I’ve never been the kind of musician who enjoys practicing.
I’m always looking for ways to hack the system and trick myself into enjoying my practice sessions, whether that’s by using exercises that don’t suck or ensuring I take breaks to let loose and shred mindlessly.
I’m constantly asked about ear training on YouTube, and the consensus seems to be that there aren’t enough quality ear-training lessons available.
The biggest benefit of ear training is that it allows you to hear something and not only be able to play it on your instrument, but also to understand how to manipulate it to your own liking.
Luckily, ear training is inherently fun to practice. Like any skillset, you build strength by pushing yourself to the limit, so learning difficult passages of music will always be the most effective way to improve your ear. That means not using tab or other forms of notation, by the way. No shortcuts allowed!
In the video lesson below, I’ll give you a glimpse into how I break down complicated music into its simplest form in order to practice ear training, as well as provide you with a handy exercise to get you started or add to your tool kit for improving your ear.
Tyler Larson is the founder of the guitar-centric brand Music is Win (opens in new tab). His insightful, uncomplicated guitar lessons and gear demonstrations along with entertaining, satirical content about life as a musician receive tens of millions of video views per month across social media. Tyler is also the creator of the extremely popular online guitar learning platform, Guitar Super System. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Tyler has been teaching guitar for over a decade and operates a production studio in Nashville, TN.
