Ear Training Options

[Vas Paul Standar...]

Hey guys , so for the past 1 and a half year i've been focusing on guitar playing but i never really did any ear training , i finally realised how IMPORTANT that is, any ideas where to start from?

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[Gitarrero]

Okay, our instructors are way more qualified to answer that but I do the following:

Figuring out song by ear is the most obvious approach. Start with rhythm and work your way up to figuring out solos by ear

Write your own material, experiment which notes sound good together. The collabs on the site are also great for training your ear.

Christian

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[PosterBoy]

Miles.be

There is a free ear training program to download. I'm using it and it's really good

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[Vas Paul Standar...]

Thanks a lot guys , yeah i also thought that finding out the progression is the first step. PosterBoy , checking that out now , you think you're doing good progress with that?

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This post has been edited by Vas Paul Standard 1995: Dec 3 2012, 09:29 PM

[ConnorGilks]

Hey man!

There's a lot to be said for ear training, and I personally found it an incredible aid musically in many ways. I can easily figure out the chords to any simple pop, country or punk song by ear now, as well as identify intervals up to a major 10th 9.5/10 times. What's great about this is it really helps you identify things in music just by listening to them, and it helps you understand music. You make a lot more connections to what you play and what you hear as a result, or the other way around.

The best place to start is with interval identification. Start with the most obvious ones (major and minor third) and slowly add intervals as you get more successful at it. For practice, you can either download an app for your phone or visit one of these websites:

teoria.com
musictheory.net

The next step would be chord identification (major and minor is again, a very good place to start). Then slowly add diminished, augmented, 7th chords, whatever you wish.

After this is done I find the next thing to learn is solfege (moveable do, not fixed do). Solfege, if you're not familiar with it, is using syllables to identify pitches. within a major scale.

In C major:
C = Do
D = Re
E = Me
F = Fa
G = So
A = La
B = Ti

And, in F Major:
F = Do
G = Re etc...

So basically, in any key, your root will be do, your second note will be re, and so on. By using these constant syllables you're making a connection with your brain between sound and something tangible, the syllable. Otherwise you're just trying to hear something that has no other identity other than it's sound. By creating an identity, or name for each pitch, you have a much deeper connection to the sound of the note within the key.

In C Major (all the white keys on the keyboard) sing a major scale using these syllables (use a keyboard to help you find the pitches) and get the sound of it in your head so you can sing up and down the scale with ease. Once you've nailed that down, try singing the pitches out of order. Sing in thirds, (do, me, re, fa etc.), octaves (do, ^DO, re, ^RE etc.) and randomly (do, fa, me, re, la, so etc.) and use a keyboard to check if you were right. You'll slowly develop this skill with practice practice practice!!

After that the next stage would be to learn to sing arpeggios (the notes of a chord played individually) in a major scale."do, me, so" would be a major chord starting on 1 in the key, or C if you're in C major. Then sing the modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian etc). Singing modes can be done in two ways. Starting on the corresponding scale degree (Phrygian is the 3rd mode, so you would sing "me fa so la ti do re me" or altering a major or minor scale using new syllables "la ta do re me fa so la".

Anyways, that's a lot to try and summarize in a post like this but I hope that at least helps you get on your way!

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[PosterBoy]

Thanks a lot guys , yeah i also thought that finding out the progression is the first step. PosterBoy , checking that out now , you think you're doing good progress with that?

I'm doing fairly well, I've always had a pretty good ear, but this really tested me and showed me up a few times, if you start it and do maybe 15 mins a day of the exercises and work your way through them, you'll really benefit, I need to be more disciplined.

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[Socky42]

One way I learnt intervals was to associate them with popular songs.

eg. Minor 2nd is Jaws, Perfect 5th is star wars.

edit: heres the video

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This post has been edited by Socky42: Dec 4 2012, 05:04 AM

[Alex Feather]

Hey guys , so for the past 1 and a half year i've been focusing on guitar playing but i never really did any ear training , i finally realised how IMPORTANT that is, any ideas where to start from?

I would suggest transcribing more and to listen more music playing along this will help you develop better ear
If you like I can give you a few simple things to transcribe so you have somewhere to start! Let me know!

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[Vas Paul Standar...]

I would suggest transcribing more and to listen more music playing along this will help you develop better ear
If you like I can give you a few simple things to transcribe so you have somewhere to start! Let me know!

Yes of course man ! Every help is acceptable!

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[Gabriel Leopardi]

Learning songs by ear is the best way to train your ear. You can then check in any tabs or youtube video is you learnt it right and fix the chords if it's necessary. Start with simple songs... maybe Ramones or any other simple rock / punk bands. I started with songs by Ramones, Nirvana, Green Day, Guns And Roses, etc...

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[Vas Paul Standar...]

Yeah , point is my ears are really bad , i know people who naturally have good ear but i can't even tune my guitar without using the others strings to help.

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[Alex Feather]

Yes of course man ! Every help is acceptable!

Here is one chord progression it is very simple but good to start!
 Chords.mp3 ( 467.67K ) Number of downloads: 106

I have a ton of those different levels so let me know and I will post more for you!

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[Cosmin Lupu]

Well, a first step would be to start recognizing the sounds of intervals against a given root. They all sound different and you can relate the sounds to sounds you already know very well. For instance, to me, the 5th against the root sounds like a medieval trumpet announcing somebody's arrival at a castle, you know: 'Ta-da, ta-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa' Try it like this:

- Ta is the root
- da is the fifth

You play Root-fifth, root-fiiiiiiiifth

It's a great deal of fun!

Cosmin

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[PosterBoy]

The great thing about the program on Miles.be apart from the fact it's free is it gives you a set cadence so you can recognise the key and root note and one of the exercises gives a random note from the diatonic scale but it could be from a range of octaves so it really does make you think (and usually sing!)

It's not an instrument specific training it just works off the interval no.

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[Vas Paul Standar...]

Well so far i manage to get like 16/20 from whole C major scale on the functional ear trainer , still needs a lot of work.

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[Alex Feather]

Well so far i manage to get like 16/20 from whole C major scale on the functional ear trainer , still needs a lot of work.

It will come! Just keep doing it and you will get it!!!

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