Learning songs by ear

[Kevin Winn]

^^ This ^^

The way we all learned to play guitar back before digital music was to sit next to the turntable and keep picking up the needle and placing it back where that Jimmy Page solo started and trying to get notes out of it until we more or less got it.

For chords, it was Find The Bass Notes, then refine those chord choices (minor, augmented, etc.) and write them down. After a while, I learned to recognize chord intervals by ear and could anticipate chord changes enough to only need to figure out which key a song was played. The rest I could usually get after once or twice through.

The ear is trainable, but it takes time and repetition.

[Mudchutney]

To sum up all the advice I might give (most of which has already been given).... always learn the tune properly in your head first, and stick initially to simple tunes. The childhood suggestion was brilliant, this will teach you the intervals. Oh and keep up the exercises / scales etc.