How to Hear Chord Changes by Ear
March 27, 2012 in Blog, Learning Jazz
At Learn Jazz Standards, we promote learning tunes primarily by ear. This can take longer, especially at first, but when you learn tunes this way, you REALLY learn them as you struggle with the harmonies, melodies, and with the memorization of the tune. Reading is a crucial skill for a jazz musician, BUT it must not be used as a crutch to avoid actually learning the tunes. When I’m learning a new jazz song, I MIGHT look at the sheet music to clarify the tune, but I try to rely primarily on my ear.
I didn’t always ascribe to this school of thought. For my first 7 years of playing jazz I ALWAYS used sheet music. I learned tunes-and played tunes-by looking at the sheet music. I was stuck in the Real Book, which is not ideal. I didn’t know any better until a bass player I was working with told me to leave my fakebook at home next time. Later, while attending the Port Townsend Jazz Festival in Port Townsend, Washington (several hours from Seattle) I realized that John Clayton, the artistic director of the camp, promoted learning tunes from the recordings. He even promoted throwing your fakebook away! His brother, Jeff Clayton, didn’t even bring music into his combo rehearsals for his students. He made his students learn the standards by ear.
Something gradually began to switch for me. I began realizing that many of the tunes are basically the same. Sure, they have different titles, the melodies change, and the harmonies have differences, but basically tunes are often very similar to one another. Most of them move in ii-V-Is moving through different keys. Even a complicated tune like Giant Steps is really just a series of ii-V-Is through three different key centers (B Major, G Major, and Eb Major).
I have had dozens of gigs with a guitarist named Bill Courtial, who used to be Vince Guaraldi’s guitar player from 1978-1980. I still play with Bill on a weekly basis. I remember one time Bill wanted me to learn a tune, and I asked him if it was difficult. Bill’s response was that it was “not harder than any other tune.” That simple moment was eye opening for me.
I began to realize that even what we think of as complex tunes are not nearly as difficult to learn and memorize as a Beethoven Sonata, for instance (as long as you know how to play jazz, that is!) Classical pianists have to learn EVERYTHING from memory, and they can’t fudge notes! All we have to do is memorize a sketch and then fill in the blanks. It’s a beautiful thing! If you are really good, you can get the basic jist of a new tune in minutes by ear.
As a piano player (and with guitar as my secondary instrument), the first thing I do when learning a new tune is listen for the harmonies of a tune. I’ll add the melody and practice improvising later, after I know the form and the harmony. I first identify the root of each chord in sequence, and then I fill in the quality of the chord. If the chord quality is not immediately obvious, I experiment at the piano or the guitar until I find the right chord. I use my knowledge of music theory and my ears to learn the harmony. I’ll check it against a page later if the page is available. Sometimes I’ll look at a page first, BUT in general I learn a tune more thoroughly if I try learning it by ear first, and maybe look at a page later for clarification.
When I can find the root note of a chord, but am not sure about the quality of the chord, I’ll use theory and my ears together. For instance, the bII (tritone sub of V) moving to a I chord is usually either a dominant chord or a major 7 chord. When I hear a bII to a I root movement, I sometimes have difficult distinguishing whether the progression is:
Db7—CMaj7—
or
DbMaj7—CMaj7—
I’ll try both out on either piano or guitar, or even just by singing each chord, until I’m reasonably sure that I know the correct chord quality.
Then I’ll keep going with each subsequent chord until I have the framework of the harmony. Most tunes are 32 bars or shorter. Even a really long-form tune in jazz, like Desafinado, are generally fewer than 70 bars long.
Practice
This is Stan Getz classic recording with Charlie Byrd of Desafinado. They begin with a two-chord vamp, followed by the 67 bar form (they cut out a bar at the end to begin the vamp a measure early) at :17. The vamp begins at 1:50 and lasts throughout the solos. They then play the melody again at 4:00 to fade.
First, can you hear the two-chord vamp? The bassist, Keter Betts, generally starts on the 5th of each chord and then plays the root next. After you’ve established what key we are in, can you hear the changes for the AABA form of the tune? The vamp is easier to hear, for sure, although keep in mind that the first note the bass player plays is NOT the root of the first chord. Rather, it’s the 5th. The second note of the song is the root of the first chord, and is also the name of the key of the tune. Go from there.
Summary
To learn a tune by ear, I suggest the following three-step process:
- Learn the harmony by ear/form (number of bars)
- Learn the melody by ear
- Practice improvising over the changes
When you are learning the harmony, Step 1 of learning a tune by ear, I recommend this three-step process:
- Find the root of a chord
- Use your ears and music theory to fill in the quality of the chord
- Move on to the next chord
You can write down the progression as you go if that’s helpful to you. Check it against a fakebook later if you must, BUT remember that fakebooks are not always correct. Always check the fakebook against recordings. When in doubt, go with the recordings unless you have a specific reason or reharmonization you are going for.
