Ear Training ?

[The Chosen Few]

I began playing guitar from a book two years ago. I took it pretty intensly and gained great knowledge of keys and chord structure, scales and what not. I just started realizing though that I never developed my ear. I would play guitar all day but never actually listen to music ( seems funny now ).

I wanted to give a shout out and ask if there is anyone who found great improvement with their ear, doing certain things.

At the moment I am trying to learn bass by playing along to the bass line. I thought it was a step towards guitar by ear. I don't really listen to one song over and over, it's more trying to hum along and play it as I hear it hoping that in time I will have a good enough ear to sing and play with a song I havent really heard before.

What do you do for your ear training exercises ?

Just thought I would ask around, see what pops up. Never know what someone might say to make you go " Oh YEAH ! " .

Hope everyone on the forum is doing alright

Cheers

[rasputin1963]

Memorizing intervals is a great skill to work on. I'm talking about the Unison, m2, M2, m3, M3, P4, TT, P5, m6, M6, m7, M7, 8ve. And beyond, if you're adventurous.

 

It's so important to be able to hear two notes played together--- without any other sound--- and be able to identify their interval relationship, and these intervals played in Ascending Order, Descending Order, and then played together.

 

With my piano students, I would often have them think of popular songs which could immediately bring certain intervals to mind.

 

For example:

 

The Major Third= Beethoven's Fifth intro, dit-dit-dit-DAHH!

 

The minor third, descending= Most people's home doorbells. ["ding-dong!"]

 

The minor second= The JAWS theme bass riff.

 

The Major Second= Irving Berlin's "Cheek To Cheek" ("heaven! I'm in heaven!")

 

the Perfect Fourth= Here Comes The Bride

 

The Tritone= "Maria" from WEST SIDE STORY [The main refrain, "Ma--REE--a"]

 

The Perfect Fifth, descending= "Feelings" by Morris Albert [Even if a song is groanworthy, it still works as a mnemonic. In fact, it may work BETTER as a mnemonic because of its nasty "earworm" quality...]

 

The min6, ascending= Jazz buffs can use the tune "A Day In The Life Of A Fool". [a.k.a. "Manha De Carnaval"]

 

The min6, descending: Theme From "Love Story" ["Where do I begin....?"]

 

The Maj 6= "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear". Or the first two notes of the NBC-TV bell signature.

 

The min7, Ascending= "Somewhere" from WEST SIDE STORY. ["There's...a....place for us... etc.]

 

The min7, descending= the opening two notes from "Something Wonderful" from THE KING AND I. ["he may not always say...."]

 

The Octave= "Over The Rainbow" ["Some....where...."]

 

 

The opening guitar riff from Cream's "Sunshine Of Your Love" is an ideal, note-perfect way to ear train the Blues Scale.

 

 

 

....and so forth. Naturally I always encouraged my students to find musical mnemonics from their own personal inner repertoire of music. Some of these above tunes are hoary indeed, but I did find that, the more one graduated into the rock era, the more difficult it was to find musical mnemonics for the more "unusual" intervals, like the Descending min7 interval, f'rinstance...

[The Chosen Few]

Great Rasputin

Rock On !

[mbaker]

Using the mentioned rasputin mnemonics and playing one note for reference then singing the second note really helped me. Singing it outloud (even though I have a suck ass voice) and then checking myself with the piano to make sure I heard and sung it right really helped me get it.

[panthalassa]

 

 

 

That's great! Thanks for sharing that; I do the same thing with guitar and bass students who have advanced to a certain degree.

 

It seems as though the original poster has already done this, but playing along to recordings is a surefire way to help one's critical listening and ear training. I can't think of any better way to learn those skills.

[bbach]

 

What do you do for your ear training exercises ?

 

 

I use a program called Ear Master Pro. The first exercises all concentrate on interval recognition, then it moves on to chord recognition, as well as inversions, and then scales and rhythm. I and ear training seem to have an on again off again relationship. I work on it, then I don't, then I do, and on it goes.

[The Chosen Few]

I began a master class by a man named David Lucas Burge. I started on the perfect pitch section which has 8 cd's. I'v listened to the end of CD four and I am using the piano a lot. He has a 36 CD course for Relative Pitch. I know he uses a piano for the exercises and I do not think listening to just one instrument is always best. I 'm listening to a lot of music and I'm starting to realize how frickon hard it is to actually play along to a song you've never heard before. Hearing everything in advance and keeping the groove.

I'm using the bass now for it only used to sit on the wall before. It's a 5 string Ibanez acoustic made of Koa. As I start to play the bass I have to give a shout out to bass players where I never understood before. And one thing that strikes me the most is how often I neglect the bass line in the music I listen to. How often the bass line fades into the guitar line , in and out kind of thing.

I'll use your identifing mnemonics a try, can you explain to me please the methods you would use to use it. Play the notes at the same time and sing them ? Try to invision the note before hand and sing it ? Close my eyes and name the intervals ? Anything else I can do ?

