Playing a Song You Have Never Heard

Roger A Trahan · Post by **Roger A Trahan** » 20 Apr 2002 3:20 am

Jeff Newman was giving a course called Play What you Hear and Hear What you Play a few years ago. In this course he went through many standard progressions and the most common ones used. If you understand the Nashville Number System Most progressions follow this pattern 136251. Once you understand this look where you are in the song and the next chord is the next number in this pattern. It's worked for me in over 90% of thse songs we play. Good Luck, Keep Steelin and God Bless.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 20 Apr 2002 6:10 am

I comes down to practice for me. I spend time every day working on ear training and scales. It makes picking up the melody and changes and then finding them on the neck go pretty fast for the most part.

One of the first things I work on with new students right after putting the picks on is how to play what they hear. Anybody can do it. There is nothing special about that skill that can't be learned with a little work.

Bob

Larry Bell · Post by **Larry Bell** » 20 Apr 2002 7:27 am

If you understand the Nashville Number System Most progressions follow this pattern 136251.

Hey, Roger
What's an example of a song that fits this pattern? I know lots that use those particular chords but haven't been able to come up with one that uses that order. If most songs use it, maybe I'm missing something.

Most country songs I know don't even have five different chords. And most have a 4 chord, which isn't in the sequence you posted.

For example, if the band wanted to play Rocky Top and you didn't know it, how would that knowledge help you? How about Crazy Arms?

I don't think it's really quite that simple or methodical, even for a relatively simple tune. I still maintain that a well trained ear is the best tool for this job.
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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2000 Fessenden S-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Emmons D-10 9x9, 1971 Dobro[This message was edited by Larry Bell on 20 April 2002 at 10:07 AM.]

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 20 Apr 2002 11:55 am

Most every song is a little (or a lot) like some other song. I try to relate what I'm hearing for the first time to something I've already heard or played. I'll listen to the first verse, and just do some pads if it's really strange. By the end of the first verse, I can usually fake it pretty well. If I don't know all the changes, or can't pick up a logical progression, I'll just play some scales while I'm thinking about how to nail the ride. Ricky is right...you gotta be able to know the chords just by hearing them, and know what to substitute, or you can play expanded two-note chords with octave harmonies, and really make most people think you know what you're doing.

Of course, having done all this about 10,000 nights helps too!