The MOST Important Musical Skill
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- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- In this episode we discuss the most important musical skill: Audiation or using your minds ear.
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Does anybody dream about listening to a popular band's tune or attending a gig of your favourite band, then you wake up and realize that song doesn't really exist but your mind just imagined and created it from scratch associating it with that band, vocals and arrangements included? (Then have a hard time remembering it when you want to write all that down even though it sounded crystal clear and awesome in your dream).
Unless what if it's a premonition and you're actually going to be there and it's a song they're going to make in the future?😃😂
But not for me, no.😆😊
No. Never happened to me. I wish it would. Sounds amazing !!! You really should worm on harnessing that. Most timless songs have been created from a writer waking from a dream with a song in there mind
Oooh which ones? I can think of Hey Jude but I want to know others.
yeah!!! I wish we could output our dreams into something tangible! I always lose the epic tracks that come up in my head...
For people who take this to heart and want to then transfer it to your fingers for whatever instrument. here are some exercises I've been doing at home:
1. Play a chord and put it on some kind of repeat, so you have something to play on top of
2. Start from the root note, and sing a 3 to 4 note melody. Then play the exact melody on the instrument.
3. If you want to hit some certain notes but the notes aren't coming to you mentally, try playing a little riff and then sing it back to yourself, and then play it again.
Another exercise:
1. Key agnostically just sing the first 2 bars of a popular tune.
2. Try to play it on the instrument.
3. Continue the song.
I've been trying to do this about 15 to 30 minutes a day (to an hour if I'm having too much fun), and my ability to find the "right" notes has gone up quite a bit. My ability to also mentally think up new licks and then play them as intended is also going up slowly.
My favorite part of this is your kids singing these tunes and getting them all in the right key off the top of their heads.
layla didn't get it in the right key. but dylan did, he has perfect pitch
Yeah! I'm so impressed!
@@Zimzamzoom95 What do you mean? It was in the right key, for the video that she learned the song from.
@@Bubu567 she was slightly off key
@@Zimzamzoom95 maybe the exact frequencies weren’t right lol but it was the right key
Rick says "It's not perfect pitch. It's not relative pitch. It's the ability to take a sound from your mind and make it louder." That's heavy, man! AND, that is exactly the same advice I receive from my Vocal Teacher. She says that our ability to sing ANYTHING comes from this skill.
This is such a difficult task for me. I can sing starts of melodies etc, but I find it very difficult to hear anything in my head! It's like my brain is connected to my voice, if vocalcords is whispering/quiet then my head is pitchless!!
@@pe1er1 Interesting, I have a similar problem, but with visualisation, rather than audiation. I can hear any instrument or timbre in my head, but I can’t visualise even simple things. I know, what they look like, but I cant „see“ them.
Taking a cue from Rick Beato, my first child's name will be BucketHead.
ThatsRaidillonActually am I saying this right: “Balsac the Jaws of Death?”
Will your second kid be Meatloaf?
mike mogul Gonna insist my first grandchild is called Leadbelly.
@@theraven6836 Absolute legend!
My old dog was named Lars.
This is why Beethoven is immortal. He composed some of the most amazing pieces in history WHILE HE WAS DEAF.
I’m deaf in 1 ear…..maybe there’s hope!!! Ha!! I always think of that Beethoven thing when I’m struggling.
but he could hear the music "in his head" - that is the most important part of creating New Music - imh
@@ynotttt
hey brian wilson (of the beach boys), arguably one of the most innovative producers and arrangers ever, is deaf in one ear. always has been, so he could never hear his own songs in stereo. listening to the instrumental track for “don’t talk” may give you some hope 😂
Beethoven could also feel the vibrations of his piano
I could sit here and listen to Rick’s kids sing melodies all day.
Lol
Not gonna lie homegirl, same
I couldn't.
Creepy af
They're like mini super heroes who dont know the full scale of their powers yet.
Why elementary music education is so damn important!
CurtisBooksMusic and just general education.
Ceres Lee Very true. Sports dad kinda push? Of course, kids can get physically/mentally hurt in sports. A pushy parent in music could obviously mentally hurt a child, but I see nothing here to suggest that. Not saying you’re inferring this, but my musical connect, and occasional nudging, were magical for me. As I was, Dylan looks like a musically “in to it” young man.
If it incoporates all musical genres and is not restricted to a dusty curriculum
@Joel Totally missing the point
Adam Neely has talked about audiation before as well. I've always done this in my head, and always assumed everyone else does, too. Translating it to my instrument is a bit harder, though.
Yeah when you have no music theory knowledge like me but i manage to play solos somehow
Abhishek Nautiyal Agree. In fact I always see my self confused when I get into the theory of these things. Probably bad in the long run.
Making it easier to translate to your instrument just takes increased familiarity with your instrument. So just work at that, and the rest will come.
Fred
Every time your son demonstrates his perfect pitch, it breaks my heart. a) because I'm so happy for him that he HAS that skill, and b) because you've told us that no matter how hard we work at it we can never LEARN this. (I had "acquiring perfect pitch", in retirement, on my bucket list! 😂)
@@michaelscott356 But great RELATIVE pitch is way more useful than 'perfect pitch' (really, absolute pitch) and that CAN be developed.
Absolutely. Ear training is more about translating the head sound on your instrument. A lot of people can sing it but not put it on their instrument. So there's nothing wrong with the ears. It's just the mapping of the note on instrument. Great video to demonstrate this. :)
Rick has got to be the coolest dad out there! How lucky are his kids to have him and be able to grow up with him and learn from his vast wealth of knowledge!
I’m a musician and always assumed everyone could do this . Amazing stuff Rick, this why I love and value your channel.
