Ear Training. Bob Murnahan. Ear Traing1163/24/1011:13 PM[Type text] 1

Transcription

1 Ear Training Ear Training 1 0 M in u te s a D a y T o A G r e a t E a r! Bob Murnahan Ear Traing1163/24/1011:13 PM[Type text] 1 1

2 Introduction This report is special. Here s why: On it s pages you will find a detailed breakdown of a potent process to train your ear. And the best part is that you can use free resources readily available on the Internet. In my opinion, a good ear is the most powerful tool available to us as musicians, yet for guitarists it has turned into the most neglected aspect of our musical training. After all, we listen to music. But we learn the guitar by using visual devices. How much sense does that make? And it only seems to be getting worse. Back in the day there were no transcriptions available. We learned by hanging out with other players and spending hours and hours listening to records and tapes to figure out the music we wanted to play. When transcriptions first started to appear they were written in standard notation. Then tablature came along and we were off to the races. Teachers and students had a new tool to speed up the learning process. Tab made things available that were not available before. But in the process of using tab training the ear became a forgotten process. I often intentionally post lessons without tab with the hope of getting students to use their ears and within a short period of time the requests start pouring in. Do you have the tab for this? Some are so paralyzed that they won t even try without tab. Even if you try to work something out without tab and fail miserably something magic starts to happen. Each time the ear starts to get a bit stronger. Soon you start to recognize sounds the way you recognize color. A whole new world opens up. You will be able to figure out the chords to songs while you are driving in the car. You will hear licks and know exactly what was played. You will ear a lick in your head and know how to play it on your guitar. Would that make a difference in your abilities as a musician? Keep in mind that anything worthwhile requires some effort but I promise you that if you follow this method it will pay big dividends. And the best part is that you should be able to complete your ear training exercises in about 10 minutes per day. Also, be aware that there is a cause and effect in everything we so. There is a delay between the cause and effect but we live in an instant gratification society. Persist even though it may appear on the surface that nothing is happening. Rome was not built in a day 2

3 The Two Types Of Ear Training As we work through this report we will be covering to types of ear training, melodic and harmonic. Very simply, melodic ear training consists of being able to recognize what sound is happening when notes are played one after the other. Harmonic ear training occurs when two or more notes are played simultaneously. Harmonic recognition allows you to identify chords. Are they major or minor. Dominant 7 th or diminished, etc? If you don t know what those names refer to we will be covering that as well. Each section will start with melodic ear training and then move to harmonic. Also, sounds will be introduced slowly so that you are not confused and the ear has time to learn and absorb new sounds. The Daily Routine Each day you will follow a simple routine to train your ear. You will only need to spend around 10 minutes a day to benefit from the exercises. Here is the daily drill. Play the selected sound and sing along. Step 1 Step 2 Do the practice sessions on the internet. Move forward when you can consistently score 90% or higher. Step 3 I really hope you get excited about this and take the time to follow through. The payoff will be massive. 3

4 Some Basic Theory Before we can get started we have to cover some basic theory, more specifically, intervals. An interval is simply the distance between two notes. Look at the C major scale C D E F G A B C As you can see there are 8 notes. The distance between each note, starting with number 1 is an interval. From Interval 1 1 (C C) Perfect Prime (Unison) 1 2 (C D) Major 2 nd 1 3 (C E) Major 3 rd 1 4 (C F) Perfect 4 th 1 5 (C G) Perfect 5 th 1 6 (C A) Major 6 th 1 7 (C B) Major 7th 1 8 (C C) Perfect Octave Notice that the unison, 4 th, 5 th and octave are called perfect intervals while the 2 nd, 3 rd, 6 th, and 7 th are known as major. As you might have already guessed there are intervals with other names like minor, diminished and augmented. I will discuss those as needed. And you might have already figured out that the letter names will change if you are in a different key like G or Bb, etc. You can read the music theory report I gave you for more detail on this. Keep in mind that these names are just labels to help you keep track of things and are useful when discussing ideas with other musicians. The most important thing to remember is that they are sounds that you can train your ear to hear and remember just like your eyes can detect color. It really is quite a thrill when you are listening to music and these sounds start to jump out at you and you instantly know what they are. A whole new musical world waits if you are willing to put forth the effort. I hate to keep harping on this but the sad fact of the matter is that most people that buy a report or book like this one rarely if ever use the material. Please don t be one of them. 4

