Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Hi! My music goal is to be able to play any music by ear. So I naturally learn the solfege system and apply them to help me put the music from my head into my guitar. I have been doing for 4 months I can do it quite well in major keys where we have "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti", I am able to play by ear and transpose music surround the major tonal center. But when it comes to minor or any other scales, for instance, in minor, "Do, Re, Me, Fa, Sol, Le, Te,", it takes a lot more time to digest it as they sound so much different and alien and seems impossible for my brain to comprehend and respond. Not to mention when it comes to chord changes, as for instance, the third chord in A minor is the major Cmaj7 chord, but instead of "Do, Mi, Sol, Ti" which I can associate with the sound in my head and using it to improvise, Cmaj7 in A minor is actually "Me, Sol, Te, Re", thinking in this way it is unfamiliar for me to connect those name to the color of the sounds. Not to mention about songs with modal changes/key changes. So my improvisation by ear get stuck at the diatonic level. Am I learning to play by ear in the wrong way? Or is it that it should take more time and i should just keep working through it? If I am wrong, what method can I do to enhance the connection between the music and my ear? Thanks a lot!

Listen to the music of Gustav Mahler.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Mahler

Then you will feel that your task of playing any other music by ear is simple. :-)
But, of course, I'm only (half) kidding.

What I do is FEEL the music. Minor keys are pretty simple. Play the third and maybe the seventh a half-step down. Bottom line is do what FEELS right . . . and once you find what FEELS right, do it over and over and over until you can do it in your dreams.

That's what works for me anyway.

I hope this is helpful.

Peace, Love and Understanding
/David C.

Here is Tomo's comment:

"Thanks so much for subscribing to my Guitar Wisdom. I am thinking about adding more ear training lesson videos. Take your time, and don't worry about anything!"

For solfege in minor, it’s fairly common practice to simply sing the scale from La to La. Just shift your ear so that La is tonic rather than Do. If you want to sing either harmonic minor (raised 7th) or melodic minor (raised 6th and 7th ascending) then Fa becomes Fi and Sol becomes Si. There are other syllables for various chromatic alterations, but I never got the hang of them.