In answering deadstar44 below, I woke up in the middle of a dream and I was singing the notes to a song I'd never heard, or thought I'd never heard, coming out of my mouth. I remembered the verse melody and part of the transition to the chorus. I kept humming to myself all day, gradually it faded from direct memory. About 6 months later I was walking by a house on a street where I live, when out of an open window I heard that tune. I am not shy when it comes to something that has been driving me crazy. So I knocked on the door where the music was coming from an attractive lady a little older that I was, this is probably 20 years ago I'm 68 now, answered the door. I apologized and told her the story and finally I asked for the name of the song. She said that is Billy Joel, and the name of the song is, "And So It Goes" from his 'Live' album in Russia. Now while I am a fan Billy Joel's early stuff I had not listened to anything past his first double album of greatest hits. So now I had I heard this before in a situation where it would have been passive listening, like walking through a mall, or had I heard it and just forgot, to this day I do not know.
So to end this, I think the music you listen to can trigger some sort of ability to have an idea for a song, or whatever you find interesting. I've read where engineers will have ideas come to them in sleep mode so why not music. By the way that Billy Joel remains one of my favorites, and if I'm wandering by an idle piano anywhere devoid of humans I'll sit down and play and sing it. I've been 'caught' a few times and got a few "that was nice" comments. Sorry about the ramble, but my Mom said I started talking at 14 mos. and I haven't stopped since.
Nice story! There is an incredible version of this tune by Jill Seifers and Kurt Rosenwinkel. Jill was an amazing singer who sadly took her own life a few years ago
Dylan and Layla. .. yeah, you're a musician!
Great video, thanks for sharing your insights!
At least he didn't call his kids Rimsky and Korsakov
this is one person
I was just thinking that. His favourite songwriter and favourite rock song maybe.
I believe he has a child named Lennon too.
Dylan's growing up to be such a rockstar. Love it! ...Very important concept as well.
This is how I was always able to learn songs on bass. If I heard it in my head I could play it.
Me too! When people ask me do I know how to play a song on bass, I say yes if I can hear it in my head, even if I've never played it before.
Me too....on most instruments.
I'm a self taught guitar player, I never even had idea about the notes I was playing, all i cared was for me to sound right, whenever I play a song it's not like thinking about the next note, it's about jamming with the song that I can clearly hear in my head. I got a song stuck from just hearing it once from my dad, I pulled it on guitar and some years later I played it for my dad so he could tell me which song it was, it was "Apache" from The Shadows, and I swear I got every note right and remembered very well just by listening to it once. that's one of my skills I love the most
Enjoy the blessing!
Orion Hellraiser Fuck! This is me!!!! Like, ME! Self taught too. Exactly my situation
Me too, 30 years and I still don’t know the chords by name 😀
Fantastic what a great idea
@@criddycriddy But does it work for you? I feel people without some basic music theory really miss out.
Exactly!!! There have been times in my life when I had no access to music and out of desperation, would go through a whole song in my head, including the parts with no words, or instrumentals; or when I'm trying to think of a song/name of a song I have to sing the parts I remember until my mind/memory catches the rest of the song, and THEN it all comes back to me. 😀
As a young kid I believed that we had record players inside our heads and that we can listen to any song we know just by playing that record on the turntable in our head. I have been told that I could whistle recognizable tunes before I could speak, which apparently my mum found very embarrassing. I was regarded as being a weird child.
Music stays with you all your life. There are 3 or 4 songs or pieces of music that I've loved at an earlier point in my life that I've completely forgotten the identity of but have later on in life come across them again and recognised them straight away. It's one of the joys of music. Certain bits of music just become a part of you.
The most important musical skill is the hair.
I wanted to start playing guitar my I looked in the mirror and remembered that I'm bald - fucked
I think Joe Satriani would disagree.
LMFAO!
Maynard James Keenan disagrees 😂
Hahaha that's awesome
I use this when I need to learn any song for my cover band. Before I even pick up the guitar or sit at the keyboard I'll listen to the song multiple times so all the parts, the intro, verses, chorus, vocals, are in my head. Makes it so much easier and faster to learn.
When I was in Cambridgeshire, I remember a famous English composer telling me that half the great composers had perfect pitch and the other half had relative pitch, and that having relative pitch was not a disadvantage-in fact, it is more versatile, because people with perfect pitch can be _discombobulated_ by a piece not being in the right key.
Maybe not "discombobulated", but I think even people with relative pitch can be at least "bothered" by music after it's been transposed. I know it often bothers me. I'm definitely never off by more than a semitone, when tested without a reference. Perhaps even more accurate than that. But I'm pretty sure perfect pitch implies something more like being able to never be off by more than 10 cents?
If you can audiate (hear in your head) then relative pitch is all you need. The intervals in your head can be transposed if you need to later. The trick is to recognise when your mind is receptive to hearing the inner Music. Generally when you are doing something like jogging or walking or even washing the dishes. During these times you have to switch your attention to your inner ear and then you will hear the"youv'e got mail" in the form of whatever music is coming through at that moment.
LOL. Well, I struggled to find the right word, and when I tried to suss out the nuance to the word *discombobulated,* it stated _disconcert or confuse_ (and _confuse_ need not have the permanence we usually attribute to it). The origin of word in the mid 19th century was likely based on _discompose_ (disturb or agitate) and _discomfit_ (feel uneasy), which I thought were equally apt.
@@JeffreyGold I wasn't trying to point out any misuse of your words (I wasn't even implying such). You used "discombobulated" to describe peoples' experience with PERFECT pitch, and I just wanted to point out that I can still perhaps relate, even with only RELATIVE pitch. I was only suggesting the milder word "bothered" to describe a relative-pitch person like myself, as I didn't want to come off like I was downplaying the severity of a perfect-pitch person's negative experience.
