I’m very excited for this lesson, man! I know we got to talk about this subject a bit, Matt, which was really neat. 😊

I still am pretty confused by how you can compose original songs by writing down the music first, not by ear. To me that’s like writing down a recipe first before you’ve tried to make it. But then I cook the exact same way I figure out songs, very haphazardly and free-form-ly and not measuring anything I don’t have to. And very clumsily. 😂 But the drawback to not using a recipe is that you can’t easily share the recipe with anyone, nor necessarily recreate the dish the exact same way each time. It’s harder to be consistent.

Playing by ear is like Daniel Day-Lewis riding a fiesty mama buffalo onto the stage of a Nickelback concert: Very loud and disorderly, but also kinda entertaining while it’s happening.

Haha, @gi_gi_ so glad you found it funny! 😅

I thought the phrase “fiesty mama buffalo” may have been why no one else replied but I’m glad you did. 😂

Yes, I think ear training is a general thing, too. Some people can hear a note and know what it is just out of the ether, but I can’t do that. I need to have a starting point. Like I could start with a C or F chord on uke (two of the eight chords I know…) then figure out a melody / harmony from there. But I couldn’t sing a C note just out of nowhere. I also can’t sing though, so… 😅

Thanks for this lesson, Matt! It made me feel much better because I’m one of these people that only hear that something is not right, but then I’m lost. I will now more often try to figure it out without the tabs. I’m also not a good singer though I tried. I had 2 years of lessons but I think I will retry one day.