Cheers

[John Sayers]

I was taught as a 4 year old to sing sol fa - with hand gestures to match.

[amplayer]

Here's a couple of free programs on the web you can use. I am impressed with both of them. A little a day goes a long way.

 

http://www.ossmann.com/bigears/

http://www.good-ear.com/servlet/EarTrainer

[The Chosen Few]

Here's a couple of free programs on the web you can use. I am impressed with both of them. A little a day goes a long way. http://www.ossmann.com/bigears/ http://www.good-ear.com/servlet/EarTrainer

 

MAN !!!

That's the greatest thing in the whole world. I feel like a kid !!! This is awesome

Thank You Very Much Sir !

[bbach]

 

I began a master class by a man named David Lucas Burge.

 

 

Yea, his perfect pitch courses are offered in full page ads in guitar player magazine every month and it seems like periodically his name and program come up as a topic on one forum or another. While I'm sure some people can hear in "colors", I tend to just try to recognize the intervals between notes as best I can and leave the perfect pitch to others.

I've tried a couple very decent free ear training programs like Amplayer recommended. I found that I liked the more indepth study and certain features in the Ear Pro Software so I gave them the bucks, but nothing wrong with something that's free.

[rasputin1963]

While I'm sure some people can hear in "colors", I tend to just try to recognize the intervals between notes as best I can and leave the perfect pitch to others. .

 

I wholly agree with the synesthetic approach to memorizing sounds...

 

Who DOESN'T see the dminor triad as periwinkle blue, the e minor triad as bright yellow, and the Bb Major triad as deep purple?

 

[joel3000]

It's been said before, but for all the effort it takes to get perfect pitch through a course it seems to me you'd be better off using that time to practice your instrument.

 

Intervals and chords are easy enough to recognize with just a little bit of attention.

[bbach]

 

It's been said before, but for all the effort it takes to get perfect pitch through a course it seems to me you'd be better off using that time to practice your instrument. Intervals and chords are easy enough to recognize with just a little bit of attention.

 

 

Well the goal of ear training is, of course, to make practicing and playing a little easier. Easier isn't the right word. Maybe more understandable and recognizable. I'm always in awe of those who can hear a tune for the first time, grab their favorite instrument, and play that tune. Some of us have to learn a song bar by bar. I can sure see the appeal of trying to obtain perfect pitch, if it is in fact something you can aquire.

However, given the amount of work in trying to achieve that, I'd rather just get the music score if available and go at it from that angle.

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

Can't Sing, Can't Play, Can't Compose, Can't Dance... Can Draw A Piano

 

---> Sing At Sight

[coyote-1]

That's not the issue. Not at all.

 

It's been said before, but for all the effort it takes to get perfect pitch through a course it seems to me you'd be better off using that time to practice your instrument. Intervals and chords are easy enough to recognize with just a little bit of attention.

 

The issue is not recognition though it's a very useful professional tool. The issue is CREATION. How can you know how to harmonize a melody if you cannot hear the intervals and voiceleading in your head before you play them?

 

The one thing I'm not seeing uch of in the above posts is: SING. Doesn't matter if you are a singer or not - SING those intervals! SING those scales and arpeggios!

 

Get a training buddy, and play each other random notes anywhere on the piano keyboard. The job of the listener (who ought NOT be looking at the piano keyboard) is to instantly sing the note upon hearing it, transposing it into the singer's range when needed. Repeat this for all intervals: play a note, singer has to sing that note AND a minor 2nd above. Repeat for perhaps 20 notes.

 

Then exercise the tritone, 20 notes. Then after that the major 3rd, etc. In music school this is a big deal; ear training is a class of its own, it's ongoing, and does not stop after one semester.

[Lee Knight]

 

The issue is not recognition though it's a very useful professional tool. The issue is CREATION . How can you know how to harmonize a melody if you cannot hear the intervals and voiceleading in your head before you play them? The one thing I'm not seeing uch of in the above posts is: SING. Doesn't matter if you are a singer or not - SING those intervals! SING those scales and arpeggios!

 

 

Great stuff! Ear training has such an impact on a musician.

 

It's one thing to "practice" your instrument, and quite another to "see" music. A chromatic matrix waiting to be traversed at will. Parallel lines of various degrees and lines that compliment in unseen ways, up to only the creativity and whim of their creator. That's the aim, and with ear training, it becomes the reality.

 

Singing! I learned solfege in school. You all know Do Re Mi... Solfege is taking a written piece of music and singing it, assigning the proper solfege syllable to the correct scale tone. The 1 gets Do and the 5 gets Sol. Etc. So a melody might be sung:

 

Do Sol, Do Sol Fa Sol.

 

This is a fantastic way to really grasp the relationships of the various notes in diatonic harmony. Try it sometime. It's challenging, fun, and... enlightening.

[Jasco]

Yes, singing is a key to developing your ear.