@Cr8Tron No worries. I totally got you. :-) I did use it as an opportunity to delve even more into the nuance.
Regarding your other note: As a relative pitch man myself, I have absolutely no idea of what you speak. LOL
(I just tested myself again to see if I have transcended to perfect pitch, and I have not.)
We just experienced this with our guitarist during rehearsal. My son and I pointed out that he was playing the wrong notes and as we sang it back to him, he immediately locked in playing it correctly. I do agree that the ability to audiate is definitely something that can be cultivated over time with practice and repetition. So glad I found this video.
Another great video!!!
I agree. I was going to say "listen," but that's all part of what you are talking about. Because you have to listen (in your mind) to what you are imagining in order to bring it out. And in direct opposite of that, you must listen in order to internalize anything you hear with your ears.
I taught myself listening early on because I used to be obssessive about getting things correct as a kid. So instead of hearing something and approximating it and saying, "That's good enough," sometimes I'd take hours (back before I had any actual ear training) and listen over and over and over ad infinitum until what I played matched. The great thing was it was all self-taught with no reference point. In other words, I "toughed it out" with a trial-and-error approach until I'd gotten good enough that it started just coming to me. Then once I learned intervals, it was easy. It literally helped EVERYTHING. It helped intonation, playing songs, writing songs, transcribing, memorization, everything.
Music is all relative. There is ALWAYS a correlation somewhere no matter how melodious, dissonant, or atonal. And once you start to recognize the landscape of the building blocks of music, you can appreciate more greatly how things relate, diverge, cooperate, clash, harmonize, and convey emotion/meaning.
I also learned a lot of music by ear. I tried to teach myself guitar from 1972 to 74 and actually learned solos note for note, by ear, before TAB, instructional videos, the Web, as we all did back then. Such a valuable experience. I believe that helped me develop strong audiation. I've named songs in two notes, and even one note at public events. I hear that one note and my mind jumps through the entire song to the end in a fraction of a second. I'm sure many can do this, but it always amazes me. But I don't do it, my brain does it, I just listen.
That's awesome! I do that too with songs. And the more I like the song, the easier it is to do. My favorite song, A Whiter Shade of Pale, is like that. As soon as I hear that first E from the organ on the original, I know instantly. It's amazing what the brain can do.
Absolutely Rick! To audiate and intonate is crucial to being able to play/sing what we want. That is what my whole piano course is all about. I used to teach how I learned; by brute force of memorizing and playing over and over, and focusing on reading notes. Focusing on HEARING the music is ABSOLUTELY the MOST IMPORTANT skill!
Thank you for this!!!
I can never think of superman's theme after hearing star wars! Impressive talent
Those two melodies begin rather similarly, yes...
I basically have a few hundred albums "recorded" in my head that I can play at will -- typically I do this as I sing to myself while working on the lawn or in the workshop, painting the house etc. I'll sing a record (say, any of my dozen favorite Sinatra albums :-) ) in order, with each song in its proper key, or at least in the right key relative to what came before. I don't have perfect pitch but do have a strong pitch memory -- if I notice that I don't hear all of the orchestra stuff in my head, I'll realize that I'm not in the right key and will hunt around up & down a few half steps until I find where the "recording" resonates. Once I have that, I'll sing the whole thing with the right key transitions from song to song, and I'll hear all of the orchestra parts along with my vocals. I thought everyone could do this, but I guess that's not the case.
Btw, Aimee Nolte makes this same point all the time: you really want to know what a note or phrase will sound like coming from your instrument BEFORE you play it -- otherwise you really can't improvise.
Great video as always, Rick (and Dylan)!
It’s great to hear you identify and explain this skill, Rick. I don’t have perfect pitch, but I do use the first chord of a number of songs as pitch references - songs I’ve heard countless times. For example, I use the 1st chord of Highway to Hell for an A. Led Zeppelin’s The Rain Song for G. Sweet Home Alabama for D, Tom Sawyer by Rush for E, etc. Thanks for exploring this!
I believe this technique is also used in music therapy for helping people relearn how to speak if they have had some mental trauma and lost the ability (like a stroke). Memory is based on spatial reference rather than “storing books on a shelf” as his son describes, so if you can physically imagine the song or recording playing as Rick describes, then the melody will follow and can be vocalized using a different part of the brain than what controls our speaking. So it was found that those whom have lost the ability to speak can still vocalize their thoughts by singing them along with the melody of songs they know very well.
the inner ear thing is something i naturally had since i was a kid but frankly i thought everybody could do it
It is imagination, and everbody has it. If it is not musical, it is visual or any other sense. You can even have smell imagination.
@@andsalomoni Actually, not everybody has it. Most do, but some can't imagine music, and some can't imagine images or smells or tastes either. Some can't do any of those.
@@andsalomoni I can do all of them but sound is by far the most vivid and realistic for me.
me too
Same here, I didn’t think it was unusual. This is also why it can be so annoying to have a whole library of songs running through your mind when you don’t want them to. F. ex baby shark on repeat😂 my tonal memory is very good and I learn songs fast.
I thought everyone could do this. I'm 63 and I can't remember not being able to do this.
The problem is, getting songs OUT of your head, like Dancing Queen by ABBA.
Just curious, are you a fellow musician? I've been obsessed with playing guitar for 34 years now...
I doubt that, Roger. you have perfect pitch and didnt realize it?
@@mackhomie6 this isn't perfect pitch most people remember familiar songs in the right key in their head. If they have training with the voice they usually sing it in the right key too or very close.
@@wiltisdabest i haven't found that to be the case, and "very close" being á half step? two steps?
also, the kid has perfect pitch.
