Learning by Ear and Improvisation from a Rock Musician: Overcoming Your Classical Training

by Steve Giddings

Many of us know that learning music in a rock setting is different than learning it in a classical or jazz setting but many trained musicians never really think about or understand why.

During my classical music degree training at university, some fellow students believed that if you couldn’t read music, you were a “lesser musician.” Therefore, if you were a successful rock musician who learned primarily by ear, improvised and composed music regularly, and had a deep understanding of musical patterns but couldn’t read staff notation, you were given the unfortunate moniker of “lesser.” Since my degree, I have met countless musicians who actively try to forget or unlearn their classical training in order to acquire musical skills such as by-ear-learning, improvisation, and composition. During classical music’s heyday (from the mid-1700s), musical skillsets resembled more closely those of today’s commercial and popular artists, in addition to including highly developed reading skills. However, the reading skills were developed more out of necessity due to not having sound recordings to copy at the time. Somehow—in part through the establishment of formal music education systems—we have arrived at a point where, very often, highly skilled musicians cannot make any music without a notated part in front of them.

Any musician can benefit from learning music in multiple ways; popular musicians, for example, significantly increase their opportunities for employment if they can read lead sheets and other notated parts with relative fluency. Learning a second instrument—perhaps one not commonly associated with classical music—can be highly beneficial to classical musicians. I, for instance, played drums for a time in the high school jazz band but never really felt “at home” on the instrument until I played in a rock setting, where everything was through listening and by feel. This was something of a surreal and out-of-body experience for me. In contrast, I had never experienced such a level of feel, musicianship, or freedom on the trombone until I began to improvise and compose horn lines with my ska-rock band, The Sidewalks, which I formed after completing my classical degree. To this day I still tend to over-think what I am doing on the trombone because I cannot help harking back to the music theory that I learned first. When playing drums I rarely think about theory or rhythms, aside from counting occasionally, because for me, so much of the music-making on the instrument is about feel and what sounds good at the time. Carlos Santana reiterates this idea describing how he makes music: “I very rarely think of what chords or what notes or where I put my finger…I don’t think musicians who can really play think of music like that…to make it your own requires street learning. You cannot learn that in Harvard or Berkeley—that you have to learn from the streets, and that’s my approach to music. The street university is very important, man” (Santana, quoted in Lilliestam 1996, 201).

What are some ways in which classical musicians can move beyond their classical training? I will share with you some activities that helped me to explore other ways of making music:

1. Join a ska-rock group (or any kind of band) and improvise! Even just going to an open jam night at a local blues bar or inviting your guitar player friends over to jam can be helpful.
2. Put on jam/karaoke tracks from YouTube and play whatever comes to your head. Do not look at the chord changes or the key. Go by feel; it may not sound good the first time but it could the next time, or the next. You have to start somewhere.
3. If you are a wind player, improvise in sharp keys. Chances are you will jam with a guitar player who primarily plays in sharp keys. My favorite key to jam in now is B minor.
4. Instead of your Remington warm-up, just play a song. Figure it out by ear and play it.
5. Learn Mixolydian and Dorian modes in common guitar keys. These modes are incredibly common in popular styles.
6. Learn your favorite song from the radio by ear. Do not look for the sheet music. Often, important nuances in the music cannot be notated; much like in any genre. Your ear and sense of feel are better than the transcription.
7. Learn a rock instrument on your own by copying and improvising. This is the way I learned drums and I never say I’m going to practice drums; I say that I am going to play This distinction was key for me in letting go of some of my previous habits.
8. Let go of the notation and just try playing something new.
9. Rent a loop pedal and a microphone, and create some amazing loops using your instrument.
10. Work with rhythm only on a chair or drum. This way, pitch and harmony don’t interfere, and you can be fre to improvise without worrying. If you don’t have any drums and you would rather not ruin your furniture, a couple of dowels and a five-gallon bucket do just fine!

One of my favorite all-time quotes from a famous musician sums all this up. When asked if he could read music, jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, is said to have replied “yes, but not enough to hurt my playing” (Woody 2012, 83). We sometimes forget that jazz, at one time, was learned in the same way that many rock musicians learn their craft. As Lucy Green, and many others have noted, this is the essence of music learning—it is not always meant to be learned exclusively from a printed page. Let go and trust the fingers, so-to-speak.

Until next time, Happy Musicking.

For more information, please contact Steve Giddings at steve@stevesmusicroom.com or check out his website at www.stevesmusicroom.com.

References

Lilliestam, Lars. “On playing by ear.” Popular Music 15, no. 2 (May 1996): 195-216.

Woody, Robert H. “Playing by Ear: Foundation or frill?” Music Educators Journal, 2012: 82-84.

Woody, Robert H., and Andreas C. Lehmann. “Student musicians’ ear-playing ability as a function of vernacular music experiences.” Journal of Research in Music Education 58, no. 2 (2010): 101-115.