[DDDorian]

The ultimate payoff for me is not so much about being able to transcribe songs as it is about elucidating the melodies I hear into my head and dragging them out into reality. You don't need perfect pitch, and from what I'm led to believe "perfect pitch" is more something you're born with than something that can be developed; what most of us work towards is "relative pitch" which in my opinion is a more pragmatic goal.

Anyway, Steve Vai did a bunch of columns for Guitar World on ear training which I refer back to to this day, which you can download here and here. Chekkit

[skinhead]

Doing riffs by year is sick, you get an awesome ear when you do it a lot.