This is perhaps the most vital lesson for those of us ‘searching for that sound’. Thank you Master Rick
Rick, this video just reinforces something I was taught first from my father who was a great musician - and many times over the years by various people whom I connected with in a musical way; many of them as musicians I worked with and others I met who told me over and over like so many others before dating back to my Pops, "The most important musical skill is that of listening & hearing." I asked all of them what they meant, and the response was to really listen to each musical composition or piece with my real ears. In other words to really hear the song. As a tot I heard songs like 'Sleep Walk', 'Tequila' and other tunes that caught my young ear and stuck in my mind; eventually getting down in my heart - LONG before I ever touched a mysical instrument and LONG before I even had a recognizable desire to even play. I could sing those notes out, pretty much in time and in very close to key or pitch. A decade later when learning to play the guitar I could still sing out those notes to the songs but I was a disaster when it came to attempting to play those tunes. I couldn't find my butt with either hand as the saying goes. I couldn't even approximate the rhythm much less the melody. Eventually my musical skills caught up with my already mentally processed familiararity with those tunes but I had to learn to hear what I had already present in my head - I had to re-listen to what I had heard as a youngster. Then I could discover where those tunes were on the guitar. It took years to recognize all of that but over and over I came to the same crossroads as I was learning many songs I had heard as a kid, songs that I really dug, and ones that made an indellible impression on me - so much so they worked their way into my psyche, etched upon my mind and dear to my heart. Over the years I learned thousands of songs - just by ear. How was I able to learn so many songs without the benefit of formal musical training or having copies of the sheet music? Simply by listening and really hearing the songs. Over fifty years have come and gone and after learning many things about music, listening and hearing are still the most important skills I ever developed and they appeared long before I ever showed any aptitude to play an instrument.
When I write music I always imagine the tune in my head, where it brews for some time. Days or weeks later I have a complete song in my head, almost without me thinking about it. With harmonies, base, rhytm, feel, everything. At this point it's for me to decide if the tune is decent enough to record it.
I have multiple ideas brewing at the same time. Sometimes they feed into each other, merge, and two tunes become one.
Kinda cool. I'm just a "transcriber" really.
When I first started learning guitar licks off records(decades ago when records were a thing) it was a labour-intensive process. Eventually, I just started memorizing the guitar licks and the music in my mind's ear and I didn't need the record. I did however have to listen to the piece until it was in my DNA. The more I liked a particular song the easier it was. I became a very focused listener.
What makes this song great - King Crimson
As long as Fripp is around, that's not happening.
Are you have a fox
TempuS truth
Are you all women or lesbians kind of guy good to know that you are a musician
You are very wise black Phillip.
Dylan described the audiation process really well! That's exactly what it feels like. Perfect pitch operates like that too, how you hum a pitch seemingly out of thin air. Each pitch is a book on a shelf that you pull down and open up at will.
Very cool episode, Rick!
What if I told you Rick owns a bass? I bet your statement would change.
HE FUCKED UP THE VOCALS
Very cool
It's like a recording of the performance I know best, in toto. All the instruments, the vocalists actual voice. I can literally hear it in my mind.
Listening is the most important cognitive skill a musician has. Close listening.
It's the most important skill in life. Thanks for reminding me! 😎
Absolutely. Without a developed ear, you don't make it to practicing an instrument.
Werd!
When I tried to learn to play bass as a 16 year old, I had a brilliant guitar teacher. I never practiced and eventually sold my bass. But what he taught me, and what I still do today, is to listen. When I hear music now I separating bass, drums, keys, guitar, vocals, everything. Then I can understand why I like the song or dislike the song.
There have been a great deal of deaf musicians that proved otherwise. I knew this guy that played guitar completely amazing, and was gigging, but he had to have someone else keep his guitar tuned because he, like me need a needle to tell me not my ear.
Joe Pass!!! Nice call out to the legend Mr.Beato. Joe Pass & Carole Kaye "Black Cat" that song knocked the hair off my scalp. On another note; You're a great father for sharing your gift of music with your kids.
I got this skill.
Sometimes I hear wonderful pieces of music... but I'm too lazy to work on it!
It would be so great if a piece of gear were invented to record into our inner ears!!!
i think you mean to record our thoughts, cause recording your inner ear is exactly what a microphone is trying to do, just without the bones and liquid slushing around ahah yuck
ha ha
I can audiate everything I've ever heard, including Beethoven's entire 9th Symphony, Bach fugues with each line discriminated, etc. Ususally in the correct key, although I don't have absolute pitch as defined by Rick Beato. It's an incredible ability to have.
The MOST Important Musical Skill Is...............persistence.
Is that really a skill tho?
Yeah very musical.
@@aidanschram9652 I think so. You have to cultivate it.
That’s critical in getting the gig - but once you’re hired, above all else (even above persistence) you have to be able to work easily with people. Being professional- on time, no excuses, low maintenance, self-contained, and FLEXIBLE, especially when things are not going well for a gig or a production. That’s way more important than talent unless you’re one of the elite few headliners who can get away (for a short time) being prima donnas because they can fill classical concert halls or rock arenas. For the other 99.999% of the folks lucky enough to make a living in the music industry it’s about the relationships you make over years and decades. Burn even one bridge and it could take a lifetime to get another opportunity.
