Learning By Ear

Our goddaughter's dad is taking guitar lessons and learning to play songs by ear. It reminded me that I AM capable of this. I've learned most of the Pixies songs by starting with bass or guitar tab and correcting it to what I think is right. It seems a little like cheating, but I feel like correcting the tab and memorizing the songs...plus trying to master the vocal parts while playing...is challenge and reward enough. Plus, at the breakneck pace we've gone at, it would have just taken me too long to learn everything by ear. I did purposely learn the very first Pixies song I learned to play by ear...Nimrod's Son...mostly to convince myself that I still could do it and that I still knew how to play the bass.

But I'm coming to the end of the line with the Pixies songs. To be certain, I've still got half the catalog...around 40 songs...to learn. But I've gone ahead and have gotten tab for most all of those and am even beginning to work through correcting the tab. I won't be memorizing the remaining songs any time soon, but I'm setting myself up to have written music for all of them so that when the band decides to add a new song that I can just whip out the music and start memorizing the song.

All that's left to write out (though many still need correcting or compressing...ie taking a 4 page tab and converting it to its basic repeated parts that can be printed on a single sheet) are the songs for which I can't find any tab at all. Not bass nor guitar tab.

These are the remaining tunes.
Boom Chicka Boom (early rarity, not actually sure if this is a cover or an original)
Video is from one of their first shows (October 31, 1986), I believe the very first.


Theme from Narc (sort of a cover, its an interpretation of a video game song)


Ain't That Pretty At All (Warren Zevon cover)


Born in Chicago (Paul Butterfield Band cover...this is your basic blues tune, so all I REALLY need to do is figure out what key it's in and then it'll fall into place)


Best get crackin'!