Brad Davis is a highly successful Nashville studio musician who does not read standard notation. He does read tablature and chord charts in the Nashville numbering system, but due to the lack of teachers in his area when growing up, he taught himself to play various instruments by ear; that's how he functions in the studio and conveys his knowledge in this double CD ear training course. While the examples in his various guitar and mandolin ear training courses are carefully graded, it's evident from the first lick that his melodic sensibility is advanced indeed.

Just as he learned without notation or tablature, Davis introduces increasingly complex licks and phrases by ear, demonstrating how he first sings them slowly in nonsense syllables and then duplicates what he has sung on the guitar. The licks or phrases are then systematically transposed to other keys. Once your ear is "pretty well oiled", Davis insists you'll be able to play simple melodies entirely by ear in any key. Since neither notation nor tablature are involved in the Davis ear training system, this process hinges on the ability to memorize a lick or phrase by listening repeatedly and then singing it to oneself, complete with verbal mimicking of hammer-ons and pull-offs!

As both a schooled musician and a folk musician, I'm amazed at the orderly and progressive way that Brad Davis presents his material without standard notation or tab. In lay terms he introduces complex concepts like combining muscle memory with mental recall. Even a schooled musician would benefit from working through this course.

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Listen to some samples:
Disc 1 - Track 3: Power of Ear Training (Section 1) [1:18]
Disc 1 - Track 4: Section 1, Con't. [1:54]
Disc 1 - Track 5: How to Hum Phrases [6:28]