ihavetubes i thing discipline would be more important
Rick, I can not get over the wealth of talent, knowledge, and ability to entertain. I think you are genuis. Thanks. I just discovered you a few weeks ago
Hey sir, I really enjoy ur expertise and experience....love Layla’s name...Eric Clapton original! I’m an old Rocker from the sixties seventies and early eighties life...I toured mostly the east coast with Charlie Daniels and Nazareth...and yes I lived the rockers life. I was a lead guitar player N lead singer....I also wrote most of the music. I was classically trained from age 8-12 the the Beatles when I was nine and that was the change in my music 🎼 taste, but when I heard Hendrix, the Doors, and especially Cream, I begged for an electric guitar...I am impressed with ur experienced...I wish there had been classic guitar colleges around me when I was 17 in 1972...but my parents couldn’t afford it...so...I wrote music practiced, and formed my first band 1969...the drum auditions was Wipe out and the guitar auditions were “Sunshine of ur love”, they had to be able to play the drums and guitar parts...I hired most bass players bc they were hard to find...my first PA was a Altec Lansing and Shure Sm57 mics. I still remember saving up and buying a Wine Colored Les Paul...hard shell case “included!” But soon learned my short stubby fingers couldn’t reach the high end register. I then bought an SG and the rest is history...(which I have a degree In). later sir...as I said , I’m very impressed with ur resume, and life experience...and u play very well....bless u and ur beautiful family....my 4 kids changed my life...got me off the road and a world who knows how it would of ended bc I was totally a rock star 💫 well not really but I drank a heck of a lot like a Rock Star...Mr Daniels paid for our beer which was brought to us not by hand but buy hand-truck- lol, those were the days...hard to believe I survived it...so many did t and or earned early deaths...I’ve had kidney Cancer and now Heart disease...one of them will finish me. Enjoy these times with ur family. Now that I’m a Grand-father, I just adore those kids...but I miss my kids. I can close my eyes 👀 and remember the days when they were small! Relish these times. U only get one chance per kid...and they are beautiful and talented like their father...thank u for the time...sorry I “Ramble On”....
Mike Ivy: you’re not rambling, you’re sharing and I enjoyed reading it. All the best my man. 👍
We're almost exactly the same age and had many similar experiences, it seems, and we're still both here to reminisce about them.
Peace brother. Keep on rockin' the free world.
I usually don't read really long comments, but I read yours to the end. I was 26 in 1972 and the music was amazing. ( I remember the Fresh Cream album.) I found your remarks very interesting and somewhat nostalgia-inducing. I hope you are still on the planet enjoying your grandkids. Waylon and I shared the same birthday, but he was 9 years older than I. RIP Charlie and Waylon. Thank you for posting your comment
You are spot on Rick about audiation/imagination. It's a really great skill that can set the stage for musical/ ear development. I like to listen to things and then listen them play in my head.
I love the variety of thing you come up with, Rick. Stimulating!
As a musician composer this has always been my go to method. I actually developed it based on wanting to one day be able to play piano bebop solos without reference to learned scales, like many great singers do, the ones that doesn’t know much about music theory.. it honestly took me many years but I love the fact that most of my solos and even chords comes from a choice made by ear and not by “oh I can use a Dorian here and an 8 tone scale there. Writing orchestra music I have similarly learned to hear the choice of instruments in my inner ear/mind before putting anything down on paper, and yes it’s not developed over night, but it’s a true joy to work with music this way and being quite independent of theory in both writing and performing.
Literally say this to my students every day.
I've been a bass player who has played professionally for most of my life now and one thing I can't seem to do is practice. I write something and just memorize it. My bandmates get upset because I never practice, but when it's time to play, I always get it right. I always wondered why that was, but now I understand why, in my head, I am literally listeining to the songs as if the audio was playing and all I have to do is mimic what I'm hearing.
I have been a bass player for almost 10 years. This is a story of how I learned the piano.
On my last job there was wonderful electric piano. Being a terrible ping-pong player (this was a natural option to spend time during lunch break), I found myself on this instrument. Time was tight, about 30 minutes every day, so I did not even think about printing scores and trying to play them (or it was just my laziness :) ). The framework was simple: I had in mind some tunes (musical themes, songs) and some idea about chords. So I applied my knowledge and translation skill. I just started playing on the piano! I had never ever played it, only had theoretical understanding. I started to use my translation and memory to continue with that. In the evening I watched some youtube video, or a film, or listening to jazzFM. In the lunch time the most impressive tunes were sounding from the piano. JUST after hearing it several times! On the instrument I have never played! Easily combining two hands with a melody and chords/arpeggios.
The progress was amazing. Practise is essential to adsorb techniques in the hands. However there is no mechanical practice which could be as effective as pure exploration of your musical memory and trying to transcribe the ideas you heard.
Maxim Kaledin this is encouraging thank you!
Try this. Have a backing track in your mind. While improvising, sing or hum the phrase you want to use, and then play it. The best times for me playing are where there is no time lag. What I'm playing is exactly what I'm hearing in my head. Doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's magical. Another interesting note. Ever listen to music with people that aren't musicians and notice how little of the music they actually hear? You'll make comments about a certain part, like "I really like the way he uses the high hat to accentuate the guitar theme", and your friends will say "What are you talking about?" They don't hear it. It's a skill developed over time.
When I listen to an album a few times, I can hear the next songs intro in pitch and time and hear it's dynamics....Only in the space before it plays. I'm not sure but can't everybody do this?
Exactly, me too
As a music teacher I teach this skill to young children. Most music teachers do i believe. Some call it audiation, some call it the inner ear. I teach it by having students sing a song with me out loud, then replace the words(bits at a time) with physical motions while telling them to imagine the song in their head.
Fun and important scientific fact: people audiate music at 2x speed of the original (as you can see in this video as well). No idea why though
Wow, I've always noticed I do that. Never realized everyone did. Cool.
I don't know either but I do it sometimes to remind myself of the next part.
So say I remember the verse but not the chorus. I'd audiate twice as fast through the verse to jog my memory, or I guess go get my book of the shelf. ;)
I think i can do 8x, just like a dvd player!
you need to be born with perfect tempo.
Jk idk
so you can catch up with yourself.
My band director said, “if you can sing it you can play it”. That hasn’t failed me for 45 years since I heard that. So much truth in this video.
