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For me ear training is largely contextual - I can hear changes I play a lot much better than random chords I haven't.
I am far better at rapidly transcribing bop lines than intervallic chord scale stuff.
Likewise when I am sight singing (which I do very occasionally) there are some things I can sing right away and other things I have to work out.
It's really not a linear process.
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08-15-2017 01:15 PM
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To me ear training is an attitude, sort of an always present background goal, rather then a specific daily exercise routine.
I've gone through some books in the past, used ear training software/websites and still do occasionally. Learned to recognize intervals, chord qualities and such. They are useful but it's easy to get good at a particular drill only to find out that it helps you very little in real musical situations. They do help you to get the big picture and get the ball rolling.
What I find helps now is to have an "ear training mode" in my head that comes on periodically when an opportunity present itself in a more musical situation. Some examples of these are:
o- When I'm transcribing a lick or solo, I sometimes first identify the intervals before playing them on the guitar.
o- I hear a chord in the background during the solo I'm transcribing that comes out very clearly, I set out to figure the chord out. Or try to hear individual chord tones and pick out the third etc.
o- When I'm signing a tune in the shower and such, I stop and try if I can transcribe a couple of bars (relative to the tonic center as I don't have perfect pitch) then check it in the instrument after.
o- When I'm practicing chord inversions, sometimes I just strum an inversion and try to sing each chord tone in ascending order.
o- Sometimes I run a software that plays random chords and I try to play them on the guitar. Or I close my eyes strum a 7th chord somewhere on the neck, then try and play the matching dominant scale somewhere else on the neck.
These are just some examples, I always have an eye open for finding fun drills. I do most of these as short breaks during my practice without a prior plan. I also try to sing what I play to the detriment of my girlfriend. Now sometimes I don't even realize that I do it.Last edited by Tal_175; 07-20-2018 at 10:41 PM.
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Originally Posted by Tal_175
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Originally Posted by christianm77
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Originally Posted by Strbender
I must get back to this. At the moment, I've been applying that stuff to real music, although I think there's a lot to be said for just crunching through the exercises. You get better in real time, don't you?
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Possibly relevant:
I have found that "ear training" is more than one thing.
For example, if I hear a line or know a melody (and it isn't too complicated) I can usually play it without mistakes. I might miss a half step here and there, but I can pretty much do it. My fingers find the notes without conscious direction.
However, if you ask me to name the notes I just played, I have to think about my fingers and laboriously figure out the names of the notes.
If I know a melody, I can play it in any key. One key is as good as another. But, I have never been able to do that with chords, except for very simple things.
Occasionally, I find myself in a situation where I have to solo on a chord sequence I've never heard. If I play behind the chord change, meaning I hear the chord first and then play a note, I can usually do it. OTOH, if someone starts playing a tune that I don't know, I'm slow to figure out the changes.
I know musicians who can tell you the name of a chord you played by mistake and unrelated to the harmony of the tune. I can tell it's wrong, but I can't tell what it is. Not by name and not by my fingers somehow finding it on their own.
I don't know much about ear training. I used Ear Master for a while. I've never heard of an ear training approach which assesses what you can and can't do, and then tailors the approach. Does it exist?Last edited by rpjazzguitar; 08-23-2018 at 10:17 PM.
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"not one thing" is very true. It's different even withing simple task of playing from memory or repeating what was just heard (kinda same thing, kinda not). Could focus on intervals only, could try to focus on chord tones, scale degrees, or the khm.. meaning/emotion. All feel different. Like night and day different. And this is just one thing to do and train. One from zillion.
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I spent about a year of my lunch breaks doing ten mins here and there with an app doing intervals and contextless melodies. Then perhaps another year doing solfege type thing with context on another app on the train to work.
What I will say is that both made me realise how little i was hearing before i started the process. posted this before somewhere, but it also really helped with musical memory, as it felt less like i was groping for ideas. they were clearer in my mind
The ear training with some context however rapidly felt like it developed me faster than any thing else i had worked on. but I dont know if i could have done that without the previous ground work up from essentially tone deafness. (this was yeaaars into playing guitar too)
with simple melodies now that i sing away from an instrument , i can definitely identify what chord tone is what etc and that is helping me learn the fretboard a lot quicker than before.
with a bit of beginner knowledge of how chords are constructed i found it really made working out progressions loads easier
i dont do either now cos it is pretty bloody boring after the initial buzz wears off. I also really neglected rhythmic training, and now realising how rhythm deaf i am too. more work needed there
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