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One thing I dont have as strong as I wish is my musical ear. I mean in terms of hearing a song and saying, "Oh hey, its this chord, that note, etc". I have a piece or two I'd like to know some sections of. Would this be the proper place to ask?

Anyone?

I'm also new here, but from what I've seen this is a good place to ask (with the only condition being that you admit the 09 Celtics with a healthy Garnett would have destroyed the 09 Lakers (sorry, couldn't help myself)).

I can't tell if you're looking for ear training advice, or if you'd just like us to help you analyze a few pieces. Can you be more specific?

Haha!! You guessed correctly when you said I'm a Lakers fan. I'm so glad we finally won but I'll tell you it would have been sweeter to go through your C's. No doubt. and no I wont admit it! We had Andy Bynum and a more active Trevor Ariza this year!

To clarify myself, I mean there are some songs that I can't figure out the chords to save my life. Generally I'm alright @ figuring out chords. So I was just wondering if I could post links to the parts of the songs and have some one with the gift of ear help me figure out the chords and perhaps the Key.

Lol, had you admitted it I guess you wouldn't be a real Laker's fan. I never thought I'd say this, but I was blown away by Kobe's postseason performance.

If the songs aren't classical, I'd guess you should post them in the 'Pianist Corner - Non Classical' forum. Otherwise, feel free to post the links and we can help you figure out the chords, keys, or anything else you may need.

Well, first are you familiar with commonly used chords? Say in the key of C, the most commonly used chords are C (I = chord built off the first note of the scale), F (IV=built off the 4th note of the scale) and G (V=built off the 5th note). C, F and G are all major chords and so they will sound all alike, so it is just the key signature they are in that creates their function. Most songs will go from I-IV-V-I or a similar order, always ending on I and usually beginning on I.

Once you can ID those easily and play them in all keys and inversions with ease, then you can add more 7th chords: major 7th, dominant 7th, minor 7th/half diminished 7th, and fully diminished 7ths. There are other chords, and it depends on the style as to how much you need to get into it.

But basically, you need to learn to play them in all keys and all inversions, do a lot of playing on that particular style you are wanting to learn by ear while analyzing what chord you are playing. Jazz is probably the most time consuming style to do this in because they use a lot more complicated chords than most styles.

Flex,

in addition to what Morodiene says.
I will tell you that being able to identify a chord in a tune comes with practice.
If you're doing pop, it's usually very easy following the rules explained above.

The 2 easiest notes to recocgnize are the high and low note. That means usually you can fairly easily identify the bass note (the root of the chord often), and the high note (often the melody).
When there is a bass in the song, use that to find the root of the chord. The bass always always plays the root on beat 1.

Since pop music tends to not use complicated chords to re-use Morodienes term, you only need to identify the key. That's usually easy too. Just play major scales over what you hear until it sounds in.

After a short period of time, you will be able to identify those chords instantly. It's just practice.

For jazz, it's a little trickier because of lots of chords outside of the key. A little theory helps there. For example, why A7 works in the key of C and such.

Take care

When I first learned guitar, many years ago, I taught myself a lot of songs by ear without knowing theory. Now I'm pretty good at picking up songs by ear (not classical!) and here's what I'd suggest.

First thing is to identify the key. You can either listen and then try to find the opening chord on your keyboard, or find what sounds like the main melody note (ie where the singer or instrument "settles a bit") and then figure out what chord it would go in....ie if it is a c, it could go in a c chord, and f chord, an a minor chord.....

Any pop song will have the I IV and V in it, so if it's in a major key, you can get at least some of the chords.

Then, if it's a folk, or blues or very basic rock song, it may just have those 3 chords.

But you can start playing with the vi the iii and the ii.

You have to know some music theory. It may be easier once you have the key, to learn the chord away from the recorded song, since it may be in a key that's harder for you (Like C sharp minor!)

And remember, you can substitute all kinds of chords for what's written, as long as you know the melody. That's what jazz is all about!

The way I learned to do this was by buying a basic folk/pop song book with lots of songs, play those, get a sense of chord progressions, and then try learning songs from, not the radio (unless you're recording), but from Rhapsody or Utube, someplace where you can play the tune over and over.

Now I know quite a bit of theory, it's a lot easier, but before I knew anything, I just learned that in the key of C, there'd be an F, a G, and probably an am chord.

Oh, and you can take basic ear training class, either online (there are free ones) or at your community college.