Learning A Song By Ear (And How I Do It)

Thank you for watching :)
- Original music here - cicibass.bandcamp.com
- If you'd like to support the channel further - / cicibass

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

Hi everyone! Update on the gig: Unfortunately we won’t be able to play at SRS next Sunday (18th June) due to ill health with one of the members. But we will be playing on the 1st and 2nd September in Cornwall! :)

[@CarnageNetworkUK]

I hope Rick is doing ok? Be good to listen to what you you bring to them. Tone.

[@toledo2983]

hope they come over to germany soon.

[@jobiazgarza9571]

cici is a skilled communicator as well as a player. plus she is always upbeat and positive. great channel!

[@user-zv7lm8uk7h]

Eyes like the ocean hair like a river cici good video!

[@killer070911]

Very cool!!

[@jveenbaas]

i am at 15 minutes now , and already so impressed by youre ability to pick up and hear the bass line AND remember the song so quickly!

[@proton45]

Its interesting watching someone , as they work a song out. Everyone has a different ear...and yet, in the end, its all music. After a while I found myself just listening to the music. Great song. Great work, thanks for the video. :)

[@KeithCopeland778]

Outstanding! Thank you for sharing your learning process. Your Warwick has the perfect tone for this music!

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

Thank you so much! Thanks for watching as well :)

[@MichaelTeichgraber-ro7mc]

Amazing. Thanks for sharing. Very cool Song.👍🏻

[@adamthirdbourne324]

Thanks for sharing your process.

[@jimatyeo]

Don't worry Cici, we trust you implicitly. After your legendary guess of the string gauge video, you are amazing and nothing you do will ever be in doubt again.Thanks for letting us sit in with you. We will be quiet. :) I felt honored for a short time about your gig date since thats mine and Paul McCartney's birthday. Then saw your notice about the cancellation. Hope that person recovers soon. We all really hope you are dealing with your adversity okay. You at least look like it on your video's, that you are hanging tough. Love the song by the way. Well done!

[@MrChriszz160]

Been waiting for this type of video for ages. Such a delightful insight into your learning process Cici. Absolutely love this! Bass students of mine occasionally ask how we bassists work out songs so quickly for sessions/gigs on the fly, by ear, etc. While there are so many tips and tricks you can only fit into half hour lessons, the best answer & assistance I'm gonna give them now is this video, period. Thank you very kindly 🙂

[@user-xb5oy5tk2j]

Thanks for an interesting look at your process, good luck with the gigs.

[@chrisgunn121]

That was not an easy track by any stretch of the imagination to comprehend but you smashed it out of the park!!! Thank you Cici.......

[@matchesmalone2019]

Thumbs up just for the great thumbnail! Definitely made me click on the video. And it was totally worth it!

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

Thank you so much! I’m really happy to hear that :)

[@basstrap3430]

Fantastic. I started playing bass 12 months ago and have gotten stuck in a rut just learning tabs. So I’ve just started learning by ear but this level is in the stratosphere. Just don’t know how you manage to memorise these unpredictable patterns. Thanks for sharing. Learned a lot from this one.

[@kane6529]

You can write yourself a chart! It’s still learning by ear. That’s what pro musicians do in the studio, the group leader of the session listens to the demo and writes out charts. No one is just going to memorize every change of a complex song after the first run through

[@teresaravenshaw5477]

I almost never learn another's songs. I may riff off tabs and take something down a different route but apart from about four songs, everything I've ever played has been one of my own composition.

[@coveredinsound4079]

very useful and interesting video Cici!

[@rrdee8138]

Another excellent video. Thx hope your having an excellent weekend

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

Thank you so much! I’m really glad you enjoyed it :) have a great weekend!

[@trackerbuckmann1627]

Love this. More lessons, please!

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

I’m really happy to hear that!! Thanks so much :) more on the way! If there’s any you’d like to see specifically feel free to let me know :)

[@MySynthDungeon]

Really Enjoying the path!! Cheers!;-)!

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

Thank you so much! :)

[@MultiCugel]

Add a bit of Mike Oldfield to the "sounds like" too. Interesting to see such skill and talent at work. The band want you because they know who you are and have a great reputation. Hope you can get some film. Enjoy the gig!

[@LilYeshua]

Cool. I found out about you on the andertons. I've done the same thing trying to pickup the bass line in songs. I started playing bass six years ago.

[@AnthonyGoombots]

People who play by ear are much more creative than a school person..

[@CallMeBigWorm]

We have some of the same techniques and approaches to learning songs. You're an awesomely talented musician. Keep up the awesome work 👏 definitely a like and new subscriber here.

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

Ahh brilliant! That’s really interesting to know :) Thank you so much for the kind words and support as well, it really does mean the world!!

