guitar players course

Play Guitar by Ear - The Pros Secret Exposed Intervals - Learning to Hear the Perfect 4th
By Mike P Hayes
Technically speaking intervals are a way of measuring musical 'space' between notes, guitar players are often overwhelmed by the technical names of intervals such as 'major third' or 'minor third' but once the student begins to grasp a few basic concepts about intervals the whole thing starts to make sense and ear training becomes a logic process that's heaps of fun.
Traditionally, intervals are usually presented as two separate notes as they occur in melodies of songs; however an often overlooked musical fact is that intervals can also be played as a mini- chord (two notes); in fact from a guitarist's perspective that's probably a good place to start.
The first thing to understand about ear training is that it's an ongoing study you never finish learning and listening to musical sounds played both individually and as a coagulation of tones.
Previously I have covered the intervals of major third, minor third and perfect fifth today in this ear training session we will focus on the perfect fourth (ascending) interval. There is also an interval named the perfect interval (descending) but that's for another session, only the perfect fourth (ascending) interval will be presented in this article
Since this ear training session is primarily addressed to guitarists I'll begin our discussion with the harmonic fourth sound (mini-chord) which has to be one of the most often played harmonic intervals by guitarists.
Have you ever heard a song called 'Smoke On The Water'?
Unless you have just arrived from the moon you must have heard or played this song before; unfortunately as well as being one of the most played songs it also has the dubious distinction of being one of the most inaccurately played songs of all time.
When 'Smoke On The Water' is played correctly the first chord is a harmonic fourth.
Harmonic fourth (power chord)
To hear a great example of the harmonic fourth listen to the opening chord of 'Smoke On The Water' by Deep Purple.
Harmonic fourth - 'Smoke On The Water'
-------
-------
--0----
--0----
-------
-------
This is the correct way to play 'Smoke On The Water', listen carefully to the original recorded version of this song then play the harmonic fourth as shown above and you will notice how it matches exactly with the sound on the recording.
Now that you know what the interval of a perfect fourth sounds like when played as a chord let's work on being able to hear the interval when played as single notes as it would be in a melody of a song.
Begin with a reference pitch of middle 'C'.
Middle 'C' reference pitch (third string; fifth fret)
-------
-------
--5----
-------
-------
-------
Next play the note 'F' on the second string; fret six
-------
--6----
-------
-------
-------
-------
Repeat that process, take plenty of time remember we want to recognize this interval when it turns up in songs and solos therefore the slower you play his exercise the better.
Playing by ear is really learning to play from memory we need to make a conscious effort to listen to each note and how it relates to the previous note. People who can play by ear have developed an accurate 'recall' system by mentally filing sounds in their memory so that they can rapidly identify that sound and it's
location on the guitar fretboard.
Next play the two notes as a chord (harmonic fourth or power chord)
Harmonic fourth
-------
--6----
--5----
-------
-------
-------
The harmonic fourth you have just played is in the key of 'C' whereas the harmonic fourth I presented for 'Smoke On The Water' is in the key of 'G' (the original recorded version); they are exactly the same musical sound only presented in different keys and played in a different octave.
Now to round off this introduction to perfect fourth intervals here's a short list of some tunes that begin with the perfect fourth (ascending) interval
1. Here Comes The Bride (Wedding March)
2. Amazing Grace
3. Auld Lang Syne
4. All The Things You Are
5. Love Me Tender (Elvis Presley)
Try some 'on the job training'... next time you play a song ask yourself what interval am I'm hearing; it's fun to play this game and the great news is that it doesn't matter what type of music you play the intervals are still the same so now it's back to playing your guitar.

And now I'd like to invite you to get free access to my "How To Remember 1,000 Songs" eCourse. You can download the course for free at: http://www.guitarcoaching.com
You'll learn about hit song templates, easy chords, simple scales, red hot rhythms, and successful practice strategies in text, audio and video.
From Mike Hayes - The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar System

What a great guitar learning course! As someone who has been playing guitar for several years without ever taking a lesson, I really learned a lot from your course. I especially enjoyed the Guitar Leads Course. The biggest advantage of this play along course for me is the half speed feature. By being able to slow the pace, you actually decrease the learning time! I am looking forward to Volume 2. Thanks a 1,000,000! You, too, can take this world acclaimed guitar lesson course to learn how to play guitar or to sharpen your skills as an advanced guitar player.