Ear training

[jtsang2501]

Hey all, for a music forum we talk surprisingly little about ear training.

Just a question for anyone and everyone,

What do you do to train your ears?
Or if you don't train your ears.. Y?

 

[lppier]

I think "catching" chords for songs is the simplest form of ear training, it's good for songwriting too.

Pier.

 

[jtsang2501]

hmm i was thinking more of..

perfect pitch.. how do you train yourself to get it?

Chords.. how do you remember the sound of the chord that you're playing. eg. sus 4, 13th, 9th chords etc....

And intervals.. like how to recognise the pitch from 1 to 2 or 1 to 5..


Cos I'm quite concerned with ear training and i just wanna learn how you guys go about remembering all this

 

[Cheez]

Hey all, for a music forum we talk surprisingly little about ear training.

Actually, this has been discussed many times - some of them have very good suggestions (both for guitarists and keyboardists). What about doing a search and reviving those threads?

 

[jeifen]

perfect pitch.. how do you train yourself to get it?

that's something i believe you either have or you don't. can try checking with seasoned musicians. not all have perfect pitches...

 

[Cheez]

that's something i believe you either have or you don't. can try checking with seasoned musicians. not all have perfect pitches...

I have perfect pitch. Despite what most say that it s a gift, I do believe part of it can be learned through ear training.

I haven't kept up my ears for a few years now - busy with work etc. I was shocked yesterday to find out that my pitch went off a semi-tone. This is consistent throughout the entire keyboard. It seems my ears need to be re-tuned...

 

[bongman]

wow! Cheez you are one lucky man!
how I wish I have perfect pitch
was trying to learn from some tapes and books
but didn't seems to work

 

[vx02]

i have perfect pitch but to a limited extent la. eg. cant really get sharps and flats. i read somewhere that some people get perfect pitch from associating notes with emotions and all that la. haha but i guess mine came from transcribing mallet percussion. haha.

 

[jtsang2501]

ok this is one thing that i try to do for perfect pitch sometimes...

I listen to a lot of music. So as a sorta habit. Before I put press play on my cd player. I will sing the first note of the song. And then I'll press the play button to check if the pitch is exactly the same. and hey, most times it is.

does that mean perfect pitch?

or am i still a long way to go? I still havent reached the level where i can tell off straight away what note's being played or what key the guy's playing in.

Do you guys have any weird playing tips like this?

 

[Cheez]

I think it comes with playing and listening. jtsang, your method is OK. I guess if you keep at it, you'll get there. After you know the first note to a song, do the reverse - think of that song and sing the first note. Then play and see if you are correct.

As for emotions, it is also true. A flat and D flat give me particular melancholic feeling, as opposed to F sharp, E and B, for example. But it is not something easily explained - I can't. I think better not stick with emotional feelings but proper ear training.

Before I found out the existence of perfect pitch, I used to have 2 pieces of music in my head - one starts with A and one starts with C followed by F. I can sing these notes accurately to the pitch. Then I applied interval theory to find the other notes I hear. It was only later I realised I didn't have to do that. Then, came the notes of ambulance sirens and school bells ...

 

[turbochicken]

"...ok this is one thing that i try to do for perfect pitch sometimes...

I listen to a lot of music. So as a sorta habit. Before I put press play on my cd player. I will sing the first note of the song. And then I'll press the play button to check if the pitch is exactly the same. and hey, most times it is.

does that mean perfect pitch?"

~

erm, jtsang, NO, sorry, that's not perfect pitch.
that's simply you knowing the song well enough.

 

[Silencer]

i have perfect pitch but to a limited extent la. eg. cant really get sharps and flats. i read somewhere that some people get perfect pitch from associating notes with emotions and all that la. haha but i guess mine came from transcribing mallet percussion. haha.

hmmm i use that method, but i reckon its more akin to relative pitching. someone must set u off with one right note first. and the sharps and flats will come later naturally.

 

[jtsang2501]

erm, jtsang, NO, sorry, that's not perfect pitch.
that's simply you knowing the song well enough.

True, that's knowing the song well enough. But it is a step to getting nearer to perfect pitch? Let's say I can consistently sing a song in Bflat, it helps me recognise the pitch of Bflat rite? I don't believe in things being pure innate. There's always a way to get to ANY standard.

It's just the method you use to get there that counts

 

[turbochicken]

yes, it is a method. but it's nowhere near perfect pitch aka absolute pitch.

what you mentioned is a process of tone familiarisation. and it takes years to acquire PP / AP from that alone.

and, VX02:

perfect pitch is absolute. unless you're having a bad day or a cold or something. otherwise there's no such thing as PP to a certain extent. that would be relative pitching.

 

[jtsang2501]

If it takes years to get PP from that alone...
That what else can I do to speed up the process?

 

[tany]

how do u noe if u have perfect pitch?

i have relative pitch, like most others

 

[turbochicken]

If it takes years to get PP from that alone...
That what else can I do to speed up the process?

to be born with it?

like some gifted kids who schooled past uni at 10yearsold...

 

[turbochicken]

how do u noe if u have perfect pitch?

i have relative pitch, like most others

without any tonal support, if you can tell the pitch of anything with a tone, say for eg, a motorcycle speeding off, all the voices while walking in a mall or someone singing in the bathroom horribly.

something like that.

or simply, you remember ALL the notes in your head.

ps: there are arguments that we're all born with pp, just that we lose them as we age from not practising it. i could probably write something on it, if need be.

 

[jeifen]

how do u noe if u have perfect pitch?

if you can identify the note played on an instrument by just hearing?

there are some people who can only identify when one note is played at a time. when a chord is played, they either hear the most dominant note or they can't tell at all. where do these people fall under?

 

[turbochicken]

how do u noe if u have perfect pitch?

if you can identify the note played on an instrument by just hearing?

there are some people who can only identify when one note is played at a time. when a chord is played, they either hear the most dominant note or they can't tell at all. where do these people fall under?

relative pitch.