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These days I play mostly by ear. For most rock, pop, folk, etc., i.e. songs that do not have super complex chord structures, I can almost always just jump in and play along. Being able to do that sure gives your memory a break. How did I get to that point? Well, it was a long voyage, but I am self-taught and started figuring out tunes pretty early on in my development. It was just something I did, poorly at first then got better at it over time. I also picked up a lot of theory in my early days. That can be a big help sometimes. There was a period in my life, before I was married, when I would come home from work and bang away on my guitar to work out my frustrations. I would turn on my favorite radio station and just play along with whatever song came on. I'd do this for probably an hour, maybe two or three times a week. I think it was in this period of time that my ear as well as my playing developed the most.
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