5 Getting Started: Fourths and Fifths The time has come to finally get started with some actual ear training. We are going to start with 4ths and 5ths. We will start with two sounds to give the ear something to compare. We will then add new sounds one or two at a time. Step One: Play the intervals on your guitar and sing them Now I don t care if you have a voice like a bullfrog. Singing these intervals is the fastest and best way to really ingrain them in your ear. You should always sing the intervals in both directions, ascending and descending. You can sing them in a chromatic fashion (moving up one fret at a time) like the following example. Fourths Chromatically You can sing them randomly like this. Fourths Mixed Important note You will have to adjust the pitch of the intervals to match your voice. Only go as high or as low as you are comfortable. The cool thing about intervals on the guitar is that the shapes remain constant as long as you stay away from the 3 rd and 2 nd strings. In fact, when tuning the guitar the 5

6 interval between the strings is a perfect 4 th but switches to a major 3 rd between the 3 rd and 2 nd strings. Next, just play the lowest note and sing the higher note and then play the higher note as a check to see if you were right. Finally, play the higher and sing the lower note, then play the lower note to see if you were right. All of this should only take a few minutes. Now it s time to repeat the same routine using 5ths. Fifths Chromatically Fifths Mixed When singing the intervals the actual order is the least important detail. These are just examples to get you going. The goal is to get the sounds into your ear. Step Two: Practice Listening On The Internet I have identified a website that you can use for free to help you train your ear. There are others but this one is easy to use and serves our needs well. This is a great site for ear training. When you hit this site click the start the ear training link at the bottom of the oval. Next select intervals practice. 6

7 Select custom from the buttons on the next page. For the intervals make sure only the fourths and fifths boxes are checked. We will add in other sounds as we progress. For register check all three boxes, low, middle and high. I prefer to have the tone length long and under performance start with successive up and successive down boxes checked. Finally check OK. The sounds will load and you are ready to start. Click the play an interval button and choose your answer. Practice both melodic and harmonic intervals. You should not move on until you can get at least %90 on a consistent basis. Adding In The Major Third It s time for a new sound, the major third. As a recap here is the routine. Sing the intervals in both directions, ascending and descending. Sing them in a chromatic fashion (moving up one fret at a time). Sing them in a random order. Next, just play the lowest note and sing the higher note and then play the higher note as a check to see if you were right. Finally, play the higher and sing the lower note, then play the lower note to see if you were right. Major Thirds Chromatically 7

8 From this point on I am only going to give you the tab in a chromatic order as a demo to show you how to play the intervals on your guitar. You can mix them in any order you want for your random singing practice. More Basic Theory We are about to introduce the minor third. Before we do a bit more theory is in order here. If you recall we named the intervals from the first note of the major scale. That gives us our major and perfect intervals. What about the other sounds? Take a look at the following chart. Minor Major Augmented Down a half step < Change > Up a half step Starting with the major interval, if you go down a half step it becomes a minor interval. So, if C to E is a major third the C to Eb is a minor third. If you raise a major interval by a half step then it becomes augmented. C to E is a major third so C to E# is an augmented third. Is there an E#? In the theory world yes even though E# is the same as F. In fact, a major interval becoming augmented is an extremely rare occurrence so I wouldn t worry much about it. It really just gives the theory nuts something to talk about. Now lets examine the perfect interval. Diminished Perfect Augmented Down a half step < Change > Up a half step As you can see here when raising the perfect interval a half step it also becomes augmented but when you lower it a half step it becomes diminished. So if C to G is a perfect 5 th, C to Gb is a diminished fifth. C to G is a perfect fifth and C to G# is an augmented fifth. These names, augmented and diminished come into play with certain chord types, as you will see. Maybe you are already familiar with diminished and augmented chords. Perhaps now you are starting to see where the names come from the intervals. The Minor Third Now lets throw the minor third into the mix. You should be familiar with the routine by now so here is the minor third tab. 8

