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Watch Me Learn It By Ear (ft. "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)

Lesson #365 • May 15, 2021

Video lesson

Editor’s notes

Hey friends! In this video I want to show the process of learning a song by ear, using the classic “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” as performed by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. This video is inspired by this question from Patreon supporter Arnold:

“I have been playing about 15 years, but I can’t play by heart. I need to know a method to learn a song by listening and understanding why to use a certain chord progression or tone.”

With this question in mind, I thought it would helpful to dive right in using this one song as an example. Although every song is different, there are a few common steps you’ll generally want to take when learning a song by ear (which I demonstrate). These include:

  1. Figuring out the time signature of a song (e.g. 4/4 time, 3/4 time, 6/8 time, etc)
  2. Figuring out what key the song is in (e.g. Key of G)
  3. Once you know the key, figuring out the chords being used (e.g. G C Em D)
  4. Figuring out the strumming
  5. etc

In this video, I walk through most of these steps as they pertain to this particular song. It’s my hope to continue this series with other songs, periodically – selecting tunes from various styles / difficulty levels / etc, to help pass along tricks I’ve learned in my 20 years of playing. I hope you enjoy!

The Nitty Gritty Dirty Band’s version of this song

This is the recording that I’m using in my video, if you want to hear it for context:

If you dig this lesson, check out the one I did for Souvenirs by John Prine – where I figure out the exact Travis Picking fingerstyle tab for the entire verse sequence:

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Title (long)
Watch Me Learn It By Ear (ft. "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)
Title (short)
Will The Circle Be Unbroken by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
YouTube URL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxvXa9yEgs8
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Slug
365
Lesson URL
/lessons/365/
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