for a long while i've known that developing my ear would be invaluable in my musical life. it's just another one of those skills that probably a small percentage of guitarists ever really develop to a decent degree. i've certainly been there for 20+ years. sure, certain licks will be familiar or some chord progressions... or even just through experience knowing that if you play anything remotely heavy you're probably in Em (relatively speaking, if you're in standard tuning) and will be chugging on the open E a lot. when you hear it, you know it. certainly for basically my entire time playing guitar if i learned something by ear it was literally trial and error. does this pitch i'm playing match the pitch i'm hearing on the recording? if yes, then great. if no, go up or down a fret and repeat. i wouldn't call that learning my ear, that's just brute forcing it. ew.

the past few years i've tried several times to work on developing my ear to not much success. whenever i'd get started i'd quickly lose interest and go on to something that felt better because progress was faster and more measurable. i'd usually try to figure out some chord progression while driving to work. the 20 minute commute would net me a verse... maybe. even still, i wouldn't be able to check to see if i was right until after work and i never did because i forgot all about it the second i got to work. well, fuff.

bass guitar practice area
this last time i tried to give it another shot i think i got over some hurdle because it seems to be making much more sense this time. don't get me wrong, it's still plenty difficult, but it makes more sense. i think i've managed to develop or settle on some sort of methodology for working my way through a progression that i didn't seem to have previously. i've known that using your voice is crucial for internalizing whatever it is you're playing but it seems to have really helped me grab onto something that works. the problem is i'm a horrific singer and i very easily get lost on intervals i'm very comfortable with. like a major 2... in a vacuum i can nail it all day long... toss in some other intervals and suddenly i can't sing it or hear it any more.

recently i've been able to figure out progressions without my instrument and only using my voice, sometimes perfectly and other times... well, mostly. it has the same feeling as when i was first learning the fretboard. at some point something clicked and and felt like a big level up and at times a super power. at some point it becomes normalized and just integrated into your understanding of music and the instrument. it no longer feels like a "thing" and is just the way it is. my ear development is at the stage where it feels like a big level up but not a super power yet. it's exciting and motivating.

to continue the language metaphor that i use often... no, wait, it's not a metaphor. music very much is a language. well, to that point, it feels like when you learn just enough of a language to be able to follow conversation without mentally conjugating verbs and checking tenses. you're no longer hearing individual words but hearing the phrases and sentences. it makes sense. well, progressions (or melodies) are just making sense now. this is an exciting place to be.