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

P.s, I’ve subscribed to you too! Some beautiful music and playing :)

[@CallMeBigWorm]

@Cici Bass thank you very much! I appreciate it. 🙏 I play a little bit of bass myself. But guitar is what I do best. I kinda suck at bass. But I love how you play and sound. You have some really amazing talent 🤘😎✌️ you definitely work hard, and it shows by how great of a musician you are ❤️

[@razzmatazzduck]

This sounds really useful! Im just starting to try to practice my ear so i can play the ideas i have in my head and songs that dont have a tab/ music online. Thanks cici!

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

That’s awesome! It’s a very rewarding and handy thing to learn :) If there’s anything else I can do to help, please let me know and I’ll do my best!

[@mrtn2842]

This is awesome ‼️ When you said - you play ahead in songs … I always sneak up on song then crawl to mid range of song till the end of song , then repeat it , till I turn purple in which I’m in sequence by then .. great vid 👍

[@MrNeilltupman]

Great video Cici, and an interesting topic too. I used to learn completely by ear also, but use tab as a backup now. I defintely sit with a guitar first, and get as far as I can by ear then open up a tutorial or tab if I get stuck (I'm almost always learning covers). Back in the day 😉 when I started, there was no internet and no tab/videos, so i learnt songs by stopping and starting a cassette player - talk about long winded! My biggest achievement in those days was 2112 by Rush! I can "hear" chords if you know what you mean, like "Ah yes, that chord is a D, that's a C, an Em" etc. so on simpler songs I can often deduce whats going on without a guitar in my hand. Even these days I can often work out a song with just my guitar and no reference to the tab/ KZbin vids etc. I did Dio's Holy Diver this week in this way (it took ages because that song has many different sections, which vary slightly each time!). A shame the gig was cancelled, I follow the band on social media already, and had previously suggested some prog -friendly venues in the south - Trading Boundaries in Sussex is the one nearest to me, and the band were already on the case. Would be great to see you get your prog on live! 👍

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

Thank you so much Neill, I’m really glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for taking the time :) I know exactly what you mean regarding hearing something and knowing how it’s played. There are a couple of chords I can hear and know what they are, but moreso what happens with me (because I’m more familiar with bass than I am guitar) is I can hear a ‘shape’ and just know how it’s played, if that makes sense. I did speak about it briefly in the video but I think that footage got lost. I’d love to speak about it more in depth :) 2112 is a massive achievement haha!! I remember learning that, memorising the intro rhythm took the longest!!

[@MrNeilltupman]

@Cici Bass That's a very cool skill, and very hard to articulate I agree! 😁 Also, the world of online tabs and videos is pretty unregulated (apart from the kangaroo court of the comments section! 😉), so I almost always try my methods first. The 'official' songbooks back in the day were often woefully inaccurate too, I remember having a Beatles one which claimed Day Tripper was in C, when it contained one of their best E-based riffs! 😆 Yep, that 2112 intro is a challenge timing-wise. I've seen them do it a few times live, and on their live albums you can hear Neil Peart throw in a quick closed hi-hat motif right before each part. Even with that, they would still crowd around his bass drum staring at one another with a panicked look 😁

[@littleguitarontheprairie4843]

It would take me forever to learn something this way, especially without vocals, I need something on paper. But it's fascinating to see how you do this.

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

I completely understand that! And vocals can be a helpful extra cue for me too :)

[@Rocktalk101]

I learn from tab and by ear but I also learn very well from watching others actually play. I will say learning by ear is harder for me then the other 2 but I am able to do it but does take me longer with certain songs for sure.

[@mrskint55]

Learning by ear is the way to go in my opinion. I find you learn faster,and also come up with your own ideas. Keep up the great work.

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

Good point about coming up with your own ideas too! Thanks so much :)

[@AlexandarShmex]

It's definitely not faster than simply looking at the tab or notation :D As for everything else, it's superior.

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

@@AlexandarShmex It depends on the person. For me it’s faster than looking at tab, I can hear most things and figure them out pretty much immediately (of course there are certain things that take longer), because I can hear it and know the shape it is that’s being played on the fretboard, it makes more sense to me in a musical context than it does in writing :)

[@livinGhost88]

Finally made it through the rest of the video lol This was really fascinating, and enlightening to watch, and gain your understanding of how you learn by ear. I'm just hitting the point of being confident with learning things by ear, to the point that I'm doing it more actively. So just as something in my gut was telling me, the process that I've been using for learning a song by ear, is extremely similar to yours. Except I'm not familiar with how you're able to get a bass only track/filter. If there's a program or something that is capable of doing that for bass (and guitar and vocals, too, preferably), I'd like to know what it is. I'm glad that you did this song, too. It's a really beautiful, chill song. And I'm a fan of the lengthy songs. TOOL's song T3mpest, for example. What's the name of the band and song, again? I don't recall catching the name

[@Steve-fr7fb]

Ty you hun

[@bobdillon1138]

If i could only give one piece of advice to newbies it would be put away the tab asap and start using your ears music is a hearing art after all .

