melody looks - the first exercises are very very simple so don't worry!

Next play the tab file, listen it and follow the music as it's playing . . . now we're ready to start singing!

Use the Solfege System to Sing Along with the Tabs!

The Solfege System is used in most European countries to sing and understand sheet music - you might see it written as Solfeggio from the Italian, and it's Solfeo in Spanish and Solfeig in Catalan . . . but the important thing is that it's a standard system for interpreting written music where :-

C=Doh , D=Re , E=Mi , F=Fa , G=Sol , A=La , B=Si (or Ti)

And that brings us back to Doh, Doh, Doh!

Yes, these are the terms used in the famous song 'Doe A Deer' sung by Julie Andrews in the 1960s Rogers and Hammerstein musical 'The Sound of Music" - and even if you're a rock, punk or indie guitar and you hate the film this terminology is EXTREMELY USEFUL, so bear with me!

Once you've got the simple melody clearly fixed in your head, sing along with the track using Doh for C, Mi for E, Sol for G etc.

I also think it's a great idea to play along with your guitar.

After a bit of practice you should be able to sing a whole page of ear training practice exercises without having to listen to either the track or your guitar.

It's also very important to print out a PDF of the guitar tabs/sheet music so that you have a hard copy to refer to. This means that you can run through the excises without referring to your instrument.

Remember the only way to train your ear and develop aural skills is through PRACTICE . . .  PRACTICE . . . PRACTICE!

Believe me, if you work at it, an almost magical moment will come . . . where you can just pick up a simple piece of music and be able to sing it without having your guitar at hand and similarly, you'll start hearing simple pop and rock tunes and be able to write them down . . . you'll do the same with song ideas, so you'll never find yourself in the frustrating situation of forgetting that brilliant idea you had before you get to the rehearsal!

What Else Can I Do To Develop My Aural Skills?

Well, I've just set up a section on the Advanced Guitar Player Forum devoted Guitar Ear Training, so you should definitely pop in and ask any relevant questions . . . I'd also be really grateful for your comments and feedback so that I can work on improving Perfect Your Pitch!

I'll also be creating a section in the Advanced Guitar Player Link Directory dedicated to Online Ear Training Resources including software. My own personal recommendation is Ear Master - You can download the free Ear Master trial here, by the way! - although for Beginners, I think Ear Training software can often create more problems than it solves because it offers you too much information too quickly.

The idea between Perfect Your Pitch - Ear Training and Sight Reading For Guitarists is that it develops your Aural Skills progressively.

I really hope you find it useful!!!!