9 Minor Thirds Chromatically Back to the internet once again for some more listening and identification practice. This time I want to select only major thirds and minor thirds. These two sounds are very important because they form the basis of the major chord and the minor chord. When you can hear the difference between the major thirds and minor thirds and consistently score 90% or higher add the perfect fourths and fifths back in and repeat. Major and Minor Triads Now that we have gone through the perfect fifth and major and minor thirds we have enough info to start listening for chords. To spell chords we have to reference the major scale one more time: C D E F G A B C A major triad consists of the first, third and fifth note of the major scale. In the key of C the notes would be C, E and G. Notice the intervals at work here. C to G is a perfect fifth and C to E is a major third, which gives us a C major chord. To make a minor chord we have to flat the third so the E becomes an Eb. The minor triad has the notes C, Eb and G. The major third interval is now a minor third interval. A triad by the way is the simplest kind of chord and has three different notes. Hence the name triad. Now it s back to the internet for some more listening. This time after reaching the webpage and clicking the start the ear training link you will want to select Triads: practice. 9

10 Click only the major and minor boxes along with the other options you want to work with under register and tone length. Click OK and wait for the sounds to load and have at it. Learning to hear the difference between major and minor chords is ear training at the most basic level but it s at the top of the list in importance. Practically every chord has these basic sounds as an underlying structure. This is a biggie so be sure and nail this section. The Major Sixth Now its time for the major sixth. Once again here is the routine. Sing the intervals in both directions, ascending and descending. Sing them in a chromatic fashion (moving up one fret at a time). Sing them in a random order. Next, just play the lowest note and sing the higher note and then play the higher note as a check to see if you were right. Finally, play the higher and sing the lower note, then play the lower note to see if you were right. Here s the tab to show how to play the sixths on your guitar. Major Sixths Chromatically Remember to play and practice singing them in a random order as well. After you feel comfortable singing the major sixths move ahead to the minor sixths. 10

11 Minor Sixths Chromatically Once again follow the routine of singing the intervals. Work to get the difference between the major sixth and the minor sixth. Now it s off to the internet once again to continue working with the sixths. Remember to select interval practice and choose only the major and minor sixth boxes with the appropriate options. After you can score 90% on a consistent basis add in the previous sounds. At this point you should have the major third, minor third, perfect fourth, perfect fifth, minor sixth and major sixth boxes checked. That also completes what are known as the consonant intervals. Consonant intervals are more pleasing to the ear and require no resolution. Of course this is subjective and depends on the context in which the intervals are used as well. Enharmonics Enharwhat??? Enharmonics these are intervals that sound the same but are spelled differently. Let s take a look at the minor sixth and augmented fifth. As usual we will use the major scale as our reference point C D E F G A B C Looking at the scale you see that C to A is a major sixth. When you lower a major interval by a half step it becomes a minor interval so C to Ab is a minor sixth. Continuing on, C to G is a perfect fifth. If you recall from earlier when you raise a perfect interval by a half step it becomes augmented so C to G# is an augmented fifth. 11

12 This is where the term enharmonic comes into play since G# and Ab are the same note. The augmented fifth and minor sixth sound the same but are spelled differently. Another way to think about intervals is the distance from the tonic of the scale. A is six notes up and G is five notes up. This is a theory thing and you could split hairs here and out of context if you heard a minor sixth you could also call it an augmented fifth and still be right. This mostly comes into play when talking about chords. Since chords are typically built in thirds and the formula for the triad contains the 1, 3 and 5 from the scale, the augmented fifth is the interval of choice. In fact, a C augmented triad has the notes C, E and G#. This is one of the four basic triads that we will be using in our ear training exercises. To help you get used to the sound of the augmented triad check out this site This is another ear training site that you might want to explore. It does not allow you to select the answers like the site we have been using but it is still an excellent resource and allows you to have a bit more control in choosing what you want to hear. When you arrive at the site check the box that says chords and the check only the augmented box. This will give you some practice listening to the augmented chord. Make sure you don t have any of the other boxes checked like the intervals or those sounds will play too. After you feel comfortable with the sound of the augmented triad (it is very distinctive) add in the major and minor chords as well. You can also do this at if you want the option of selecting your answers. Dissonant Intervals Now it s time to explore the dissonant intervals. Dissonant intervals are those that cause tension and desire to be resolved to consonant intervals. These include the seconds, sevenths and the tritone, which is an augmented fourth, or a diminished fifth. We are going to start with the tritone. For those of you into some of the more heavy rock sounds this is an interval that you have heard many times. It is a very distinctive, ominous sound. In fact, back in the medieval days the church fathers declared it unacceptable and illegal, calling it diabolus in musica (the devil in music). 12

