How can I clearly hear the notes without sheet music while somebody else is playing?

I am a new sax player so i can’t always get the right sound at the right rhythm.

Sometimes when I play, I can’t even get the sound. I know that I have to practice harder to get over this, but still don’t know the right way to practice. I don’t play with other players yet.

On Day 1,

It was pretty irritating 🙂 but i could play the a b d and f on day 1 though they almost sounded like each other

(playing 3.5 months)

(practices 5-6 days/week)

(Knows “5 or 6 I guess ” major scales”

-Ezgi

My response

The consistency at which you practice isn’t bad, try to increase to every day if possible.

You said that you have learned a bit of music by ear, that is also good. Keep doing that, as you learn more music by ear, you will improve at it.

Your response about the scales you know is vague. Figure out what you know and can play immediately without thinking about them. You should learn all 12 major scales if you want to be able to play music by ear. Otherwise, if the music is in a key you don’t know, it’s going to be much harder.

Think about it this way, a scale is essentially the simplest thing you can play in a given key. If you are slow to be able to play the scales you don’t know, think about how hard it will be to play music (which is more complicated than the scale) in that same key. Music is composed in many different keys, some are more common than others, but all of them are used.

I made a class on getting started learning music by ear for saxophone players