Many times I'll find myself on a drive and instead of listening to music on the stereo, I'll "play" tune after tune, completely, in my head. I can even hear things I couldn't figure out (to play) but when I get home and try to replicate on it guitar, it's gone. :-\
This happens to me in the shower. By the time I towel off and get to my instrument it's gone. Like trying to remember a dream fives minutes after you wake up, so frustrating.
Helium Road exactly. It's in my head until I play the first note on the guitar and it vanishes. I can 't hold onto it.
Haha YES! I've been doing this for some time now, and often it is more "pleasurable" to listen to the song inside my head than the actual song itself! Haha!
My early guitar teacher was teaching me to play Little Rock Getaway. He said can you hear the melody in your head? I said yeah. He said , you need a way to translate that into audible notes...can you hum it or whistle it. I found I could whistle it. Then, having the sound out in the open I could find the notes on the guitar. One thing, “singing “ the phrase will do, well two things is: It will give you I the amount of notes and the timing of the notes within the phrase, even if your pitches are off.
Len Philpot ...hahaha, me too, happens all the time!
Rick, great video. I have 2 friends that were grads from MIT( wait, not true, 1 grad the other dropped out after 2 years took a job) in Boston (actually Cambridge). This was something we have discussed for 30 years. I always contended that memory is a file system within our brain, because I could always pull (such as your son Dylan) either sound or video. I could see a movie or memory as if video were playing in my head. Any movie scene that I saw once, or like in high-school band, all I needed was to see the sheet music once and i would retain and then always be able to recall it. I never needed the music in parades and I always knew the order of play. Same as in stage band. (And-while always tuning) In band I played the Tuba and stage band guitar. I always had perfect pitch, and didn't need to tune to any machine, I was always tested on it. Both my friends that were grads went on into computer science and have done very well, we only talk 2 to 3 times a year now as life takes its travels, they are both on the west coast. My point here is YOU...Rick!..... Every one of your videos touches a base of the past, the present and the future. You are like sitting with an old friend and talking and discussing life from within the Musical Realm!....I can't thank you enough for the memories that you have reopened and brought back to the surface.........As well as YOU being responsible for what no one else could do, get me back into Music Theory.....Mr. Rick Beato, may you continue to be blessed and teach, the doors you open to so many now a million or more. God Bless Rick! ENjoy!
You are the best rick..!
Love from 🇮🇳 India
What Dylan said about pulling a book off a bookshelf and start reading it made me think of how I memorize music. It's like I'm reading it off of the sheet of music in my mind. I'm not talking about photographic memory - I still have to practice at memorizing. But once I have it, I can see it in my mind and read it as I'm playing. This is for piano, vocal, or brass instruments. When I marched drum & bugle corps, I would be reading the music in my mind until it became muscle memory.
I don’t know how many gigs of RAM I have in my brain for thousands of songs: the lyrics, melody, base lines & harmonies but its a LOT! My kids always joke “Mum do you have a song for everything?” because I’ll hear someone say something and start singing a song that phrase brought up in my brain. My daughter once phoned me asking “Mum, I know you’ll know this but whats that song that goes ba, ba, bah bah, ba, ba ba bupah?” And instantly I replied “Thats Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy” 😂
It's amazing when the kids nail the pitches of the recordings right out of the blue. I can blurt out any song I know, but chances are slim I'll be in the right key and on pitch.
If I ever have kids I hope I have a similar musical relationship w/ them.
Interesting description: I am using Indian Classical Music to introduce Improvisation to my Y8 students (G6 in US system). For some time now I have used Charlie’s Parker/Dizzy Gillespie’s Tune ‘Leap Frog’ to intro the concept of Call & Response. Moving on, in pairs, the kids clap back C&R phrases. After sometime, I will use the same C&R process with the raga (scale/melody) getting them to create the two way conversation. I have refined this over about 10 years of teaching this - finding out what worked and what seemed to stop the kids from breaking free of their fears in this kind of work.
This is in-part exactly how I learned how to make music from a framework of the mix of artists I enjoy and take inspiration from.
Perfect explanation.
This is true. Back in the day our vocal teacher taught is the same. If you can hear it in yr minds ear, you can sing it. If you can sing it, you can then play it on any instrument.
I think even before that, listening is the most important skill for a musician, especially an ensemble musician.
Listening is most important skill in life, listening to everything, everyone, and each other...
Been listening to some improvisation recordings, thinking, why didn't I repeat that bit ? It's totally different listening back than it is while playing it, or, making it up as I hear it, or, the other way round, or something, or ghosts controlling thought...
Part of what Rick explained reminded me of how I unconsciously apply this when I practice speaking/reading on the foreign language I’m learning! Loved it!
SHOCKING! Rick Beato uploaded a video at 10:30pm Sunday night. It's important I will watch!
Ive said this too. Like i always say the most important thing with guitar is being able to hum or sing the solos or songs. And then when youve played songs so many times you know where certain sounds are on the fretboard. So then you combine the two and voila ear playing 101. Atleast thats been my way. Love your content Rick!
Rick just wanted to thank you for the wealth of information you have laid on us I couldn't message you on you're live s'
Why is that Brent? If you can message here you can message there.
Something along Rick's main message: hum the note you're playing on your instrument. I've been to many guitar clinics and several pretty successful musicians tell you to hum or sing the notes you're playing, while playin. When you watch videos of certain guys playing, you can see this obviously and other musicians not so obviously, but it's there. Other musicians, pianists and others do this as well. I guess it closes the loop between your brain and your fingers. thanks rick.
doesn't everyone's brain do this? sad. I still remember feeling delighted when I was about 7 or 8 years old and realizing I could instantly "hear" any song I wanted to just by thinking of it. Was it as exciting as actually listening to it? no. But it really kind of amazed me that I could do this at will, because I really liked music.
sir . you are a really goood father figure and a great grandpa. love watching you. I've been a music teacher for 3 decades and have played viola in the Spokane Symphony back in the 80's as a prodigy turned into street kid meets L.A in the 80's then Seattle in the 90's. Guitar mostly
I always though that the theme from Star Wars was basically Born Free (about lions and such) upside down.