This method of learning apples the concept of transcribing. Transcribing doesn’t have to be just solos; you can transcribe to learn tunes as well! You can read the article If You Ain’t Stealin’, You Ain’t Tryin’ for more information on transcribing.
How do you learn new tunes? We welcome your comments!
I liked this article but what bothers me sometimes is my sight reading skills, Im currently studying jazz and when we get the songs to learn I’d rather just look up a good recording and learn the song by ear. What I’m trying say is I was wondering if you can give some tips on sight reading as well, just speeding up my sight reading. PS My primary instrument is the guitar and my second is the piano.
Jc,
As a fellow guitarist I can feel your pain. I’m not going to claim to be a masterful sight reader but I believe I have some good help to give you. There really is not a magical easy method or answer to becoming a great sight reader, really the cure is just simply doing it everyday religiously.
I studied with the great guitarist Vic Juris for a while and he would give me lots of music to read and it was frustrating. Why? Because the guitar is not an easy instrument to learn how to read on and takes more work than many other instruments. This is because of the way our strings are tuned to each other, the fact that you can play one note in many different places on the guitar, finger positions…the list goes on and on. But Vic was adamant about the fact that it was just something you had to do consistently to improve.
Vic recommends checking out the Bach Violin Sonata’s book. Ive worked with some of them, its good stuff.
I also have taken some classes with John Patitucci and he talked about his buddy guitarist Carl Verheyen when he was a studio cat in LA. Apparently Carl was a fairly poor reader but one day just decided he wanted to change that. So he would go out to the beach everyday and read for hours and hours. I believe this went on for years. If you know anything about Carl Verheyen he’s one of the top call studio guitarist out there now.
I think the point is you just have to put in the work to get it done. Trust me reading isn’t my favorite bag either, but true practicing is working on the things we need to get better at not what we are already good at
-Brent
Hey I just discovered this website today and it’s great! I was just wondering one thing, when listening for the harmony of the tune do you focus more on what the bass is playing or what the comping instrument is playing? I’m a piano player and lately I’ve been learning tunes by playing along with the bass player in my left hand and playing along with the melody in my right hand. I’m thinking that there might be a simpler way to do it than transcribing what the bass plays for the entire head.
Hey Alexander,
Glad you like it, and I’m glad we can be helpful to you! Spread the word!
When I listen for harmony, I listen to both the bass player and the comp (guitar or piano). Piano is my main instrument, but I play jazz guitar as well, which is helpful for understanding harmony from both perspectives. (Incidentally, transcribing exact comp voicings on guitar is easier than on piano because with guitar you have fewer options to try out, and you are limited by the layout of the fretboard, which actually makes things easier, in my experience).
When I’m listening for changes, I don’t transcribe the entire bass line or the comp. I listen for the roots of the chord, and then I figure out the quality. It’s good to transcribe bass lines and comp every now and again to help your bass lines and comping, but that’s unnecessary if all you need is the changes. You just need roots, chord qualities, and where each chord fits into the form of the tune.
Generally, chords change every 2 bars, every bar, or twice per bar. In general, bass players will play the root on the exact beat of the chord change, ALTHOUGH THIS IS CERTAINLY NOT AT ALWAYS THE CASE. This is a guideline that will help you, but you also must know that great bass players don’t always play roots where you think they are going to be. Sometimes the bass player will play another chord tone or even something else entire instead of the root when the chord changes. However, the roots come on the downbeat of the chord change more often than not.
Something to be aware of also is that sometimes the bass player might actually be playing different changes than the piano player or guitar player. We think of harmony as being very coherent, but it isn’t always that way in improvised music. The bassist and comp instruments don’t always agree, and sometimes musicians play different changes from chorus to chorus. These are subtle things that the Real Book isn’t going to show you. Harmony isn’t a static thing, and you have different options for the changes on MANY standards. Great players often change the harmony in subtle ways from chorus to chorus.
Anyway, here’s what I’m trying to promote: To determine the root of the chord, listen for the bass player, and figure out where the root is. It will often be on beat one or beat three, depending on when the chord changes. For the quality (major, minor, diminished, etc.) of the chord, listen to the comp instrument. If you aren’t sure of the quality, hum a couple of choice or play it on your instrument and see which fits better. For instance, sometimes if the progression is a tritone sub of C7 to FMaj7, it could either be Gb7 FMaj7 or GbMaj7 FMaj7. It’s hard to tell sometimes, but if you listen carefully and try out both options, that often will help.
I use a combination of my ear and music theory to figure out chord changes. Theory helps me to think of potential possibilities, and my ear helps determine which possibility is actually correct. I use my ear primarily, and if I need clarification, music theory kicks in to give me options to try out. Anyway, I hope this helps!
Definitely helps, thanks!