13 The Tritone Chromatically Once again follow the singing routine on this one. You might find this one to be a bit difficult but stick with it. This one is probably easier to hear than it is to sing. Once you can sing this one head back over to This time select the perfect fourth, the perfect fifth and the tritone. Go through all the possible combinations of melodic and harmonic listening and when you can get a consistent score of 90% it will be tie to move on to the diminished triad. The diminished triad consists of the 1,b3 and b5 from the major scale. Using the C scale as an example the notes would be C, Eb, and G. The intervals in the chord are C to Eb, which is a minor third and C to Gb, which is a diminished fifth so once again the name of the interval is contained in the chord. You are now at the point where you can compare and learn to hear all of the possible triads, major, minor, augmented and diminished. Before you do that you may want to head back to and listen to the diminished triad by itself. Then head to select triads practice and check all four chord types. Once again shoot for a 90% score in accuracy before you move on. Learning to hear these basic triads will prepare you for more advanced listening and seventh chords. Speaking of sevenths, it s time to move on to the major seventh and minor seventh intervals. The minor seventh interval is part of the dominant seventh chord, which is a very important chord in music and is prevalent in the blues as well. Make sure to follow the singing routine to really internalize these sounds. You may find these to be the hardest of all because of the wide skips. 13

14 Major Sevenths Chromatically Remember to do them in a random manner as well. When you think you have this sound in your ear add on the minor seventh. Minor Sevenths Chromatically After completing your singing routine head back over to for some more interval training. This time select only major sevenths and minor sevenths. When you can consistently score 90% or higher when comparing these two add in the rest of the intervals to date. That would be: minor third, major third, perfect fourth, tritone, perfect fifth, minor sixth, major sixth, minor seventh and major seventh. Whew! Impressive! You are almost home as far as the intervals are concerned. Only the minor second and major second are left. The seconds are still part of the dissonant family of intervals and are most often heard as extensions in chords. When used in this fashion they are usually called ninths. 14

15 Major Seconds Chromatically The major seconds are easily played on the guitar and not too hard to sing. These should not pose much of a problem. When you are ready move onto the minor seconds. Minor Seconds Chromatically After your singing practice on these it s time to head back over to and do some more listening, this time to the minor seconds and major seconds. When you can hear the difference between these two with 90% accuracy it s time to add in the whole ball of wax with the exception of the ninths and tenths. Realize that ninths and tenths are the same as seconds and thirds an octave higher so they are really not new sounds. Feel free to add them in to your routine if you want more advanced work. Where To Go From Here? If you really want to challenge yourself from this point add in the seventh chords. On the website they are referred to as tetrads. Click on the 15

16 practice link and keep it simple at first. Start with only the major seventh and minor seventh chords. Once you can nail those add in the dominant seventh chord. Next would be the minor7b5 chord, then the diminished seventh chord. Finally do a comparison between the major 6 th and minor 6 th chords. Last but not least add in the minor/major seventh. You can also check out some other ear training sites on the internet for additional study. One that I like can be found at There are a few challenging exercises there to keep you moving forward. There are also a few paid options but with all of the free resources out there I don t see the need to pay for any ear training software. I hope you have enjoyed this report and I really hope you have put it to use. In my opinion a good ear is the most important asset a musician can have. Keep in touch and let me know how you are doing? Happy Listening, Bob 16