You make a great point. Creativity is largely the ability to duplicate or recreate what we imagine.
Hey Rick! Digging your videos a lot.
I guess you are familiar with Edwin Gordon's music learning theory? He basically outlined the whole process of how to teach music through audiation. I was working for 2 years in a music school which principal was very into this and it has also helped me develop more my own 'ear'.
I remember having this friend in primary music school who was able to play anything by ear, reharmonize it or play a small invention based on it. I used to think that is some cosmic skill you randomly get from the universe. Now I know that anyone can learn it! Of course the earlier you start, the better. But as I've been learning music since I was 7 years old, only around my 18th year of living I realized I lack the skill of AUDIATION! But thanks to some open minded people I met on my way I started to also develop this ability and now, for example, I rarely need any sheets for the music I play. I just ask someone to play it for me or I learn from a recording.
Actually I don't know why I've mentioned all of this, just wanted to tell you about Edwin Gordon and say hello. Thanks again for your classy content :)
What is amazing about that “skill” is that you don’t need training to develop it, it seems it is built in in our heads just as any other skill we have like memory or walking (that if you are a healthy person). Every special skill, I think comes from the way we use our senses to explore the world and how our brains store that information. If you think about it, try to think of one skill for each one of our senses i.e, the smell sense and try to think on all the fragrances you remember and, in doing so, try to relate/ identify objects, places or memories... we do that all the time. The way musicians use this musical skill I think is very related/similar to the way artists use the sight. This whole thing is very interesting to think about
Wewt!! Story time with Rick. Bring it! ./pass popcorn.
I love the fact that from time to time you refer to Bach.
BWV 1048 is my favorite of the Brandenburg Concertos. In fact, right after you mentioned it, I started whistling his Variation no. 6. (popped in my head for some reason) While the melody is great, the Variation no. 6 has this wonderful "perpetuum mobile" in the harmony that is just as fun to sing as it is to play.
Nice. It's going to be stuck in my head all night. Might as well head over to the piano and play it. :D
Yeah, I got that earworm too now. Bach is the Boss.
At first I was sceptical so I thought I would test myself. I haven't played Mozart's Marriage of Figaro Overture in over 55 years since I was in high school orchestra. But I must have played it a thousand time rehearsing and preacticing my part for E-flat alto clarinet. So I tried to bring up a memory of it in my inner ear and then I hummed it. I thought to myself, I may have the relative pitches of the notes right but probably I'm not in the right key - maybe close, but not perfect. I then played a recoding of the piece on youtube and it blew me away. I was spot on. I was amazed. Thanks Rick.
great vid, brother. i love that you incorporate the kids.
That little kids awesome, with his perfect pitch and is very musical. I love it whenever his in the show.
I completely agree with the subject. Audiation is a natural thing one develops when learning to speak and has to be developed for music. A key ability for improvisation.
So this is audiation, which is similar to active perfect pitch (vs passive perfect pitch, naming chords and notes you're hearing)
Edit; People with audiation lacking active perfect pitch can not reproduce notes correctly when other sounds are disturbing this inner ear. People with active perfect pitch can reproduce notes perfectly when the inner ear is disturbed with other sounds or noise. Yes/No ?
Jari Satta .....idk, but what you said sounds right, lol
Indeed, it can be really hard to find the notes at the right key for me if there is too much noise around, like trying to sing anything during a gig which is something else than what would be actually played.
No, i used to have a chord from a song that was anchored even through all the bullshit and tiredness of hearing other stuff all day in school. I dont have perfect pitch, i just developed relative pitch, partially from that and other go-to notes that i trained with. Rewatch this video again.
Alex Exactly the same for me, there is that one song that starts with F G for the first two chords and idkw but it is so stuck in my memory that now i always have these two chords « registered » in my head, which helps my relative pitch, just like you
What you describe has a label - Static relative pitch. You measure other notes compared to the static notes that are permanent.
Good advice. Hear it in your head, then try and find that note on your instrument. The more you do it, the better it gets.
So here's the question. I can hear a song, seemingly almost perfectly in my head, but when I try to sing/hum it, it doesn't come out right, often, because I am not a good singer. Getting it from head to voice can often disrupt what the song sounds like. It's usually easier for me to go from head straight to guitar. So the question is, how does one take advantage of that shortcoming? I'm not sure how singing out the parts of a song, if not in pitch, or close to pitch, helps someone because without being close to pitch, you can mess up what the song sounds like, intervals excepted perhaps. Does that make sense?
It's so frustrating because my 10 year old daughter has an amazing singing voice, but probably mostly because she's a songbird and has been singing all day every day since she was born....likely inherited from my wife who has a very good singing voice.
after watching this video, i realized that i'm a lucky guy-in that i strongly hear what i'm going to sing and play. always have. it's why i love music so much!
OK Rick, I think you're on to something here. Its hard to articulate this concept but I think I follow you. There is some mechanization within our brains/minds which actually allows us to "hear" a song or tune in our heads. Then the challenge of being able to translate that from "inner hearing" to outer vocalization. And thus your question here in this video, "What is that and how does it work?" And how can we harness it. Its sort of along the lines of; Well, I don't think about my heart beating or my lungs filling with air, it just happens. I'm able to remember my name, and recognize peoples' faces etc. But what, Rick, is it that allows us to recall a tune and allow another human to hear what we hear? Thanks for this, please expand.
