Most of the great rock guitarists played by ear. They didn't read music, and they didn't know much about scales or traditional music theory. So how did they know where to put their fingers?
The visual nature of the guitar might help explain it. Strings and frets form a grid on the neck. Common shapes and patterns like chords, scales and licks can be easily moved along this grid, and unlike most other instruments, the shapes will remain the same as they're moved.
Quotes from the legends
"Playing by ear" means not reading music. But it also implies you're not thinking of the names of the notes as you play. That would assume some knowledge of music theory, like how a scale is constructed. Many of the greats are admittedly poor in theory. And if you don't read music, there's also the chance you might never even have learned the name of every note on every string of the guitar neck.
So how did they find their way around the neck? How did they know where to put their fingers?
Some say it's just because they were especially gifted. This implies that mere mortals like us are different. It ignores the fact that most rock guitarists play by ear. This is true of all skill levels, from beginners to intermediate to semi-pro to the legends.
Maybe good guitarists who play by ear learn subconsciously what a trained musician learns consciously: a sense of intervals and relative pitch. Many players talk about the visual aspect of playing guitar. Relative pitch on the guitar is very visual. You're mentally calculating which fret to put your finger on, relative to the current note or chord or key, to get the sound you hear in your head.
It also might explain something else. Despite a professed ignorance of theory, many rock guitarists will speak in numbers -- the language of relative pitch -- to describe things like chord tones ("the third", "fifth") or chord progressions (the "four" (IV) chord, or the "five" (V) chord).
HyperTab mimics the natural progression of how most players learn, starting with the mechanical (copying what you see and hear), moving to visual (shapes and patterns), and finally to pitch, including numbers (relative pitch).
"Most rock musicians play by ear -- if it sounds good we do it."
Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden)
Guitar Legends magazine, 2008
"I can't read or write music...I visualize things."
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Guitar Legends magazine, 2008
"Because he was unable to read or write music..."
Jimi Hendrix
memorial project website
Q: "Did the piano training transfer itself to the guitar?"
A: "Oh, definitely, but in a very subliminal way. Because I never learned how to read, really; I used to fool the teacher. I did it all by ear."
Eddie Van Halen
Guitar World magazine, 7/85
"I felt so nervous, because I couldn't read music, and they were all playing from music sheets on stands."
Eric Clapton
on guest session with Aretha Franklin
from his autobiography "Slowhand"
"...I'm searching for new chords and shapes and things. I don't just sit down and play scales...I can't play a scale. You think I'm kidding but I'm not. I can't. Well I can, I can play the notes but it's true though."
Jimmy Page
Modern Guitars magazine, 1986
"The foundation of (my teaching approach) is the way I view the fretboard -- which is the way a lot of people view it -- and that's in shapes. You end up learning the same stuff you'd learn from notation or tablature, but it's a much easier way to understand it."
George Lynch
Guitar Player magazine, 10/07
Q: "Do you think in terms of scales and conventional harmony, or are you playing more intuitively?"
A: "I have no idea about scales.... I'm not trying to sound like an idiot savant -- I know my stuff -- but I don't know all the names of the different scales."
David Gilmour
Guitar Player magazine, 1/09
"I try to keep it simple, because I'm not the world's fastest or anything, and I've never practiced scales in my life."
Paul McCartney
Guitar Player magazine, 7/90
"I'm not heavy on theory or reading music books... (and) I only know two or three scales."
"Dimebag" Darrell
from his book "Riffer Madness"
Q: "Do you know what you're doing in musical terms?"
A: "I haven't a clue."
Angus Young
Guitar Player magazine, 2/84
