2 How to Practice Ear Training
There are many ways to practice ear training. It can be as simple and organic as being conscious and intentional when listening to music or practicing an instrument, or it can be structured and formalized through activities, singing, and testing.
When listening to music, there is usually a main melody being played or sung, but a simple way to focus on ear training while listening to music is to try to listen to everything except the main melody. Take the stereotypical commercial (pop) song: a singer will sing the melody, but simultaneously, there may be drums, guitars, bass, keyboards, and synths—and many other instruments and sounds. Focusing on these secondary instruments is, in itself, a type of ear training. Similarly, we can focus on the main melody and again practice ear training. Is the melody simple or complex? Are there repeated notes? Does it cover a wide or narrow range of pitches? Intentionally focusing and critiquing while listening is always a valuable form of ear training.
This book, however, focuses on some of the fundamental sounds found in music. Scales, intervals, and triads will be discussed in separate modules in the book, but the systems to practice them are all the same.
Video 2.1 Introduction to Ear Training. [Video transcript – See Appendix B 2.1]
When first starting out, focusing on singing or humming a singular note can be beneficial. As skills are acquired, moving to a series of notes, such as a scale, is the next step. Once comfortable with matching pitch (singing or humming a note correctly), we can begin to focus on audiation. Audiation is the ability to “hear” notes or sounds that aren’t being performed or presented for you. For example, can you “hear” the song “Happy Birthday” in your head right now? That is audiation, and as we become more familiar with some of these fundamental sounds found in this course, we want to move towards being able to audiate and sing/hum them when needed.
In each chapter, you will find audio examples and an interactive tool that allows you to record yourself humming/singing the scale, interval, triad, or rhythm. These are designed to help you work on vocalizing these basic elements of music, while also working on your analytical hearing. Record yourself humming or singing, then critically listen back. Are you on the same notes as the reference recording? If not, where do you falter? Are you higher or lower in pitch than the reference? The goal here is to reproduce the reference audio, but assessing one’s own performance is just as valuable.
In addition to the audio examples and recording features you will find in each chapter, each section ends with interactive assessments in which you will identify different scales, intervals, triads, and rhythms.
