Congratulations! You’ve made the choice to join the Ear-Opening Challenge - I can’t tell you how excited I am to bring you everything over the next 28 days.

Less than a month from now, you’ll:

  • ‘Activate’ your ears and hear music in a completely new (and deeper way)
  • Look ‘over my shoulder’ and learn 20+ new bass lines by ear for yourself
  • Use the Zipline Principle to finally ‘unblock’ your ear

However, opening/unblocking your ears is just the first step to developing something I call:

A 'Single-Listen Ear'

A Single-Listen Ear is like playing by ear, but on steroids. 

You hear anything once - then play it.

If a keys player throws a random chord progression your way, you know exactly what they played and how you can play along.

If a singer wants to change the key with zero notice, a Single-Listen Ear lets you do it instantly without sweating bullets or having to relearn the song from scratch.

If you want to learn a brand new song, having a Single-Listen Ear means you nail it on the first try.

This means:

  • You can stop endlessly chasing tabs, sheet music, YouTube/Songsterr/Ultimate Guitar tutorials
  • Instantly figuring out the keys and chords to a song so you can guarantee you’ll always be playing the right notes
  • No spending hours painstakingly fishing, hunting and ‘pecking’ for notes
  • Learning songs in one listen (sometimes even finishing learning it BEFORE the song ends)
  • Pulling the bass lines off your favorite recordings on the first try without needing someone to teach them to you

When non-musicians see you use your ‘Single-Listen Ear’, it can seem like magic; almost unbelievable.

People say things like:

Or, “There’s no way that was the first time you played that song. It sounded like you’ve been playing it for YEARS!”

Even some less experienced musicians have trouble believing this is possible - until they learn to do it themselves.

Only then do they fully realize it IS absolutely possible, even if:

  • You don’t have perfect pitch (you don’t need it)
  • You think you’re ‘too old’ to learn (you can start building a single listen ear at any age)
  • You’ve only ever used tabs or YouTube tutorials to learn songs and bass lines
  • You don’t have naturally ‘good’ ears (the Ear-Opening Challenge will dramatically improve your ears)

So How Do You ‘Earn’ Your Own Single-Listen Ear?

It’s not magic - it’s a skill.

And it’s one you can learn, if you know the steps.

Once your ears are open, the next step is to get deep into the different intervals that make up music so you can permanently banish ‘Single-Note-Syndrome’ (where you get ‘stuck’ on a single note for AGES and can’t move past it).

Then, improve your chances of playing the right notes by 82% (seriously - I did the math) by diving into the structure of keys.

Next, ensure that you never have to ask the guitarist what chords are being played ever again by getting your mind and ears around all the essential chords.

Then, use the ‘reverse method’, the ‘divide and conquer method’ or the ‘chordal method’ to quickly and easily pull the bass line out of any recording.

And the final step is to reliably and automatically play by ear wherever you go and whenever you need by crafting your own personal playing by ear system.

Building your Single-Listen Ear does take work and is too much to fit in the 28 Day ‘Ear-Opening’ Challenge.

However, I do have another course that shows you the step-by-step path to building your own Single-Listen Ear called:

In fact, when you can play by ear, people will look to you to tell them what the chords are and what to play.

If you want to learn a bass line, you can simply put the recording on and figure it out - sometimes in a single listen. 

You don’t have to spend hours trawling through unreliable tab sites, searching for sheet music or finding a YouTube cover you can copy. Simply pick up your bass and put it through your playing by ear system. 

It’s not magic - it’s a skill and it’s exactly what I teach in my course, Level Up Your Ear:

Sit in on any jam session, learn songs and bass lines in a single listen, and finally stop being the weakest link in the band (while escaping the cage of tabs, notation and YouTube covers)

Even if you:

  • Don’t have a ‘good’ ear
  • Struggle to hear the bass on recordings
  • Don’t have ‘perfect pitch’ (you don’t need it)
  • Get nervous when someone asks you to jam
  • Feel like the ‘weak link’ among other musicians
  • Only ever use tabs and YouTube to learn songs
  • Don’t have the confidence to even try playing by ear

In Level Up Your Ear, you'll learn:

  • How to develop your own ear training blueprint to make learning songs by ear faster and easier than you ever thought possible
  • How to finally stop being a slave to the guitarist’s chord shapes and the keys player’s left hand: you’ll never have to ask what chords are being played again
  • The ‘reverse’ method of transcribing bass lines that lets you fill-in-the-blanks of tricky bass parts
  • How to avoid ‘Single-Note-Syndrome’ where you agonize over every separate note for ages before moving on to the next one and repeating the whole excruciating process
  • How to find the key of a song ‘on the fly’ - Master this and you’ll never struggle or need to search for notes at a jam session again
  • The three playing by ear mistakes bass players make that lead to weeks or months of tear-your-hair-out frustration, and eventually push some bassists to quit

Developing your own ‘Single-Listen Ear’ means you’re bulletproof; you’re invincible.

You can show up anywhere, play anything with anyone and be 100% confident that you’re going to sound great and hold your own - even if you’re playing unfamiliar songs and even if you’re not given the key, chords or any hints at all about what notes to play.

Level Up Your Ear is usually closed for new students, but because you’ve joined the challenge, I wanted to give you the option to join Level Up Your Ear so you can learn to play by completely ear and become the kind of invincible bass player who can play anything with anyone at the drop of a hat.

If you’re happy only taking the first step to playing by ear by joining the Challenge, that’s great! Level Up Your Ear probably isn’t right for you at the moment.

But if you want to open your ears and learn to sit in on jam sessions, ditch the tabs for good and finally hold your own among the ‘legit’ musicians, I’d love to have you as a student in Level Up Your Ear.

Still on the fence? Have a look at what some of the existing LUYE students said after going through the course:

"I’ve loved [Green Day’s Longview] for years, but today after listening to it a lot, I literally sat down at 6:45 tonight and within less than 5 minutes, had worked it out by ear. I took the January class of Level Up Your Ear, so for everyone who’s going through it now - it’s difficult now, it doesn’t make sense, but it really does work…I’ve used [app] and a number of others, but this method is specific to bassists and is so fundamental...It never ceases to amaze me - it’s like magic; a magical skill."

Lloyd N.

"Early on when we started the class, we talked about our goals and I was wanting to join a cover band. So I was able to audition for one and get in! The fun part was using the first 3 weeks of our lessons to really knuckle down and really understand the music and not have to rely on the tabs and everything."

Aielo J.

"...after doing all this ear training with you guys, the song “Norwegian Wood” came into my head, and [I thought] that song’s gotta start on the 5th. So I grabbed my bass and I played the melody and the whole thing resolved exactly to the tonic. So I was really really encouraged about that. It was almost like - it gave me chills. Like WOW - I finally got it!"

Tony M.

"“I came in with very little expectations because I haven’t been able to hear. People have tried to teach me, so my expectations were low…What was most surprising is that you gave me a whole system to follow and it was a logical system that worked. So many people say, “This is how you do it [play by ear]” and it may work for him and it may work for other people, but it didn’t work for me. And what I liked is you gave us so much to work with…that I could figure out what works for me.”

Alaistar K.

"“Also my partner said my bass playing has gone to a new level since I started your LUYE course and that other band members had also commented on the improvement. I’m very grateful for your help and am really enjoying working out bass lines and constantly learning.”

Ruth K.

Add Level Up Your Ear To My Order