A comment or two from me .. HughPlaying from memory ...If you are playing the music ‘note for note’ from sheet music as it is written, I would have thought it would be fairly impossible to play without the music in front of you. Surely in this situation your brain is processing the notes you are seeing into the notes you are playing .. and not necessarily remembering what those notes actually are? But then I don’t ‘read the dots’, so what would I know?
All I do know is that when I play ‘by ear’ I have to know the tune well, or listen to it over and over and pick out the notes forming the melody as I listen to it. Or, at a pinch, I can work out the melody from a single line on a music score.
Then I have to decide on what chords to play. Luckily, probably as a result of the length of time I have been doing this, I instinctively know what the chords should be. Unless the chords are not in a progression I recognise, in which case I have to write them out so I have them up in front of me. When I do write the chords out, I do it in bar lines, which is how we used to do it when I played in the band (as a teenager).
Eg. / C - Am - / Dm - G7 - /
Or, pop the sheet music on the music stand in front of me and follow the chords from there.
So for those of you that only ‘play from the music’, have a go at this piece ‘playing by ear’. I guarantee that if you can play this, you won’t be doing it from the sheet music .. as we will not be using any. The tune I have in mind is Michael Row The Boat Ashore. This song was first published in 1867, so you may know it! If not, click on this LINK to YouTube to hear Pete Seeger singing it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd_5-2kCzfsFirst you need to play this tune by picking out the notes. Start with C (followed by E and G) which will put it in the key of C. It’s really not that difficult, and when you’ve got it it should sound like this (click this LINK):
Michael Row the Boat Ashore Melody Line (MP3)Now for some chords to go with it. Well, I suppose you could get away with just playing the piece with C, F and G. But this is not the point. You need to find chords that will make it sound ‘special’. I have chosen C, C7, F, Em, Dm and G7. Click the LINK below to hear how these chords sound with the melody line. Note: The first chord comes in on the third note (ie. Michael
Row), which is the first beat of the bar as listed below.
Michael Row the Boat Ashore Melody + Chords (MP3)If you do need to see these chords ‘written’ (and then remember them), here they are:
/ C - - - / C7 - - - / F - - - / C - - - /
/ Em - - - / Dm - - - / Em - G7 - / C - - - /
Next, a bass line. Listen carefully to what I have played on the pedals (you will probably need to wear headphones to hear the bass properly). The notes are based on the chords above (playing the root note of the chord), with some ‘walking up’ for good measure. Click on the below:
Michael Row the Boat Ashore Melody + Chords + Bass (MP3)Next, I have brought in a STYLE. This is
6/8 Ballad 2 from BALLAD.
But ...I wasn’t too happy with the part CHORD 1, playing Guitar ‘on the beat’ (and I thought the sound of the guitar was a bit harsh too). So have put this Style into ACCOMP. PROGRAM; changed the VOICE from Clean Guitar to Steel Guitar; Deleted the CHORD 1 Part and replaced it with some chords played on the ‘off beat’ instead. Saved that to USER 1 and hunted for it via the
1 on the right in the STYLE section, paging until I found USER. You will find this Style is still called 6/8 Ballad 2 as I didn’t use INPUT NAME to change it.
Here below is the whole operation from beginning to end. The Voice I chose for the chords on the Lower is HORN; and second time round I have added CHOIR to this.
Michael Row the Boat Ashore Melody + Chords + Bass + STYLE (MP3)Finally, click this LINK below to download the files to 'play' in the AR. Download in the usual way and 'unzip' the files to a floppy in the A: Drive.
http://www.ar-group.org/Files/MichaelRowTheBoat.exePlease Note: Peter has included this floppy track in his JOT 35 - C (Track 15) so you can play this song from that. With the present lack of floppy disks about we thought it best not to have to put just one track on one floppy disk.When the piece has finished, play a few chords with the STYLE
6/8 Ballad 2 accessed from the
1. Listen particularly to the backing part I have put in CHORD 1. Now do the same with the original Style
6/8 Ballad 2 from BALLAD (press the BALLAD tab). The
6/8 Ballad 2 I have put into USER 1 may be more suitable than the original for some tune you want to play yourself.
You can also hear what the 'Auto' BASS part sounds like by pressing the FINGERED CHORD button at the top, and then playing a chord. I agree. Dull and uninspiring! So glad I worked out a Bass Part to play on the pedals myself.