Play Guitar By Ear - Two Chord Songs
By Mike P Hayes

When you are learning to play guitar by ear it's helpful to use some easy to remember concepts that help relate the new material to something we already know, this is called connected learning.

Our western music system, is based on the European diatonic system, the effect of this music system is not unlike the effect of gravity.

The 'one' chord is like our 'musical' sun, just as the sun has a strong magnetic effect on the other planets in the solar system, our 'one' chord has a musical magnetic effect on the other chords, meaning each chord in a particular key wants to return 'home' to the 'one' chord.

This musical gravity concept will help us accurately predict the chord changes in a piece of music, and will make the process of playing by ear a very simple task.

Our musical solar system:
From our previous studies we were able to place the 'one' chord in the first and last bars of a song. Returning to our musical solar system concept, if we think of our 'one' chord as the musical sun the next chord closest to our musical sun would be the 'five' chord.

In other words, the chord that has the greatest desire to return home, because of it's proximity to the musical sun is the 'five' chord.

Visually, think of the 'five' chord as the planet Mercury orbiting the sun.

Two chord songs:
Now, we will apply this new information to musical situations that will increase our ability to understand how musicians play by ear, without any written (visual) information.

Two chord songs reference chart:

Key of C - Chord 1 = C Chord 5 = G
Key of C# - Chord 1 = C# Chord 5 = G#
Key of Db - Chord 1 = Db Chord 5 = Ab
Key of D - Chord 1 = D Chord 5 = A
Key of D# - Chord 1 = D# Chord 5 = A#
Key of Eb - Chord 1 = Eb Chord 5 = Bb
Key of E - Chord 1 = E Chord 5 = B
Key of F - Chord 1 = F Chord 5 = C
Key of F# - Chord 1 = F# Chord 5 = C#
Key of G - Chord 1 = G Chord 5 = D
Key of G# - Chord 1 = G# Chord 5 = D#
Key of Ab - Chord 1 = Ab Chord 5 = Eb
Key of A - Chord 1 = A Chord 5 = E
Key of A# - Chord 1 = A# Chord 5 = E#
Key of Bb - Chord 1 = Bb Chord 5 = F
Key of B - Chord 1 = B Chord 5 = F#

Here is a typical eight bar, two chord song template in the key of 'C'.
C/// C/// G/// G///
C/// C/// G/// C///

Get this progression off the paper and into your head, play this progression over and over until you own it!

This progression is the basis for all your ear training, knowing how this progression sounds and feels will turbo charge your ability to play guitar by ear.

Mike Hayes is a teacher, author, speaker and consultant. Get his tips and tested strategies proven to boost your guitar playing his membership site at http://www.guitarcoaching.com today.