Training your ear musically!!

[luna spirit12]

So I've been playing flute for quite some time now but i really want to do to become a better musician is to train my ear musically. I mean like I want to be able to hear a note or a chord and know what it is or be able to hear a song and know if its minor or major by ear. Any tips on how to start? whee

[AkaTsuki-chan]

www.musictheory.net



Serious - great site for learning music theory.



As for hearing a note and knowing what it is - unless you put your ears through ear-training boot camp followed by ear training Navy training, you're probably not going to be able to do that. Knowing a pitch based entirely on just hearing it is called 'Perfect Pitch,' (or Absolute pitch.) It's just a thing that some people have. What is more generally attainable is 'Relative Pitch.' That's the ability to determine what a pitch is based on other pitches.

That'll go for chords to - you'll be able to tell if it's a V7, or a vvi7 or a major chord, but unless someone gives you a frame of reference, it is unlikely that you'll be able to tell what the starting note is.

I'm surprised you can't already figure out which songs are in major and which are in minor - usually people describe minor songs as 'sad.' (Which isn't necessarily true...) Typically, Hebrew songs are in minor liiiiike Havah Nagilah


Some well known minor songs:
Greensleeves, We Three Kings of Orient Are, Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, House of the Rising Sun etc.

Some well known major songs:
Basically everything ever written. Twinkle twinkle little star, Alouette, This Old Man (i'm stuck in nursery rhyme mode now.) Frere Jacques...


Ooo! Actually, that's perfect.


Listen to Frere Jacques. (try not to gag at the wiggles...)

Now listen to this!

Aside from probably not making you want to gag, and the second one being played with an orchestra, can you hear the musical difference?

The first one is major, and in the second one, Mahler altered the pitches to make it minor.

[fluffehkitteh]

There are sites online you can use for ear training (I used musictheory.net) and they're pretty helpful. Musictheory.net also has other theory training.

Or, just sit down at a piano (assuming you have access to one and basic theory knowledge) and play intervals/chords. Familiarizing yourself with them will help in not only your ear training but in playing.

Hope that helps a bit!

[luna spirit12]

AkaTsuki-chan

www.musictheory.net



Serious - great site for learning music theory.



As for hearing a note and knowing what it is - unless you put your ears through ear-training boot camp followed by ear training Navy training, you're probably not going to be able to do that. Knowing a pitch based entirely on just hearing it is called 'Perfect Pitch,' (or Absolute pitch.) It's just a thing that some people have. What is more generally attainable is 'Relative Pitch.' That's the ability to determine what a pitch is based on other pitches.

That'll go for chords to - you'll be able to tell if it's a V7, or a vvi7 or a major chord, but unless someone gives you a frame of reference, it is unlikely that you'll be able to tell what the starting note is.

I'm surprised you can't already figure out which songs are in major and which are in minor - usually people describe minor songs as 'sad.' (Which isn't necessarily true...) Typically, Hebrew songs are in minor liiiiike Havah Nagilah


Some well known minor songs:
Greensleeves, We Three Kings of Orient Are, Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho, House of the Rising Sun etc.

Some well known major songs:
Basically everything ever written. Twinkle twinkle little star, Alouette, This Old Man (i'm stuck in nursery rhyme mode now.) Frere Jacques...


Ooo! Actually, that's perfect.


Listen to Frere Jacques. (try not to gag at the wiggles...)

Now listen to this!

Aside from probably not making you want to gag, and the second one being played with an orchestra, can you hear the musical difference?

The first one is major, and in the second one, Mahler altered the pitches to make it minor.

I mean I do get the concept of the difference in majors and minors but sometimes I do confuse the both. Thanks for the information, I'll check the website out.

P.S-The first video made me laughed and the second one just sounded hauntingly brilliant. Thanks!

[Babd]

teoria.com is the site my profs all tell us to use to practice intervals, chords, chord progressions, etc.

There are many others, plus some apps my friends have found on their various smart phones. For apps, though, always read the reviews online (v. those necessarily provided on their website). You want to make sure you're getting something that will work for you before you pay for it and then discover you don't understand the interface, intent, etc.

[AIfred the Great]

luna spirit12

So I've been playing flute for quite some time now but i really want to do to become a better musician is to train my ear musically. I mean like I want to be able to hear a note or a chord and know what it is or be able to hear a song and know if its minor or major by ear. Any tips on how to start? whee

Knowing a note by just hearing it? That is called perfect pitch. If you have perfect pitch, it'll be easy for you, but if you don't, you'll have to REALLY work at it, listen to music (classical music, probably) all of the time. Also, pay close attention while you play your flute.

It's very hard to name most chords by just hearing them if it's one you don't use constantly. It may be a bit easier if the chord is arppegiated...

Knowing the key of a piece by just hearing it is also very hard. Having a natural good ear is a big part of it, and you'd have to immerse yourself in music constantly... don't stress yourself out over this one too much, no one will ever ask you to do that.

[Kilted]

I did ear training in high school with a combination of theory, drilling on interval exercises (like lip slurs and chord progressions), and a lot of silent practice (where you do fingerings and hear the line in your head - playing a short line then singing it back also helps). But that gets you relative pitch - the ability to think/hear the tonic of a passage and judge a particular note based on its relation to that tonic). Perfect pitch is different and there's some research that says if you don't get it when the language and hearing centers of your brain are forming in infancy and early childhood, you never will. Relative pitch will get you pretty far though, it will improve your intonation, ensemble sight-reading and your ability to play something back after hearing it without the benefit of seeing the sheet music - i'st just not the party-trick of naming a note blindly.

[luna spirit12]

Kilted

I did ear training in high school with a combination of theory, drilling on interval exercises (like lip slurs and chord progressions), and a lot of silent practice (where you do fingerings and hear the line in your head - playing a short line then singing it back also helps). But that gets you relative pitch - the ability to think/hear the tonic of a passage and judge a particular note based on its relation to that tonic). Perfect pitch is different and there's some research that says if you don't get it when the language and hearing centers of your brain are forming in infancy and early childhood, you never will. Relative pitch will get you pretty far though, it will improve your intonation, ensemble sight-reading and your ability to play something back after hearing it without the benefit of seeing the sheet music - i'st just not the party-trick of naming a note blindly.

Thank you. This was so helpful. whee

[...Aurora Dream...]

This is an ear training website: http://www.good-ear.com/