[@dennismangels8147]

❤️

[@zild6667]

I'm up against the wall, I feel blocked….

[@dawids.5801]

I do exactly in the same way, but I'm always trying to do some extra my style and notes.

[@kevindean9613]

Well done ,back in the 80s I only ever did original stuff & I hated & still do hate learning stuff by ear ,If I can I stalk / contact the original bassist & ask them what they've done .Stuff thats low in the mix & mixed up with the drums I found hardest .Do you ever get another band member telling you've done something wrong , when it turns out they have lol .

[@AndresValdez-do7gf]

Éxito en music rock pop cici bass 🌍🌍🤍💙🔵⚪💚🤍❤️ saludos 🙂🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽🗽

[@arthurrutledge7788]

I play like you honey by my ear God bless you from archcilla

[@ggar9623]

this has confirmed it, im deaf, its ok, at least my eyes operate good

[@liys540]

this bass more like a kurt smith ( tears for fears ) bass in 1990

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

I love TFF :)

[@richardlynch5632]

😎✌👍❤🖖

[@petervanrayne5120]

14:30 Sounds like the music in Max Payne on the bits between levels.

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

Haha yes!! Some of it reminds me of Ratchet and Clank too :)

[@pizmeyre5055]

My biggest problem is an inability to listen and I know what note is being played. And I don't know how to train my ear to do it.

[@adrianrock9538]

😍😍😍😍😍😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘

[@benhamilton3835]

What’s the name of the song? Apologies if you said it and I missed it.

[@Innerspace100]

How's the Warwick's action when you tune it down? Did you alter the truss rod at all?

[@kane6529]

Step 1 is have a fancy accent 😂 it’s critical

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

That’s me buggered then 😂

[@michaelbrodsky]

I’m tone deaf , so I learn by songs by sight. Wtf?!?

[@alexwiththeglasses]

Late comment from an old fart - great job (hats off!) but unnecessarily tedious for any bass player imho. From my indie singer/songwriter perspective this is the wrongest way to make others learn your song or piece. Write a simple chart that makes sense for the piece. I usually include the chords, any basic rhythms (starts, stops, accents), and write it in logical chunks (phrase per line, intro, verse, chorus, bridge, or sections a, b, c, d…). There’s several ways to do it & don’t require anyone to read tabs or notes. Search “how to write a chart for a song” and see the variety. If possible provide a recording of the full version without bass and another with bass & drums way up in the mix (not just a bass line). Those “drummer hears song for the first time” videos might also be of interest for learning structure.

[@CiciVonStrangelove]

Thank you! And yes I’m aware of charts, it’s great if that way works for you, I know loads of people it does work for, but it’s not the best way for me personally. In most cases I can learn a song pretty thoroughly after just one listen through, I don’t have issues remembering structure etc off the bat, it’s actually quicker and more immediate for me than spending the time writing a chart. (I go into this process here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZbNeYWcq9GGd6csi=CiFnrSTo1yiO0Vjk ) - I’ve had to learn 30+ songs in two days before (albeit simpler ones than in this video, not prog epics like this one). I did it using this technique and it was much more efficient for me personally. I understand this approach isn’t efficient or even useable for everyone, but it is for me personally. I think it’s a bit unfair to call it ‘the wrongest way for others to learn’, the only wrong way to learn is the way that’s wrong for you. I’m not making anyone learn in this way, this video is just showing my process (with a particularly long and fairly in depth song so I can go more in depth with the process and have time to analyse what it is I’m doing so I can verbalise it), as it’s something people have asked me about a lot. I’ve seen the ‘drummer hears X for the first time’ videos, and yes while some of them chart, I’ve seen quite a few that do it the way I do as well (I.e, learning it during their first time listening). And for what it’s worth, I also don’t fully believe that some of them haven’t heard some of these hugely popular and well known songs before haha! Hope I explained that okay.

[@alexwiththeglasses]

@@CiciVonStrangelove Thanks for the thoughtful reply! I meant to say wrongest way to have others learn your music, not to dictate how others decide to learn material. If I give a chart others have options, and can see the structure at a glance. I’m confident that you know best how you learn - no doubt. I was talking from the perspective of the writer, not the other musicians. Hope that makes sense🤞 And tyvm for your wonderful content!

[@barrysavage5087]

How to learn a song and as a bonus information, now we know Cici uses Andrex Hygiene products to clean her lovely bottom before performing them 80`s new romantic dance moves...