Appendix B: Video Transcripts
2.1 Introduction to Ear Training
My name is Devin Hart and I’m the author of this course. This is Katie Perman, the head of the vocal department here at MacEwan University. In this course, you’re gonna learn and develop some of your musical ear training skills needed to work in the music industry. In the book, you will participate in a variety of activities ranging from identifying various musical concepts to singing or humming different musical elements.
One of the first steps is to learn how to hum a note that you can hear a single note on the piano. So what you want to do is you want to play the note and sing along with it. If you find yourself struggling to match with the pitch, you can try sliding up or down, depending on where it is that you think the note might be related to in relation to where you’re singing.
So we’ll try another one. And if you start too low, for example, and they’re not quite sounding the same, you can try sliding around until you match that pitch. So if I start until we match that pitch, that’s what we’re looking for. Or sometimes you might start too high and then you want to practice just humming those notes.
Once you’re comfortable with matching that pitch, you can try different vowel sounds. You can sing on a LA or a LE or an OO. I prefer to sing a V sound because it’s nice and bright and pitched forward and it’s very clear to hear where you are. If you don’t have access to a piano, you can use a virtual keyboard, which can be found online. Any instrument can be used as a reference pitch, or you can use the audio built into the course itself.
[Return to Introduction to Ear Training video]
5.1 Scales
In this module, we’re going to talk about scale. The first scale we’re going to talk about is the major scale, which sounds like this. First way that you can try showing or demonstrating a major scale with your voice is to hum it. Just humming each individual note, making sure that you’re hitting the exact same note as the piano is playing. And that sounds like this. Once you’re comfortable humming it, you can try singing it. To start, you can choose any vowel sound that you want. As Katie likes “V”s, we’re going to show you that. And that sounds like this. V, V. If you’re comfortable with that, you can try singing it on numbers. For scales, the first note of the scale is one, the second note is two, the third note is three, and so on and so forth to the top note where you can sing either one again or the number eight. And it sounds like this: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Now we’re going to talk about minor scales: there are three minor scales in this module: the natural minor, harmonic minor, and jazz minor. All of them have a note that is different or multiple notes that are different than the major scale. The natural minor scale, the third note, sixth note, and seventh note are all one semitone lower than the major scale. When singing it, you can hum it or sing it on V, but it can be helpful to sing on numbers so you remember which notes to lower. So again, natural minor has a lowered third, sixth, and seventh note and it sounds like this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. The harmonic minor scale only has a lowered third note and sixth note. The seventh note is the same as the major scale as are the first second, fourth, and fifth notes. It sounds like this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. The jazz minor only has a lowered 3rd. All the other notes are the exact same as the major scale, and it sounds like this. When singing the three minor scales, the first five notes are always the same. It’s just the sixes and sevens that change.
8.1 Intervals
In this next module, we’ll be talking about intervals, specifically song associations to help you recognize the sounds of these intervals. We’ll start with the major intervals. The first one is a major second, or if you want to think of the song, “Happy Birthday.” It goes back to the one, but the first two notes, happy birth, helps you to find a major second. The next one we can discuss is a major third. It sounds like this. We can think of the song, “Oh When the Saints.” Oh when, is your major third. A perfect fourth. We can think of the song, “Here Comes the Bride.” Here comes the bride. That’s our perfect fourth. Our perfect fifth. We can think of “Star Wars,” which doesn’t have any lyrics, but I sing “Star Wars” to help me remember. A sixth now, a major six, is the song, “My Bonnie lies over the ocean,” My Bon. And a major seven, is the song, “Maria,” from the musical. Maria. Marie is our major seven. Now, our minors, famously a minor second is the “Jaws” theme song. That’s our minor second. Our minor third is the beginning of “O Canada.” O Canada, O Can, helps us to find our minor third. Our minor sixth, I think of “Yeah” by Usher. So it starts with the fifth, and the second one is our minor sixth. So, La La is our minor six. And our minor seven is the ABBA song, “The Winner Takes It All.” The winner takes it all, the winner takes And using these songs can help us to associate and find these intervals in ways that can help us learn them.
11.1 Triads
In this module, we’re going to talk about triads. And just like all the other modules, one of the best ways to practice triads is to either hum them or sing them. There are four types of triads that you could hum or sing. The first being major, which sounds like this. Minor, which sounds like this. Diminished, which sounds like this. And augmented, which sounds like this. To start off, you can practice them by humming them along with the piano, along with any other instrument that you have, or any of the audio resources online in the book. So, for example, Katie could hum a major triad along with the book or with the piano, just like this. She could have a minor triad like this, a diminished triad like this, or an augmented triad like this. If you’re comfortable singing instead of humming, you could sing them on whatever vowel sounds you want or on numbers. The nice thing about triads is that all of them can be sung on numbers, 1, 3, and 5, which would sound like this for major triad. A minor triad would sound like this. A diminished triad would sound like this. An augmented triad would sound like this.
13.1 Rhythms
In this module, we’re gonna talk about rhythms. With rhythms, rather than humming or singing them, we’re gonna work on clapping and counting out loud. As all the rhythms in this module are 4-4, our rhythms are gonna be mostly comprised of four different types of notes. Whole notes, which get four counts, half notes, which get two counts, quarter notes, which each get one count, and eighth notes, which each get half a count. To clap and count these, we’re gonna start with a whole note. A whole note, as it gets four counts for one clap sounds like this: 1,2,3,4. Half notes, each getting two counts, sound like this: 1,2,3,4. Quarter notes, each getting one count, sound like this: 1,2,3,4. Eighth notes, as they each get half of a count, we want to start to subdivide, meaning that rather than saying 1,2,3,4, we’re going to say 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, which sounds like this 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, and I can still subdivide, if i have quarter notes or half notes, for example, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, but it’s not necessary if I don’t want to.
