The Life Changing Secret To Playing Without Tabs And Sheets

A few months back a student asked me about how to play without chord sheets.

They were struggling to jam with others and here’s what they said: 

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Everyone keeps saying "it just a 1 - 4 - 5", but it's never exactly one measure of 1, followed by exactly one measure of 4, then one measure of 5.  They say I should hear the changes coming, and recognize the one, four, five chords by ear.  But I can't.  So I have a binder with 100+ chord sheets, and I need it to play anything.  And, if a measure has 2 beats of C and 2 beats of G, I need that noted on the chord sheet. How do I play without sheets?

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Sometimes musicians say things like “You’ll hear it…” Or “It’s easy, you’ll be fine” as they try to get you to jam songs they know really well, but you’ve never heard in your life. 

It’s challenging.

Of course, many songs seem easy once you can play them. So, THEY will be fine. But if you’re on the other side, navigating on the fly can be tough as nails.

I’ve been there.  

I remember years ago I had practiced this one blues progression a lot. Then one day I was jamming with this other really great guitarist who wanted to play a blues. But what he wanted to play had this subtle change I wasn’t used to. I kept messing up this easy chord progression. I got so frustrated with myself. 

But I realized I was leaning too hard on doing things only one way. I was like a robot and didn’t leave flow or adjustments. And, I was not leaning on my ear at all. 

If your ear can’t tell when the chord changes move from the 1 to the 4 to the 5 etc. This means you’ll get lost easily. 

You won’t be able to play along with many songs. And yes, you will need EVERYTHING written out in front of you. Also, you can kiss goodbye being able to figure songs without a lesson, TAB, or teacher there to hold your hand.

The good news is... this can be pretty easily fixed.

When you develop the skills to properly hear the music through ear training, playing without needing sheets can become a walk in the park.

If you’ve struggled with this, get your hands on my free ear training cheat sheet for guitar players right here:

Jon MacLennan