Question:
how does one learn to tab by ear? I mean really what are the procedures? I have always wanted to know, I don't know how still...well if anyone could help I would really appreciate it.
Answer:
Well, having an ear to hear the proper notes is the first step.
If you can't identify what it is you're hearing, how will you be able to transcribe it?
Next, being able to hear how and where those notes are played is another gift or art or skill that is helpful, especially with transcribing tab.
The redundancy inherent in the design of the guitar allows for the possibility to play certain notes up to 5 or 6 different places on the fretboard but the tone of each note due to where on the fretboard it's played and on which string (or strings) it's played is fairly unique so being able to correctly place the notes being played is very important.
That said, I've witnessed an awful lot of bad tab on the internet. My students bring me pages of songs that were printed from some rogue tab site and even a cursory listen to a recorded version of the tune shows serious errors in the tablature.
I am a big proponent of ear training and learning how to listen. To me, listening is as important as playing.
Even if your ear has trouble identifying certain notes or struggles with pitch, you should still be able to hear technique (bends, slides, staccato, legato, hammer-ons, pull-offs, muting, volume differences, etc...) that actually give life and character to the notes and chords; something that even high-quality tab has limitations in conveying correctly.
One of the ways you can begin to train your ear is to sit with your guitar or a piano and play a single note or a couple notes in succession, trying then to either hum or sing the note or notes exactly as you hear them; not only the pitch but the attack, decay and duration of the note(s).
Once you are comfortable with that, move on to simple songs or the melody of a song and then keep stretching yourself and challenging yourself with more difficult pieces.
Be patient. It could take you quite a while to develop your ear depending on how much of one you have naturally but stick with it and you will grow in some form or fashion.
Keep listening.
Answer:
I've always just stuck a pencil in my ear and started writing...
Really, a lot of what Dave has said above is what I would echo. I "learned on the job," so to speak. My dad plays piano and would ask me to write charts for him when he had to learn a new piece of music. He'd supply me with a recording, and off I went. But....I start the process a little bit ahead of the game because I have an "inherent" (I really think it was learned, albeit at a young age) ability to recognize pitch accurately.
When I went to college and eventually pursued a music minor, I immediately tested into the final year of a 4-year series of ear-training courses and all basically because I had been working at all the skills since I had been in school (started writing charts some time in junior high).
I always listen to the whole piece first, taking note of the time signature, major/minor key, any time sig changes, any key changes, any rhythms that get repeated. I get a general feel for the song. Then I go back and listen to individual snippets. I've found that as I have gained experience in writing charts, I can handle larger and larger "snippets" at a time. The "rewind" (I grew up in the casette tape generation) button gets used a lot.
I don't write tabs, but I do write charts - it's basically the same sort of thing - you try to write in what you hear. It takes practice and repetition to hear everything that's going on, though.
Nate
Answer:
First, you gotta practice it, a lot.
You gotta pick up an ear for different techniques being used. Often, you gotta be able to hear a note and know which string it's being played on, and how. Being able to tell exactly what a guitarist is doing with a recording comes with experience playing and experience tabbing. You sorta get an ability to imagine playing it while listening, usually over several listens.
With just chordal rhythms, you have to learn to recognize chords when you hear them. What kind of chord is it? What form is it being played in?
Rhythms, notes, etc. What different notes sound like distorted vs. clean.
Answer:
I personally never went about it intentionally. I just found that as I pursued music more and became more familar with chords and whatnot, it just kinda came. One day I was listening to music and I said, "Hey, I know what those chords are!" Seriously, the more you become familar with music and the theory behind it, it will come by itself, at least to some degree.
Answer:
All I do is listen to the song and mess around with my guitar until I'm hearing the same thing coming from my guitar that is coming from the stereo.
Answer:
Originally Posted by akaukal All I do is listen to the song and mess around with my guitar until I'm hearing the same thing coming from my guitar that is coming from the stereo. Pretty much what I do. Another thing I do (like when I tabbed Entertaining Angels by Newsboys) I watched the DVD to get an idea of how it goes.
Answer:
I don't have perfect pitch, but I've got a good sense of relative pitch (identifying intervals, the space between notes). Or, at least, it will be excellent if I just continue to practice it. If I can just figure out the first note, I could go from there. Let's see, that's a minor second down, that's a minor third up, that's a fith up, fourth down, tritone up... that kind of thing. Using this I have started transcribing a song and to my knowledge it's right, though it's not quite done. Still have to adjust what strings to play on, but I just sit down and write what I hear on PowerTabs without any instrument in hand(although since I'm still in the beginning stages of really using it, it takes a bit of time). At least to me it sounds pretty good.

If you don't have perfect pitch, do this. Get out your guitar, then listen to these intervals.

Play the first fret on any string. Then play the open string. That is called a minor second. Now play it descending, meaning you play the open string, then the first fret. Do this on different strings. Get the feel of the interval. Notice how it sounds to you.

Then go to the second fret and do the same. That is a major second. Get the feel of that interval. Play it at the fret first then the open string, then play the open string and then the second fret. Get the feel of when it goes down and when it goes up.

Keep doing it with all the frets. In accordance with the open string, here are all the frets and the intervals they produce:

0-Unison
1-Minor 2nd
2-Major 2nd
3-Minor 3rd
4-Major 3rd
5-Perfect fourth
6-Diminished fifth (also called a tritone)
7-Perfect fifth
8-Minor sixth
9-Major sixth
10-Minor seventh
11-Major seventh
12-Octave

I don't know how it will work for you, but it really works for me, though I've still got a bit to go. I've gotten much farther doing this than trying to learn perfect pitch. There's an enormous debate on whether or not perfect pitch can be learned, I think it can be because I've found that I can learn how to identify notes by just listening, but it's too time-consuming for everything I've got going on. Maybe someday. Intervalic patterns work for me.

There's all sorts of ways to go about ear training. One program that's helped me a bit is the one here:

www.miles.be

It helps you hear out the feel of the scale of your choosing, how it relates to the chords being played and really lets you see how the music all fits together. You can customize the notes being played to fit whatever you want. That's the basic trainer. The advanced one teaches you to identify intervals and the notes beig played in that interval (though you can turn that off). Both programs are a bit more than that, so just read the help files and take a look what they're meant to do.
Answer:
Also, try:
www.earplane.com