LEARN IT BY EAR: Will The Circle Be Unbroken (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)

Notes for this lesson - songnotes.net/...
Hey friends! In this video I want to show the process of learning a guitar song by ear, using the classic "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" as performed by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. This video is inspired by this question from Song Notes supporter Arnold:
"I have been playing about 15 years, but I can’t play by heart. I need to know a method to learn a song by listening and understanding why to use a certain chord progression or tone."
With this question in mind, I thought it would helpful to dive right in using this one song as an example. Although every song is different, there are a few common steps you'll generally want to take when learning a song by ear (which I demonstrate). These include:
1. Figuring out the time signature of a song (e.g. 4/4 time, 3/4 time, 6/8 time, etc)
2. Figuring out what key the song is in (e.g. Key of G)
3. Once you know the key, figuring out the chords being used (e.g. G C Em D)
4. Figuring out the strumming
5. etc
In this video, I walk through most of these steps as they pertain to this particular song. It's my hope to continue this series with other songs, periodically -- selecting tunes from various styles / difficulty levels / etc, to help pass along tricks I've learned in my 20 years of playing. I hope you enjoy!
The Nitty Gritty Dirty Band's version of this song
This is the recording that I'm using in my video, if you want to hear it for context:
• Will The Circle Be Unb...
Related lesson I've made
If you dig this lesson, check out the one I did for Souvenirs by John Prine -- where I figure out the exact Travis Picking fingerstyle tab for the entire verse sequence:
• Will The Circle Be Unb... dEOZ0WHnrrM
If you want to view more of my lessons, visit songnotes.net which is my personal collection of lessons, tabs, and notes -- all created with care by me (David Potsiadlo).
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[@ivanandrews8461]

Great lesson. Learnt a lot 😊

[@MsLimona28]

Great Lessing, great teaching! Thank you! 🙏😊

[@cosmobiologist]

I've been playing for a long time, but never learned much of the music theory or anything like that. This was a fantastic watch! Hope you drop some more videos in this playlist eventually since this was an amazing exploration of the process that has always seemed like utter magic to me (made my first shoebox guitar 35 years ago, but have been playing regularly for about 27 years).

[@stuartstevens5724]

This guy is genius!

[@struminbangin6136]

Amazing lesson, you have taken the fear out of learning by ear! Obviously it's a simple song (perfect choice for beginners) but I thought that there would never be a time when I could learn a song by ear but you just shattered the myth and made it seem easy, thanks for another great lesson 👌👌👍

[@Iam1DK]

Thank you!! So helpful! I love being one of you Patreons

[@robertguilbault7248]

Thanks. I really enjoyed this and played along. Still working on that Rocky Mountain High lesson too. I'm gonna get it.

[@vladigor03]

Thank you so much - this is a super helpful video. I'd love to see more learn it by ear videos from you.

[@MrWhitey222]

I think that I may have just had a light bulb moment. Great lesson !

[@cosmobiologist]

The word I used when you got the D chord in the verse was "climactic". Felt like the time to really shine for that verse.

[@WillM1966]

Fantastic lesson.

[@markc8302]

I needed this lesson soo badly. Great, fantastic thank you man.

[@gregfader9937]

Thank you!!! I’m a beginner and this this helped greatly. Thought about signing up for your website based on viewing your other “KZbin” lesions - now will do it.

[@joebro77]

Really cool, very illustrative and actually fun

[@billio51]

Really enjoyable vid. I am off to have a good listen to a song now. Thanks again

[@iraa182_2]

This is great man. Waiting on the chord progresson one👌👌

[@oconobee]

Love these lessons

[@johnmarcy4505]

Super lesson, thank you😃

[@peter_raj]

Great lessons as always, thank you! My two cents - 15:21 'E minor' is the relative of 'G major', WHY? The answer is, both these scales share the exact n same notes, please refer below. G Major - G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G; E Minor - E, F#, G, A, B, C, D, E This is the case for ALL the relative minors i.e. C Major - A minor; E Major - C# minor; A Major - F# minor; D Major - B minor, A♭ Major - F minor etc etc

[@teriivaeavallaux775]

Thank you. This is a great help

[@BlindLemonMeringue]

great stuff, thanks

[@pinetopthomas4100]

Very helpful, TY!

[@guntbert9709]

Great lesson - thx a ton. Please correct the link to the Souvenirs lesson (currently it points to the Nitty Gritty :-) On a side note: what digital tool do you use for that note taking?

[@ludoor]

Hello David. What is the iPad app you use is this video ?

[@peterlotharful]

The sixth chord is the minor Parallele to the 1.... cause some same Tones in it. G-Dur = G B D ..... Em = E G B

[@sparadial2432]

fascinating had no clue

[@donadolfo11]

Additional complication would have been if the player had used a capo. It then would have been more tricky to find out what chord shapes he actually used. E.g. song sounds in the key of Bb (= difficult key to play, needs barre chords), but the guitar is actually playing as if in G with capo on the third fret. In this case it's helpful to hear and identify on the low E string the root of the "homebase chord" (Bb) and then play in a convenient lower key shape (G), using the capo to compensate for the difference (3 half tones between G and Bb = 3 frets up).

[@saintz2k7]

BioShock 🙌

[@sebastiancrawford1774]

what a great fucking video