Basic Meter Guitar Lesson
Basic Meter
Bryan begins his series by breaking down 5 drum grooves and analyzing the time signature and feel of each. Before you can even start to learn a song, you need to know about the groove.
Taught by Bryan Beller in Six Steps to Learning Songs By Ear seriesLength: 19:18Difficulty: 1.5 of 5
Supplemental Learning Material
Six Steps to Learning Songs By Ear
Found in our Beginner Lesson SetsBryan Beller of the Aristocrats, Dethklok, and Steve Vai takes you inside his six step method to learning any song by ear. This series is specifically aimed at bass players who want to get out there and play with others.
Lesson 1
Series Introduction
Bryan Beller of the Aristocrats, Dethklok, and Steve Vai takes you inside his six step method to learning any song by ear. This series is specifically aimed at bass players who want to get out there and...
Length: 8:37 Difficulty: 0.5 FREELesson 2
Basic Meter
Bryan begins his series by breaking down 5 drum grooves and analyzing the time signature and feel of each. Before you can even start to learn a song, you need to know about the groove.
Length: 19:18 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Advanced Meter
Bryan Beller breaks down five more drum grooves to illustrate how he goes about determining meter and feel. This time, the examples are a bit trickier. Put your thinking caps on and start countin'.
Length: 19:44 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Pitch
Moving on to the second of six steps in this series, Bryan shares a few of his tricks for magically hearing notes and their names as well as distinguishing between intervals using his favorite songs....
Length: 17:16 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Rhythm & Groove
Step Three! It isn't enough just to determine the meter. You have to know how to play with the drummer. Determining how the groove works and where the accents are is essential to hearing how the bass fits...
Length: 20:51 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Harmonic Context
Once you've determined the meter, pitch, and rhythm for a piece of music, it's time to dive into the harmonic context. In other words, what are the chords? Learning the key and chords will make figuring...
Length: 11:58 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Real Songs: Harmonic Context
Bryan takes a look at two very different songs and breaks their choruses down in terms of harmonic context. He also illustrates that having a handle on all of the previous steps to learning songs by ear...
Length: 18:37 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Song Form: Pop Song
Most of us can probably identify a verse, chorus, or bridge in a pop song, but have you ever really sat down and counted the bars in each section to fully map out a song in your head before you try to...
Length: 16:22 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Song Form: Rock/Fusion Part 1
Now that you've made it through counting bars and breaking up a simple pop song form, it's time to try your ears out on something crazier! Learning how to count bars and label song sections is essential...
Length: 12:03 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Song Form: Rock/Fusion Part 2
Bryan continues his study of complex song form by covering some of the not-so-recognizable parts of his tune "Seven Percent Grade".
Length: 12:43 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Style of AC/DC
Moving on to the last step in learning songs by ear, we arrive at "execution". Now you have a chance to apply all the steps in a real musical context. Bryan's first example is a track in the style of AC/DC.
Length: 27:06 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Style of Led Zeppelin
Bryan's application of all six steps continues with this familiar sounding track in the style of Led Zeppelin. Watch out for a few unexpected bumps in the road! You'll encounter a temporary transposition...
Length: 33:14 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Style of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Slides, trills, tritones and a wicked groove - this "in the style of" tune sounds simple, but learning songs by ear always means some surprises. Walk through this tune step by step with Bryan and put your...
Length: 25:57 Difficulty: 0.0 Members Only
Style of Metallica
Moving a little faster now, Bryan takes you through a track in the style of one of his favorite bands. Pay close attention to how the bass moves with respect to the other instruments. Things aren't always...
Length: 27:57 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Style of Muse and Mixed Meters
Get ready for the advanced classes! When you take the driving, aggressive sound of Muse, combine it with some tricky mixed meters and a different tuning, just one measure can keep you busy for awhile.
Length: 22:00 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Style of Muse and Modal Shifts
Continuing with the quirky Muse-style track, Bryan takes you through the B-section and beyond. You'll encounter more rhythmic fun as well as some unexpected modal shifts.
Length: 16:16 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Style of Rage Against The Machine: Riff of Doom
This track features heavy riffs and a tricky song form in the style of Rage Against The Machine. Exercise your ear by working in a style that helped Bryan Beller become the bass player he is today.
Length: 21:05 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Style of Rage Against The Machine: Complex Song Form
Now that you have the main riff and a couple other sections under your fingers, prepare for an exercise in song form. Rage uses a lot of different sections and riffs in each song, and it's sometimes tricky...
Length: 18:03 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Bubblegum Pop
A manufactured music form by pro studio musicians and big-money producers, this type of tune actually grants bass players a lot of freedom. Have fun groovin' and improvising a bit. Stay on your toes though,...
Length: 29:16 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Style of the Allman Brothers: Tonal Centers and Major Pentatonic
Determining the key proves to be a challenge in this soul-inspired, Allman Brothers style track. Hone in to the "A" section in this lesson and try to figure out where the tonal center is.
Length: 15:30 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Allman Brothers: Fast, Frequent Chord Changes
Exercise your ear with a "B" section that seems to have an endless chord progression. The key here is remembering which chord goes where.
Length: 15:48 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Allman Brothers: Put It All Together
After you've figured out the bridge section by ear, move on to the song form and play along. See if you can remember where all the chord changes and subtle nuances occur!
Length: 15:02 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Play Hard Part 1, Final Exam
You've made it through the sound-a-likes. You've made it through some of the challenging genre-specific tracks. Now it's time to really step it up with a series of lessons focused on Bryan Beller's original...
Length: 16:55 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Play Hard Part 2, Final Exam
Just because there's another chorus, it doesn't mean you can go to sleep! Stay alert and keep with this challenging final stretch. In this lesson, learn the balance between comping and learning specific,...
Length: 18:27 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Play Hard Part 3, Final Exam
True to pop rock song form, you'll get to test your ear on a bridge and guitar solo. If you're gonna comp, make sure you stay out of the way of the focal instruments. As a bass player, your role is supportive.
Length: 17:02 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Play Hard Part 4, Final Exam
In this last lesson of the series, Bryan walks through the rest of "Play Hard" and drives home the importance of utilizing all six steps when learning songs by ear.
Length: 27:33 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
About Bryan Beller
View Full Biography
Famed bassist for Steve Vai, power-trio "The Aristocrats", and Metalocalypse's very own "Dethklok", Beller has over 20 years of experience as a studio and touring musician. Graduating from the Berklee College of Music in 1992, he has also served as a contributing editor for Bass Player magazine. Beller contributes a critically important series of lessons to the JamPlay platform, with a central focus of identifying and playing songs by ear.
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Member Comments about this Lesson
Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.Great series! Please turn up the bass in the mix. I can hardly hear it for every bass lesson so far. Thanks!
What are you listening to the videos with? I can barely hear the bass when going through my laptop speakers but when I plug in my headphones I can hear it fine.
I also found it near impossible to hear bass lessons (these, Dave Ellefson, and Evan Brewer) through my laptop speakers, but it's fine through headphones. It seems to be worse for lessons where the bass is mixed in with other things, since Billy Sheehan's lessons were fine (he only plays alone).
are you having trouble with every bass lesson on the site so far?
Bryan, I'm not a bass player, I signed up for these lessons to learn more about the role of instruments in a band. When I saw this series of lessons I had huge hopes for how it would go. After watching this lesson I have no doubt that I wont be disapointed. This was fantastic. Note to jamplay: this guy is good you should use him as much as possible. Jim