 

Exercise #1

 

Play two random notes simultaneously. Then after you quit sustaining them, sing them low note to high note. Also reverse this process, singing high to low note. If you're not sure if you sang the right notes, play them seperately on your instrument to check.

 

When that gets easy then do 3 notes. Then 4.

 

Make sure you understand and identify the interval or chord type each time.

 

Exercise #2

 

Play one note on your instrument. Pick an interval at random (up or down) and then sing the other note of the interval. If you're not sure if you hit the right note, play it on your instrument.

 

 

Both of these drills will simultaneously train your ear and teach you interval fingerings on your instrument.

 

 

 

 

Also, associating intervals with known songs can help memorize them, as rasputin said. Often times TV and movie themes are good because they are short and repetitive.

 

Here are some "interval identification songs" that I use in addition to rasputins great list:

 

minor 2nd ascending - Ode to Joy

minor 2nd descending - Fuer Elise

major 2nd ascending - major scale

minor 3rd descending - Star Spangled Banner

minor 3rd ascending - Smoke on the Water

major 3rd descending - "my dog has fleas" or Summertime or Bach's Joy

major 3rd ascending - Michael Row the Boat, Malaguena

perfect fourth ascending - third phrase from Over the Rainbow, beginning of original Star Trek theme

perfect fourth descending - any country bass line

tritone - a song by Rush that I can't think of the name of right now...

perfect fifth ascending - Star Wars theme

perfect fifth descending - Flintstones theme

major sixth ascending - second phrase from Over the Rainbow

minor seventh ascending - original Star Trek theme (when the 'band' comes in)

major seventh ascending - Fantasy Island theme

 

The important thing is to pick songs that you are familiar with. So take all the melodies you know and start to build your own interval identification song list.

 

 

I hope some of that helps.

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

The educational paradigms (music exercises) used to teach music are classified in:

 

- Play Training Paradigms

- Music Theory Paradigms

- Composition Training Paradigms

- Ear Training Paradigms

- Ear & Play Training Paradigms

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

Ear training is certainly more then developing basic aural skills by identify intervals, chords, rhythms, and other basic elements of music. Ear training, for example in a master of music program, consists of:

 

- Music dictate; teacher sings/plays and student notates.

- Sight singing, first simple melodies later anything.

- Accurate trancription by ear.

- Imitation: teacher plays something and student repeats the phrase.

- Sight singing of score parts.

- Prima vista playing.

- Transposition at sight reading.

- Rhythm dictate, teacher sings/knocks and student notates.

- Rhythm only sight singing up to very complex rhythms. There are tons of rhythm solfege books, for example by Al Lepak or Dante Agostini.

- Teacher plays a rhythm, student following it by tapping.

- Student listens to a score then he/she has to play it by ear with an instrument.

- Student listens to a segment of a recording and trancribes the 2nd clarinet part only

 

etc. etc.

 

.

[Jasco]

 

Ear training is certainly more then developing basic aural skills by identify intervals, chords, rhythms, and other basic elements of music...

 

 

True, your excellency.

 

However, wouldn't you agree that "developing basic aural skills by identify intervals, chords, rhythms, and other basic elements of music" is a good place to start?

 

And I think the responses have been pretty relevant considering the level of eartraining the intial poster was asking about.

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

 

True, your excellency. However, wouldn't you agree that "developing basic aural skills by identify intervals, chords, rhythms, and other basic elements of music" is a good place to start? And I think the responses have been pretty relevant considering the level of eartraining the intial poster was asking about.

 

 

I agree.

 

"Pons Asinorum" (Latin for "Bridge of Asses")

I suppose I should mention this. The first interval of a well known song is only a memory aid, in english also called jingle, pony or mnemonic rhyme, and not useful for musicians or singing from the sheet but rather a help for non-musicians to sing all intervals.

 

 

I'm only in business to profit yours truly

 

Counter Pope Angelo XIII, the Popette and the whole Papeterie.

[Rudolf von Hagenwil]

BTW... Quincy is above the pope, that's at least how Bruce sees things

 

:cool:

[Nayland]

I would definitely say that transcribing stuff off of records is probably the best way to go for developing your ear. You can start with easy rock stuff and move up to things like jazz and classical, things with more complex harmonies, as you get better. Just transcribe as much stuff as you can.

 

The limitation with that is that you'll only be as good as what you've already heard. So the other suggestions given already will work in addition to transcribing from records. Especially singing. Play a note, and see if you can sing a note a third or fifth below or above it, that sort of thing. Pick a melody and try to sing it along with your instrument, then see if you can sing it without your instrument. Always try to remove crutches from your playing.

[Jasco]

 

I suppose I should mention this. The first interval of a well known song is only a memory aid, in english also called jingle, pony or mnemonic rhyme, and not useful for musicians or singing from the sheet but rather a help for non-musicians to sing all intervals.

 

 

However, everyone starts off as a non-musician before becoming a musician. So those initial memory aids for learning intervals can be a useful gap in the bridge.