Best approach to learning songs on the fly

[icuker]

I was in an jam last weekend. We were doing a bunch of Pete Seeger songs. Anyway, since many of them went beyond the three chord arrangement I was getting a bit lost at times. To get better at that sort of thing what approaches would you recommend?

One thought I had was to take a book of common tunes that didn't have chords written and just practice playing them and then trying different keys. (I am able to transpose well enough)

Just open to suggestions.

[delb0y]

The way it worked for me was to learn each "extra" chord one at a time and get used to how it sounded. Then when I hear that sound I'm in with a shout of knowing where the song's going.

By 'extra' I mean beyond the standard I IV and V

This was done over many years and I never actually set out to do it, it simply kind of happened. For example, as a young kid listening to Johnny Cash's Hey Porter I realised there was an extra chord in there - the IIm chord (though it's been a while - it might have been a major chord). I think that was the first time I had to sit down and work it out that first 'extra' chord. Suddenly I started to stumble across it in other tunes, too. Same thing happened with the VI minor - you now that G to Em at the beginning of Elvis's "His Latest Flame". I started hearing that everywhere. The G to Bmin (IIIm) in "the Weight" and in loads of soul songs was the same. The IIImajor is used in things like Freight Train, where in C there's a nice use of the E chord leading into the F. Mississippi John Hurt uses it too, and I think that's where I first heard it.

Just those few examples cover almost all the basic chords from any one key, and though they can - and are - used in other sequences, at least the ears were recognizing a good proportion of their usage.

A similar thing happened with the change from Major to Major 7th on the I chord (Lyin Eyes). I recognize that whenever it happens now. I love the change from a C7 to a C#dim that I hear in a lot of songs - right now I'm thinking of an Asleep At The Wheel Song but it's in lots of rockabilly too. I started to hear ii-V-Is once I knew what one sounded like. The little push during the turnaround of a blues where, say in E, the chords go | B7 | C7 / B7 / | instead of | B7 | A7 | is very common and once you've heard it you'll know it. There's the change from major to minor (often on the iv chord) which I think I first heard in a Steve Earle song, maybe a Townes song, but it's everywhere. There's a Ringo tune (I Can Help - IIRC) where I first heard an augmented chord in a progression (I first heard one on it's own at the beginning of No Particular Place To Go) and once you've heard that sound you'll know it in future.

All this took years, but it reached a point where I can often hear a song and know what the chords are just through this familiarity of sound. I'll do this when listening to music - see if I can figure out the chords in my head and then test myself later. If I hear a chord change that's nice but that I don't know I'll sit down and work it out and then there's another sequence added to the ears.

All of that said. I fail as many times as I succeed. Sometimes I simply miss an obvious chord change because it's disguised well. Sometimes I can hear a change but simply don't recognize it. Sometimes the chords and the change are just beyond my ears (jazz!), and often listening to modern rock and electronic and dance music I can't even hear chord changes (maybe there aren't any!) !! So I'm not saying I'm great at this. Quite the opposite, I'm a beginner compared to many folks I know who have superb ears. But the above process is what has happened naturally over many years for me, for what it's worth.

Cheers
Derek

[icuker]

Thanks for the reply. Makes sense to look at it that way. I do recognize the country progression going from the 1 to the II7 chord easy enough now. And of course the G to Em progression. I think what throws me the most is the minor chords. If in the key of G, hearing the change to am or bm. Especially if they're going from various minors in the key. Tough for me.

I did watch some Rob Bourasso videos on Youtube that impressed me. I know the basic principle of playing the chords of the scale but his approach seems pretty complete. However, it's hard to follow the explanations sometimes due to my lack of knowledge.

Another problem I had last Saturday was the the sound system was turned up and it was very hard to hear my own guitar, even though I stood aside from the speakers to avoid the noise (trying to protect my hearing mostly). Of course, I got by looking at what others were doing when the hard changes came by, my typical fall back technique (cheating, they call I think )