how would you go about training your ears to find chords?

[thulsa_doom2]

i have never really sat down and did any ear training, but from experience i can pick out what chord is what, ie. 'oh that sounds like a minor 7th...'etc. but i can't for the life of me figure out which minor 7th it is (c, d, e..etc), so it becomes a bit of trial and error. the chords that my ears can pick out and are familiar with also limited to the classic voicings (say a maj 7th, its the classic shape starting on the A string , for say, c maj7:

3

5

4

5

3

x

 

When I play an individual note, my ear can pick it up and identify it, but once i combine notes to form a chord, even a simple major triad, it sounds like a jumble to me. how would you go about picking out the individual notes? say for instance you hear a triad and you go 'ok i hear the c, the e and the G, so it's probably a c major triad'. i'm sure once you can pick out the individual notes in chords you can identify any chord in all it's voicings/inversions. as well as play jazz lead over key changes. any suggestions? thanks!

[GreenAsJade]

I think I just listen for one note to "stand out".

 

You get trained in doing this in piano lessons, my daughter is doing this right now. At first they play the chord with one note slightly first, so the student can lock onto it then sing it. With practice, then the student can lock onto either the top or the bottom note with ease. Ones in the middle are harder...

 

GaJ

[Knottyhed]

www.musictheory.net has an interval, scale and chord trainer you can use.

First learn to recognise intervals. It's helpful at first to associate acending/decending intervals with tunes - e.g. perfect 4th going up = 'Here Comes the Bride' etc.

The solfege system might be helpful here, getting a book on sight singing will definately be helpful.

When you can sing and recognise intervals, you should be able to sing chord arpeggio's (assuming you know some theory). When you can do this, practice picking apart the intervals in chords you hear.

Also just practice hearing the chords - start with major/minor using the online chord trainer. Try and recognise/associate certain qualities with the chord types.

Also - and this is a no brainer really, practice transcribing chords for songs. Transcribe the chords as best you can, then check them.

Rather than take it as a linear process I'd just jump in and try doing all of those things. Maybe 20 mins on intervals, 20 mins practicing chord recognition, 20 mins transcribing a song. If you can't spare an hour a day on ear training, then maybe split it over 3 days... the secret is to keep doing it and like with everything else, the more time you put in, the faster you'll see the results.

[Knottyhed]

When I play an individual note, my ear can pick it up and identify it, but once i combine notes to form a chord, even a simple major triad, it sounds like a jumble to me. how would you go about picking out the individual notes? say for instance you hear a triad and you go 'ok i hear the c, the e and the G, so it's probably a c major triad'. i'm sure once you can pick out the individual notes in chords you can identify any chord in all it's voicings/inversions. as well as play jazz lead over key changes. any suggestions? thanks!

 

 

I'd read up on chord theory too. What you'd listen for is a Root, Major 3rd, perfect 5th not a C,E,G. Although of course you might recognise the exact chord because of a familair voicing on your own instrument, generally that ability can't be reliably learnt because most of us aren't lucky enough to have perfect pitch.

 

However, it's easy(ish) to train yourself to recognise chord types - i.e. major, minor, 7th, dominant etc. etc. and even progressions, e.g. a V - I, etc. etc.

[jeremy_green]

If you do enough transcribing eventually the chord families have a pretty distinct feel. A major chord just sounds different from a dominant chord etc. You can just feel it. Then it's just a case of where you are on the neck for the inversion. I also use the bass players note as a hint plus my knowledge of theory and what key it is in is a huge help. Open strings also have a tone you can hear. So between all this it is a process of elimination.

 

Transcribe Transcribe Transcribe. If you can do nothing or don't know what to do do this. It pays more dividends than you can imagine.

[jeremy_green]

Ps. Knottyhead great to hear from you man! I miss your insights brother

[jonfinn]

Try this:

1) Find the bass (lowest) note.

2) Find the highest note.

3) Find a spot on the neck where you can comfortably reach both.

4) Start by making guesses, then eliminate things that are clearly wrong.

5) Keep doing that until you reach the right chord.

You'll get so that when you get it right, you'll know. But it takes time and patience.

[Knottyhed]

Ps. Knottyhead great to hear from you man! I miss your insights brother

Thanks; it's been a while since I popped in - I've been trying to spend more time playing guitar than I do talking about playing it

[Jasco]

Try this: 1) Find the bass (lowest) note. 2) Find the highest note. 3) Find a spot on the neck where you can comfortably reach both. 4) Start by making guesses, then eliminate things that are clearly wrong. 5) Keep doing that until you reach the right chord. You'll get so that when you get it right, you'll know. But it takes time and patience.

:thu:

Also, if you know enough theory, try to listen for the chord quality (major, minor, dominant, ect...) That will eliminate a lot of the step 4 "clearly wrong" note choices for you.

[girevik]

:thu: Also, if you know enough theory, try to listen for the chord quality (major, minor, dominant, ect...) That will eliminate a lot of the step 4 "clearly wrong" note choices for you.

This has been working great for me.

[TrickyBoy]

I've been thinking about this for a few minutes, because I've always been very good at hearing chords, but describing how I do it is perplexing me. I think I've come to the following three things I listen for:

Type of chord - ie. Major, Minor, Dominant, etc
The base note
The lead (high) note

Based on those three things I can generally grab a chord rather quickly.

Then when learning chord progression, I generally concentrate on the following:
What does the bass note do
What notes remain the same
Type of chord

For example - you start with a DMaj7 with the root on the 5th fret of the A string - you hear the bass drop a half tone - a couple of the middle notes stay the same and it still maintains a Major sound, you're probably looking at an A chord with a C# bass.

Hope that helps a little.

[GreenAsJade]

^^^ +1.

 

Like Jon & Tricky, this is what works for me.

 

And of course I agree with Jeremy: it comes better after you do it lots.

[girevik]

I just discovered new chord voicings by learning "So Danco Samba" - a surprisingly simple tune (found in The Real Easy Book, Vol. 1). It was just a matter of combining my pre-existing familiarity with major, minor, dominant, diminished and augmented chords (just 5 types) with hearing where one or two "voices" within a chord is going from one chord to the next.

Of course, I listened quite a bit to these versions of the tune:
[YOUTUBE]
[/YOUTUBE]

Yes, this version also features Stan Getz, but it's with Luis Bonfa rather than Jobim:
[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]