7 Ways Ear Training Makes You A Better Guitar Player

There’s an old joke… 

Mozart’s little sister would walk into the room, go to the piano, and play:

C, D, E, F, G, A, B…

Then walk out.

Mozart would frantically run to the piano and hit the note C to resolve the tension he felt. This was how she would tease him. 

But that’s the power of a good ear.

I believe, it’s one of the most valuable skills a musician can have.

Why?

The answer is simple: music is a hearing art. You’re only as good, as what you can hear. Below I’m going to be talking about the benefits of having a good ear and developing your relative pitch. Relative pitch is simply a discovery of how your own mind interprets sounds.

So let’s get started with the 7 ways ear training makes you a better guitarist, beginning with:

1. Tonic recognition 

Music at any given point has a tonality or a “home” key. This is talked about when musicians say things like, “The song is in the key of E”. In the key of E, the tonic would be the note E.

The ability to hear a progression, a melody, or any piece of music and sing the tonic without the aid of an instrument is an essential skill in ear training.

2. Identify Melodies 

With a strong ear, you have the ability to identify melodies of songs, without the aid of your instrument. This means you can analyze a song while you're driving, or anything you hear. 

For example, you might hear a siren go off in the city or an alarm and discover the two notes being played back to back are a tritone apart.

A tritone is a specific type of musical interval that spans three whole tones (whole steps), which is equivalent to six half steps or semitones. It is also known as an augmented fourth (A4) or a diminished fifth (d5). The tritone has a distinctive, dissonant sound and can be quite alarming. 

3. Identify Chords

With a good sense of relative pitch, you can easily identify chord progressions and also chord qualities. So when you hear a chord, the notes will pop right out at you. Then you can go to your instrument and play them. 

This helps for learning songs, sitting in with a band, and even avoiding getting lost when playing a song. You will be guided – BY YOUR EAR.

4. Transpose Freely

A huge perk of a fully cultured ear is the ability to change keys effortlessly. Instead of getting bogged down with trying to memorize the chords to a song in every key. You can focus on developing the sensations of how it chord feels against the root, and this makes changing keys much easier. 

5. Tuning Your Guitar 

If you want to be able to tune up your guitar (relatively) without a tuner. You will need to train your ear. This means you won’t have to worry about always having a tuner. Plus you’ll experience many other benefits like knowing if you’re bends are in tune. You will sing with better intonation and more.

6. Play By Ear And Improvise

If you want to play solos better, a well-trained ear can help. Imagine being able to hear sounds in your head and turn it into music on your instrument. (This means you won’t have to just play patterns and licks. You’ll know the right thing to play before you play it..because you can tell..ALL BY EAR.)

 7. Perform With Confidence

This is probably the biggest one of all. Having good relative pitch empowers all your talents to rise to a higher level. When you’re not getting lost in a song, you know you’re right in tune, you can hear the melody clearly, and you’re nailing your solos. This can be a complete game-changer for your confidence. It has for mine. 

So there you have it 7 ways ear training makes you a better guitarist – and musician. 

If you’ve struggled with this, get your hands on my free Ear Training Cheat Sheet for guitar players right here now:

Jon MacLennan