{"id":1483,"date":"2011-03-09T05:00:18","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T13:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hearandplay.com\/main\/?p=1483"},"modified":"2014-07-10T07:20:38","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T15:20:38","slug":"my-advice-to-a-student-about-learning-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hearplaymain.wpenginepowered.com\/my-advice-to-a-student-about-learning-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"My Advice To A Student About Learning Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After yesterday&#8217;s post, I received an awesome comment from Chris Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>I quickly replied and after re-reading our exchange, thought it appropriate to share with you.<\/p>\n<p>Chris wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Well you\u2019ve done it again Jermaine. You know how close I am to my goals! I pretty much do all of this already but I still struggle at times and I always struggle with the bass.<\/p>\n<p>I have all of these skills under my belt except for picking out those darn bass notes!<\/p>\n<p>I think I\u2019m still trying to do it all in 10 minutes\u2026 Trying to do it too fast ya know.<\/p>\n<p>When I get home tonight, I\u2019ll pick a song and really bare down on the bass because I know this is where I get lost.<\/p>\n<p>Example: I\u2019ll pick a few out and then I\u2019ll get lost somewhere along the line and that\u2019s usually the end of my personal training as far as understand a song in full. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>But I just gotta stick with it like I did with everything else. I\u2019m so close\u2026 so close\u2026.. But I\u2019ll get there. You know I\u2019m not giving up, not at this point!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>My reply to him:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Thanks for your comment Chris.<\/p>\n<p>The cool thing about it is the more you pick out songs, the bigger repertoire of patterns you build. The same <a href=\"https:\/\/my.leadpages.net\/leadbox\/141e8f273f72a2%3A14dcc288eb46dc\/5650082896543744\/\" target=\"_blank\">patterns<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/my.leadpages.net\/leadbox-714.js\"><\/script> are going on over and over.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not a random picking of bass notes. Once you\u2019ve found your key, you\u2019re down to 7 notes that will most likely occur. That\u2019s not to say others won\u2019t because we use bass notes outside the scale to take us to various places. If a chord outside the scale is present, you\u2019ll hear it\u2026 like the b7 or the b6. Those are borrowed chords.<\/p>\n<p>Also don\u2019t forget about the <a href=\"https:\/\/my.leadpages.net\/leadbox\/141e8f273f72a2%3A14dcc288eb46dc\/5650082896543744\/\" target=\"_blank\">circle of fifths<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/my.leadpages.net\/leadbox-714.js\"><\/script>. Majority of movements will be to next door neighbors on that circle of fifths chart. Search for \u201ccircle of fifths\u201d in the search bar above for more pointers. If you remember this order of notes, you\u2019ll find more often than not, your bass moving in this direction (there are exceptions as there are with anything in life):<\/p>\n<p>C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb B E A D G C<\/p>\n<p>And if the bass isn\u2019t moving like that, it\u2019s moving relatively close\u2026 from one tone of the scale to the next tone of the scale up or down\u2026 maybe leaping over a note or two at most (if not moving in circle of fifths flow).<\/p>\n<p>Use your ear to hear up &#8212;or&#8212; down. Ask this ONE question first:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEAR, did the bass go up or down?\u201d Answer that question internally, then remember what I\u2019ve said about:<\/p>\n<p>-circle of fifths movement<br \/>\n-next door \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/my.leadpages.net\/leadbox\/141e8f273f72a2%3A14dcc288eb46dc\/5650082896543744\/\" target=\"_blank\">scale tone<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"\/\/my.leadpages.net\/leadbox-714.js\"><\/script>\u201d movement<br \/>\n-very close movements (at most, usually 2 notes of scale)<\/p>\n<p>And you\u2019ll be golden. Perfect practice makes perfect. Repetition is the mother of skill. Just keep at it. And retain what you learn because it will most certainly come up again. All songs draw from the same pool of patterns.<\/p>\n<p>After learning a couple dozen songs across different genres (or probably way less), you\u2019ll probably have every chord and progression you\u2019ll ever need.<\/p>\n<p>Keep up the great work Chris,<br \/>\nJG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hearandplay.com\/main\/?attachment_id=1484\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1484\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hearandplay.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/phpyvq22LPM.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"118\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1484\" \/><\/a>After yesterday&#8217;s post, I received an awesome comment from Chris Johnson. I quickly replied and after re-reading our exchange, thought it appropriate to share with you.<\/p>\n<p>Chris wrote:<\/p>\n<p>Well you\u2019ve done it again Jermaine. You know how close I am to my goals! I pretty much do all of this already but I still struggle at times and I always struggle with the bass.<\/p>\n<p>I have all of these skills under my belt except for picking out those darn bass notes&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,20],"tags":[1586,1585,1584,1728,1583,1582],"class_list":["post-1483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-playing-by-ear","category-playing-songs","tag-finding-bass-in-song","tag-picking-out-bass","tag-picking-out-songs","tag-playing-songs","tag-playing-songs-tips","tag-song-playing-tips","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>My Advice To A Student About Learning Songs - Hear and Play Music Learning Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hearplaymain.wpenginepowered.com\/my-advice-to-a-student-about-learning-songs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Advice To A Student About Learning Songs - Hear and Play Music Learning Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After yesterday&#039;s post, I received an awesome comment from Chris Johnson. 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I have all of these skills under my belt except for picking out those darn bass notes...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hearplaymain.wpenginepowered.com\/my-advice-to-a-student-about-learning-songs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hear and Play Music Learning Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-09T13:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-10T15:20:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hear &amp; Play Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hear &amp; Play Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hearplaymain.wpenginepowered.com\\\/my-advice-to-a-student-about-learning-songs\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/hearplaymain.wpenginepowered.com\\\/my-advice-to-a-student-about-learning-songs\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hear &amp; 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