Ear Training Fundamentals: Ear Training Recommendations

Every serious student should be doing ear training as a daily habit, but what does that actually mean in practice?

Table of Contents

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Prerequisites

LOVE of music and the discipline to study and practice the right things the right way.

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Special Note from Frank

I take my teaching practice very seriously and want to be absolutely honest and clear about a subject that causes no shortage of confusion and frustration (mostly because it’s so horribly taught). To that end questions, comments, and suggestions are always welcome.

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Important Mindsets as You Do Ear Training

Music is a language.

1. Music isn’t like a language. Music is a language.
2. Ear training is about listening for and internalizing sounds, feelings, functions, and meanings–just like learning any language!
3. Just like any other language, one goal is to understand what you are hearing (musical comprehension).
4. Just like any other language, one goal is to be able to communicate something (musical fluency).

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Music theory and ear training must be done together.

The way you think about the music should be aligned with the way you experience (hear & feel) the music. Therefore, music theory and ear training must be studied together. THIS is central to understanding how music works and what it means to really know your scales, chords, chord progressions.

Sidebar: It’s a sad state of music education that most of what passes for “music theory” hardly even mentions ear training.

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Ear Training isn’t about training your ears.

Ear training is about connecting the sounds and feelings you’re experiencing with something you can store and retrieve from long-term memory. To that end, internalization is the process of storing a sound-feeling in your mind’s ear while connecting it to other information that enables you to retrieve and express that sound-feeling in performance. Such information may include a scale type, solfege syllable, melodic fragment, interval type, chord type, chord progression, roman numeral analysis, notes on a score, visuospatial layout of keys on the keyboard, or sequence of physical gestures.

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Context is everything.

This point is so important that it must be repeated: Context is everything. Because our musical brains don’t just hear sounds. Our musical brains also feel sounds… and can sense the functions and meanings of sounds. This is why it’s so important (once you understand the basics of how scales, chords, and chord progressions work) to get most of your ear training directly from the music you’re playing.

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Interval ear training is overrated.

An isolated interval, in and of itself, doesn’t typically make musical sense until it’s put into a larger musical context such as a melody or chord progression where factors such as the meter and placement within the meter become extremely important. This is why interval ear training has only limited value and why it’s so important to get most of your ear training from real music.

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You are a human being, not a computer.

Internalizing a meaningful musical pattern isn’t just about how that pattern sounds, but more importantly about how it feels and functions. And to take things one step deeper, it’s also about the emotional impact of the sound. (Frank plans to produce a series of audio-heavy lessons in the “How Music Works” category that demonstrate what this means in practice.)

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Frank’s Specific Ear Training Advice

Here’s my ear training advice loosely organized in order of assembly. (By the way, it’s perfectly fine to jump around based on your existing knowledge and skill level and to suit the kinds of music you want to play.)

Learn the Solfege for commonly used scales.

• Mandatory: Major, natural minor, harmonic minor, melodic minor in all 12 Major Keys and Minor Keys.
• Optional: Major pentatonic, minor pentatonic, mixolydian, dorian, blues, and world music scales.
• Learn the scale structure as you read, play, and sing each scale out loud using Solfege, while checking your pitch using a tuning app.
• Don’t overdo this. Do just enough to appreciate the overall mood of each scale type and to internalize how each notes in the scale sounds and feels with respect to the key center and to each other.

Learn commonly used Intervals.

• Unisons & octaves, perfect 5ths & perfect 4ths, major and minor 3rds, major and minor 2nds, major and minor 7ths, tritones, major and minor 6ths.
• Learn the chord structure for each interval as you read, play and sing each note in random intervals out loud, while checking your pitch using a tuning app.
• Don’t overdo this. Do just enough to get a rough feel for the mood and degree of consonance/dissonance and stability/instability of each interval.

Caution: It’s a big mistake to use the “first two notes in a song method” to learn intervals. Because any interval can be used in twelve different places and therefore can perform at least twelve different functions, each of which sounds and feels different. (If there’s interest, Frank will produce another lesson to make this point crystal lear.)

Learn commonly used Triads.

• Major, Minor, Diminished, Augmented.
• Learn the chord structure for each triad as you read, play and sing each note as an arpeggio out loud, while checking your pitch using a tuning app.
• Don’t overdo this. Do just enough to get a rough feel for the mood and degree of consonance/dissonance and stability/instability of each chord type.

Learn other Chord Types

• Power Chords, Suspended Chords, Major 7th Chords, Minor 7th Chords, Diminished 7th Chords, Half-Diminished 7th Chords.
• Ditto comments for Triads above.

Learn commonly used Chord Progressions

• Mandatory: Major I-V(7)-I, Minor i-V(7)-i, Major I-IV-I, minor i-iv-i
• Optional: Major I-vi-IV-V, Major IM7-VI7-ii7-V7, Mixolydian I-bVII-I, Dorian i-bVII-i, others.
• Learn how to do Roman Numeral Analys for each chord progression as you read, play and sing the notes in each chord as an arpeggio or voice that moves through the changes.
• Don’t over do this. Do just enough to get a feel for the mood of each chord progression as you internalize the sound, feeling, and function of each chord in the progression with respect to the key center and to each other.

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Get Your Ear Training from Real Music

Once you have a basic understanding of how music works, and how scales, chords, and chord progressions sound, feel, and function get your ear training directly from the music you want to play.

Analyze the Melody using Solfege and Sing it Out Loud

Analyze and internalize the sound feeling, and function of the notes in the melody… recognizing that some notes define the key center, some define the tonality, some outline the harmony, some embellish chord tones, some establish the meter, some create the rhythm, some create harmonic tension, some release harmonic tension… and how all these conspire to create musical phrases and fit into the overall form of the piece.

Analyze the Form and Harmony using Roman Numerals (and Solfege)

Analyze and internalize the sound, feeling, and function of each chord in the chord progression… recognizing that some chords define the key center and tonality, some create harmonic tension, some extend harmonic tension, and some change the mood… with a few variations using simple harmonic devices such as pedal points, suspensions, borrowed chords, secondary dominants, key changes… with special attention to how each chord leads to the next and where each chord is placed within the form.

Do Associative Ear Training

Once you understand the basics of scales, chords, and chord progressions and how meter, pitches, harmony, and form work together to create music, your ear training should be incidental to the specific kinds of music that YOU want to make! In other words, you don’t need to do special ear training exercises (just like you don’t need to to special finger training exercises!) And the primary way to do that is Associative Ear Training.

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learn more… Ear Training Fundamentals