How Important Is Ear Training? Options

[Sinister]

I always hear people say you need a good ear when it comes to composing music, but how important is proper ear training when it comes to guitar. Now I was born with great ear (or maybe from those yamaha classes i took as a kid, hmm..), i hear minor details a lot of people miss out on. But i don't see too many ear training exercises on here. And by "proper ear training" i mean like knowing if an interval is minor/major third and what not.

[superize]

I always hear people say you need a good ear when it comes to composing music, but how important is proper ear training when it comes to guitar. Now I was born with great ear (or maybe from those yamaha classes i took as a kid, hmm..), i hear minor details a lot of people miss out on. But i don't see too many ear training exercises on here. And by "proper ear training" i mean like knowing if an interval is minor/major third and what not.

If you google ear trainging there are alot of sites that offer this

[Sinister]

If you google ear trainging there are alot of sites that offer this

I know, i suppose my question is since there is a lack of it here, is it important for guitarists to train their ears?

[Daniel Realpe]

I honestly think it's as important as colours for a painter. You can paint a lot of good stuff knowing black and white, but you could some other stuff knowing green, blue, etc. You get the point,

But in the end ear training is only naming these distances and sonorities, which in the end will help you see better in your head what's going on. But I get what you are saying, the fundamental ability is to be able to produce and distinguish the intervals/chord progressions/chords,etc before naming them,

[HungryForHeaven]

It is, of course, possible to learn (e g from tabs) to play a piece without being able to hear difference between intervals or knowing anything about theory.

However, as soon as one wants to create something, be it composing or improvising (which is a form of composing), I'd say it is of utmost importance to know how to produce the next note(s) in line, relative to the note(s) currently being played. And, while playing, it doesn't really matter what this or that interval is called, but if one wants to communicate or analyze musical pieces - or train ears - one needs a consistent language/terminology.

I guess this wasn't really what you were asking, though. Yes, it is important for any instrument. In my opinion, there are more efficient ways of training ears than restricting it to a guitar lesson. But perhaps some of the many people here have good ideas about how to form such a lesson.

H4H

[Gabriel Leopardi]

From my experience having a trained ear is very important for a musician. I don't think that you must know what interval is sounding and say it's name but you must at least be able to hear a note and find it quickly in your guitar. You should also be able to think a melody in your mind and reproduce it in your guitar in real time. How to train it? Practising scales with your guitar and sing the notes at the same time & learning by ear cover. These are the tow thing that helped me to train my ears.

[Ivan Milenkovic]

You can practice as much as you want with the software or some book, but in the end, it's best to practice ear with guitar. Why? Because, as Gab said it nicely, your ear connects the relationships of notes with their positions on the fretboard, which is essential if you want to express the melodies you form in your head.

[Cosmin Lupu]

In my opinion, ear training is the most important skill a musician should master everything else comes in second but can follow naturally if ear training is top notch.

You can play 1000 scales but if you don't understand their sounds and the way in which they relate to a harmonic context, you have only trained the ability to mechanically reproduce some notes.

Train your ears and you will be able to listen to life in a totally different way

[Sinister]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Last question, how exactly do you train your ears? I've seen software for it and what not, but what do you guys do?

This post has been edited by Sinister: Aug 18 2011, 02:16 AM

[Cosmin Lupu]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Last question, how exactly do you train your ears? I've seen software for it and what not, but what do you guys do?

Hey mate!

You can start by recognizing intervals.

For that, choose a root note - C for instance. Play that note and one by one, each of its intervals using your guitar and then your voice.

Ex: Play C and then play its major third, E
Play C and then sing its major third, E

find all the places on the neck where you can play C and follow the same steps above. After that, you can try things the other way, meaning that you can play the E and then play C then play E and sing C.

This would be a very extensive first step into ear training and besides this one, try to figure out as many songs as possible by using your ears and in addition, follow the advices gathered in this topic below:

https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...mp;#entry538812

[Ivan Milenkovic]

What I did mostly is just plain transcribing songs by ear, and playing lots of scales and arpeggios (and chords). After a while, brain eventually memorized the intervals. I'm not sure what is the most efficient way tho, but you will get there if you play regularly and learn songs and phrases by using your ear instead of watching into tabs. This is proper ear training (not eye training! ).

This post has been edited by Ivan Milenkovic: Aug 18 2011, 07:33 PM

[HungryForHeaven]

For anyone just starting with what we call ear training, it is probably wise to start with a really simple melody that you already have in your head (as opposed to chords or songs that you listen to from a CD or so). Like Itsy Bitsy Spider or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Start anywhere on the fretboard on any string, "hear" the next note in your head and figure out how to play it. You don't even need to know the names for the intervals. For more hardcore ear training, I assume knowing the interval names helps - once you know them, there are excellent websites, such as www.musiclearningtools.net for pinpointed practice.