Ear training and transcribing by ear is a specialty skills. It doesn’t come as a part of being a better player. It makes the job easier because you can often correctly guess the notes but not something everyone can do.
When I transcribe a difficult song is pull out my keyboard and follow along the bass lines.
I use the cheapest paid version of Moises. The main reason for me was because the free version has a five minute limit per song. If you’re playing cure songs that’s two to five minutes too short.
I also agree with @sunDOG about not learning by ear exclusively. I do learn most songs by ear, but a particularly difficult song I will look for a good tab. My problem with tabs, however, is that they are not totally reliable and secondly, I like to play deep cuts and I struggled to find tabs for a lot of the songs I wanted to play (even with a paid subscription to ultimate guitar.)
I have a brother that is nine years older than me. He got me into The Cure probably when I was six years old too. Would have been 1988 at the time. My dad hated the cure for some reason, I really don’t know why. Anyway, the first time I saw them live was about ten years ago. It happened to be on my dad’s birthday, a few years after he passed. I like to imagine he was with me at that concert. I saw them again last year with my entire family, three brothers, three sisters, my wife, nieces and nephews, and my mom. I found out at that concert that when I was ten my brother asked my dad if he could take me with him to see the cure and my dad said no. I was heartbroken when I learned that. That would have been the most amazing night of my childhood.
Exactly this. I tend to mix well known stuff with some things that are pretty obscure, so have to rely on ear to the deep cuts. That said, even when a tab isn’t very good, it can serve as a guide, plus I’m not precious about getting every note per the original, unless the bass line is iconic.
Re: The Cure and 1988, @Paul_9207, I saw them around that time - I think December ‘87. My then girlfriend was massively into them, so we saw them at the Birmingham NEC (UK). One of my abiding memories of this was Rob Smith coming on, all dressed in black, but wearing, what I swear were, Garfield slippers!
Must have been cool to see them with your entire family!
That’s amazing! One of the things I love about Robert Smith is his dark and gloomy facade underlined, in this case literally, with his quirkiness.
I still have a t-shirt from the Kiss Me tour that I “inherited” from my brother. I wore it from grade school through high school. And now that it’s way too small for me, it’s framed and hanging on my wall.
That’s pretty cool!!
That is my approach now. Initially I used the free version and when I had longer tracks I’d split them and treated as two short tracks and then join them up again after! Easy enough to do but a little time consuming and, well, life’s too short. So as soon as I figured it was something I was going to use fairly regularly I paid for the Premium (cheapest paid version).
Love to see all the Cure love above. They are one of a handful of bands that changed (and probably saved) my life at the time. I love playing their songs now, Simon Gallup wrote very accessible and effective basslines.
I am kind of surprised I have only done two Cure covers, now that i think if it.
Is there anything else require to learn more before I go to learn some songs?
I’ve been purchased Ear Training on TalkingBass then I use that to learn some songs however I’m very frustrated to get that. should I take Chord Tones to understand something? Ear Training and Chord Tones are those perfect recipes to reach my favorite songs?
While I’m trying to study a song and get frustration I just continuing my Sight Reading so my progress is still running and I’m planning to get Chord Tones soon when you confirm.
There are several ways to learn how to play.
A very common and first way for beginner players is to tackle learning specific songs. That works - to a point. While this approach does offer immediate gratification (depending on the effort and natural ability of a given player), it can also be limiting if a player’s ultimate goal is to know how a song works, and why.
Think of it this way: When a tourist travels to a foreign country, he/she often learns a few words and phrases of the country’s language, just to get by during a brief visit. That can be fun and is relatively simple to do with a little practice. However, that same tourist can’t really speak or fundamentally understand the language. But if that person were ever to decide to live in that country, it would require a much deeper commitment to learn the language in order to be able to express and communicate ideas.
Regarding the Chord Tones Essentials course, I personally found it to be fantastic. Mark Smith dives deep into harmony: dissecting note intervals, how and why chords are constructed, and especially the function of chords in a progression (a song or instrumental). In other words, this course presents a massive amount of information, all valuable, but still a lot to be exposed to and absorb in order to understand and put to use.
For that reason, it’s important to know that this course can prepare you to do great things with music, but unlike B2B, it is neither fun-based nor intended to be so. Instead, it is far more like really studying and learning to speak a new language: music.
I’ve read that many people who have bought Chord Essentials take their time going through it, which is the best approach. It really is an educational resource that bears careful study - and revisiting in the future.
All this said, can Chord Tones help you learn songs? Short answer: yes. It teaches you how to recognize how songs are built, and why. You can do a lot with that information. But first things first: It requires students to learn the principles of harmony in order to be able to recognize, express and communicate ideas through playing music.
Not trying to talk you into or out of taking this course. But IMO, I just want to be clear about what it is, what it isn’t and its potential: It’s certainly not as quick and easy as buying a fish sandwich, but with time and effort, it can teach you how to fish. 
Late to this thread but with my jam group we often have new songs for the next jam.
Most of which I am unfamiliar with.
I listen to them on Youtube and sometimes add them to my spotify list to listen to in the car (I need to update mine).
I also get a chart with lyrics for when I am familiar with it, but first I look at Youtube vids with tabs (Samboat is great for this) and find tabs for guitar pro.
When I have these I sit down and play them over and over, listening to the track to see what I have missed. Eventually it gets embedded.
I am doing (among others) No More Mr Nice Guy, Alice Cooper currently. It took a little while for this one to click but I mostly got it last night.
If you are doing The Cure does that mean a Bass VI is in your future? Then you can play the lead as well.
