Ear Training

[rickenbackerkid]

This was mentioned in the confidence and BBQ thread and I thought it well deserved a thread of it's own.

So have you done ear training? Did it help? Which program did you do?

Recently I brought a CD from an auckland producer/muso Wayne Huirua. Pretty much his CD just guides you through singing major and minor scales, intervals, and recognizing chord sequences. I've found it extremely helpful - it's revolutionized my singing as I've learnt how intervals sound on a deeper level. And it has hugely helped my playing-by-ear skills.

Proof? Well, recently I was playing at a P&W gathering with a fairly large crowd. The band had some very well respected christian musos, led by Henry Seeley, from Planetshakers church in Aussie.
Pretty much, it was a atmosphere where I really did not want to mess up!

So during the set, the lead vocal started singing a song that we did not have on the setlist. What's more I had never played the song. And I had heard it, only once at parachute festival 5-6 years ago.

But, I played it by ear. I just played chords that followed the vocal melody. And I got it right too.

Afterwards, I just thought -wow. This ear training works.

So since then, I've pretty much tossed chord charts. Sure, occasionally I have to check to make sure I've got something right, or if there's a funky out-of-key chord, but primarily, I'm playing by ear. And that is blowing me away. I never thought I would have that skill..

Your thoughts?

[robnobcorncob]

Ear training is great. I think it's best to do it with another musician as your tutor rather than from a CD or from a book or piece of software.

Intervals are great to know and everything will only grow from there. Ear training can be hard work and some people are better at it than others.

I've found simple exercises that help with ear training are singing scales (like you mentioned) transposing songs into different keys on the fly. Finding harmonies to simple riffs (e.g a perfect 5th above). Analyze famous riffs to see what intervals they're made up of. For example smoke on the water starts with a D and a G (perfect 4th interval) then F and Bb which are a minor third above the D and G. Then up a major second to G and C. (I could have explained this better but it's only an example).

In a practical sense the skills I've learnt through years and years of ear training have meant I've been able to transpose songs in the heat of the moment (which is great when the singer of your covers band has a tantrum and wants a key change) and it helps me because I can 'remember' a lot of simple songs (Covers band type stuff) by only remembering how the songs go rather than where the chords are because I just work them out on the fly each time.

Once I did this while watching a Jet music video on T.V. By picking the first chord as an open G chord I was able to figure out the other chords using the G as a point of reference (all without a guitar) I tried it later on my guitar and it worked. It's not as hard as it sounds.

[Kiwiaxe]

Sounds interesting, what was the CD called, how much did it cost and where do you get it from? It might be worth checking out.

[Zaulkin]

Every music student will have to pass Ear training papers to get their degree. I think that's awesome too, because its just so damn handy. The ability to pick out chords/intervals/notes without much effort is really valuable, especially if you're doing session work. Most gigs with a band will involve reading music or being given a CD prior to the date - never any tab unless its a shitty highschool band.

Aurelia is a pretty good program to get started. Otherwise I just practise by transcribing.

[calling card]

Not looking at where your fingers are walking the fretboard but listen to the talking. A huge amount of the brain is assigned to vision - turn off the sight.