Is it just my bad ear?

hb · #1 June 23rd, 2006

I have been practicing Kirk's lessons and find them extremly helpful, but I am having a problem, and that is, in some songs where, for example, 3 open strings are called for, one of the three is a true melody note and the other 2 are "fill ins", I cannot figure out which one is the highlighted "melody" note as they are all the same chord and each one would probably work to some degree. As it is with tabs, with no lyrics, it is hard to find which note to "highlight". Is it just my bad ear, or is this just the way "tabs" work?
thanks
hb

Kirk Lorange · #2 June 23rd, 2006

Hi hb ... it is hard to tell in the tab, I agree. Does listening to the mp3 or watching the movie not help? What about just singing the melody in your head (if you know the tune, of course) and then figuring out which is which by ear?

As you say, though, as long as the notes you're wondering about are all in the same chord, any will work ... one of them is the true melody note; the others are harmony notes.

Let me know which lessons you're having trouble with ...

hb · #3 June 24th, 2006

Kirk: Thanks for your reply, I appreciate you taking time with these silly questions. I am practicing your "Over the Rainbow" and have even printed out the tab and then listened to the track while trying to mark out the melody on the printed version, but I guess I'm not very good in "multi-tasking" !
In the first version of this lesson beggining with the 6th bar, I just can't get the words in my head to fit that bar, thus being stumped on the melody there.I never really thought much on how much easier it is to play a song when you know what it is supposed to sound like before-hand until I picked up a guitar! Sorry so trivial.
thanks,
hb

Kirk Lorange · #4 June 24th, 2006

Hi again hb.

Generally speaking, the melody line is the 'top line', the line using the highest notes in pitch. Our ears tend to hear the highest notes as being the most important. In bar 6, all the high notes are the melody line.

hb · #5 June 24th, 2006

Thanks a bunch.....I'lll put that in my memory bank!
hb

cshude · #6 June 28th, 2006

Something that I've found helpful from time to time with particularly difficult songs is to work first on the fingerings- get to where you can make the chord changes and hit the notes. Once you get familiar with that, then you can start working on bringing out the melody, rhythms, putting the expression in, etc.

marinoFret · #7 January 9th, 2007

Try humming the song. You'll see (hear) the best what note fits in.