I’m stumped. Your last question seems to be what Rick is asking, but that’s not helping me. What I’m concerned about is hearing tunes in my head that don’t actually yet exist so that I can translate them on guitar and write something awesome. I wanna know how I can do dat.
how about being less of a douche, and talking more to other composers, cz every single one will tell you, that the hardest and most crucial part of composing is to translate whats in your head onto paper.
Right, but thats just the basic skill. Then you need to be able to hear multiple lines simultaneously as well as to remember multiple minutes of music to create big forms.
Training to recognize intervals (distance between notes).
It's called the magic universe. It comes from somewhere outside our head, just like radio waves, then into our head and then back out again, via our body to be heard by others. Magic universe right?
Spot on! But why is there such a resistance to do this? Wish all of my students would take this to heart.
Yoooooo i dident even realize it but i can hum my guitar strings in tune holy s***
Bro, I can do it too.
I often considered this as "my gift."
Also, if I hear a song I like, it will loop in my head... usually the hook. The only way I can get rid of the ear worm is to listen to the song, then something else right after.
Im 70 now,. I've been playing music since my early 20's, and never took to theory. I learned everything I know by ear, licks off of records.
I also found that having music or lyrics in front of me when I perform, the music suffers, and the passion becomes, at best, diluted, the music, vapid.
When the music and lyrics are committed to memory, I give a passionate performance.
Slowly, through default, I am learning theory basics, but I dedicate my practice time to my delivery, my passion.
Having lyrics/music in front of you when gigging isn't performance, its recital.
I know a skilled Celtic harpist... she always has her music stand, even on songs she's played for decades... and it sucks the fire from her. When she plays tunes she has committed to memory, she smokes with passion.
Another story, I've a keyboardist friend was in a Contra dance band for 10 years. At a job, playing outside, a wind came up and blew the violinist's music stand over, and off the stage. She couldn't play, she stopped, mid song, put down the fiddle, picked up the music and stand, set it all back up, and continued... this blew my mind...
How can you play the same material for 10 years and not have it committed to memory?
So Rick, not everyone has this ability like your kids... who will probably become great musicians...
Thanks for the inspiration... I think I'll practice now...
Peace
You know, the fact that they were unable to play the piece without sheet music doesn't mean they can't. It requires a different skill.
When you make it a habit putting the sheet music or lyrics in front of you it's hard to get rid of it. I've worked both ways, and that was my, (and not only my) experience. On the other hand: There's people who have extremely high leveled reading skills. Playing something for the first time, interpreting it beautifully, even put some improvisation in it ... like they wrote it themselves. Back in the days, in classical music that would be often the case, you were expected to do that, you had to have that skill. All the articulations which are written down in classical music today actually are developed by the musicians back then while interpreting what they were reading and taking liberties with it, exploring their instrument, the sonic range of it, creating musical effects...
Musicians are a dime a dozen. Creative artists now that is something special.
And creativity is tree fiddy an album.
The ability to audiate is the most important musical skill. Thanks for sharing Rick.
I thought you might say "feel"... but maybe that's more or less what you're saying
I can compose entire songs in my head very quickly... Including everyone's parts.
This is mainly with Rock (even super Progressive stuff) but I can do it with almost any genre. I don't know if that's rare at all, just saying
This is why Christmas carols are the easiest for me to figure out by Ear. My Mother loved Christmas, and would listen to Christmas tunes all through Thanksgiving and New Years. Plus, I was born in December, so I've been hearing the traditional songs since before I was born.
Rick: "Sing 'Star Wars'..."
Dylan: "Dun dun dun baaa baaaaaa bababaaa..."
Rick: "Sing 'Superman'..."
Dylan: "Dun dundundun duuuuuun..."
Salieri: "Do 'Baby Shark'..."
Dylan: "Ah, now THERE is a challenge... 🤪 'Bay-bee shark doot doo doodoot dooDOO'..."
I think I remember saying Are there even lyrics for those soundtracks? If so, I’ve never heard them. I apologize if I’m wrong. Aren’t most (non-commercial songs, anyway) soundtracks instrumental?
If so, you’d be humming the tune, hopefully in key. I’m pretty sure Dylan was spot on. “Leila” (sorry if wrong gang!) was on too. Was there a problem with “dun dun....”?
Very helpful. I make tunes myself most inspired by jazz. Every tune i made so far started out as just a few notes in my head which seem to express the mood, rythm, tone... but i never actually stopped to think of this. Thanks for reminding it is of great use to consciously use this i think.
I'm no musician but is this similar to what I experience in bed before falling asleep or just after waking up? Sometimes random tunes play in my head and they seem to compose themselves. Though grinding my teeth to the beat is a bad habit.
Eh, why? A lot of my favorite dope comes from Class A like Ambient music, Anime and Alternative.
I won't stop using them- just like I won't stop doping on other drugs like blues, classical, doujin, electronic and so on, which I won't list because I'm too high right now. ;P
@Curious Learner Wow, good to know someone has the same thing. Too bad I can't write them, and humming into recorder allows to save only one melody even though sometimes entire song bits with harmonies play in my head.
Though it's even stronger in hypnagogic state, for example when you're so tired/sleep deprived that you wanna sleep but something barely keeps you from doing so.
I had that once where I was half asleep just about to drift and I heard this avant garde soundscape thing for orchestra and it was insanely realistic. The oboe was in counterpoint to the horns and the timbre was so realistic and the whole orchestra was playing a kind of quiet drone underneath it (texturally underneath it, not lower in pitch necessarily). Of course when I woke up I couldn't remember any of it but man was it a cool experience.
Same here!
This is definitely something valuable in mastering. Simple yet highly effective. This is how I have been able to translate my favorite artists methods of drum loops to chord progressions laying tightly under some other instruments in more experimental music.