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[JazzyAnt]

As I continue to re-learn I am practicing some old George Benson stuff. Without sheet music I am having difficulty figuring out which chords he is sometimes playing. Is there an "easy" way to determine these chords? For example, George does some chord runs in the background while the sax is soloing "The Cooker". How can I figure them out?

[mr. beaumont]

ear training can be tough, so i teach it this way...

see if you can get yourself to recognize major, minor and dominant, as a starter. then you can go about extensions ans so forth.

it'll be beneficial to start with easier stuff first if your completely new to figuring it out by ear...
_________________
“For the guitar is the most unpredictable and least reliable musical instrument in existence...and also the sweetest, the warmest, the most delicate, whose melancholic voice awakes in our soul exquisite reveries.”

Andres Segovia

[Jazzy]

As for this tune, a blues i Ab. Learn all the inversions of the chords, and also work on "minorising" ( don`t know if this is the right word? ) them.
For Ab7 play Ebm7, Db7 play Abm7 etc. For chromatic/passing chords he used a lot of dim.-chords. And half-steps into chords, on the off-beats.
And always think melody, and voice-leading.

I`ve copied a lot of Benson stuff, much to learn there:)

I don`t think there`s an "easy way" doing this, just practice
And listen carefully how he does it. Especially rhythmically, as this is often more important than the actual chords in this context.