Teaching Ear training app

[mizmar]

but many of the greats, back in the day, did what he says above.

So what did the others do?

 

[mizmar]

... and Beethoven's drunk dad beat him. So that's another alternative....

The thing is, examples of the greats or even just pretty talented, is not evidence of a universal truth, applicable to everyone whatever their background.

 

[Colin the Bear]

I wonder how anyone managed to play in tune before the mobile phone app?

 

[mizmar]

I wonder how anyone managed to play in tune before the mobile phone app?

Do you? That's interesting. Off topic, but interesting.

Edit:
But, as you asked, I came across this.

Ear Training Exercises | Musical U

Ear Training Exercises help you hone your listening skills for music and develop a well-tuned musical ear. Expert musicians have always used special

www.musical-u.com

The Traditional Approach

traditional ear training

So what are the traditional ear training exercises? Well in the classical era, an exercise would probably mean sitting at a piano keyboard, drilling intervals or chords and using a “brute force” approach to drum the sounds into your ears....

 

[mizmar]

Just to drop this here.
A YouTuber "Walk that base" is doing a series on ear training.
he's mostly piano, but it seems these exercises are instrument agnostic.

Play list.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIuyaIoM30LJcnM1yZB4JhHYBpz93sh0L

 

[wakyct]

In the spirit of people not checking back... after 3 months - Quite interesting.

Hope it's OK to bump an old thread but I just tried out the Functional Ear Training app and I was curious about something the creator said on his site...I'll just quote from it:

There are several ways to obtain the ability to recognize and identify pitches. Those of us who do not have perfect pitch must choose a measuring devise or technique. One popular method is to divide everything into intervals and then relate intervals to familiar melodies (perfect fourth=Hear Comes the Bride, major sixth=NBC door bell etc.) This is a horizontal approach which identifies intervals but I don’t feel it is the most direct path to having spontaneous knowledge of sound as it relates to a musical piece. It also doesn’t increase the musical vocabulary harmonically when attempting to capture an expression or idea. The mental circuitry involved, fragments the melody and interjects secondary melodies between the notes of the primary melody in order to make identification of intervals. Then you must calculate the intervalic math in order to actually identify the notes in question.

Vertical identification of tones

An improviser is spontaneously creating a melody which hopefully originates somewhere within the mind and spirit of the improviser. The next task is to get this melody out to the instrument within the pre-designed context of the music (be it chord progression, and/or meter etc.) The improviser’s instrument is in effect, a medium which connects the boundless spiritual world of the improviser to the ever present boundary oriented world of the physical – REALITY! With this in mind, the improviser must speak two languages. Always increasing the vocabulary of both in order to bridge the two worlds and grow. Since the improviser’s created melody does originate with the improviser, the actual line is already known. It becomes a mystery when the attempt is made to put it out for others to hear because the vertical identity of the tones is not yet known. Therefor, it is more beneficial for the improviser to concentrate on the vertical identification of tones (pitch, as it relates to the key or tonal center of the moment) rather than intervalic or horizontal identification.

Is "vertical vs horizontal identification" really a thing when you're playing by ear?

That is, when you're playing what you hear with your inner ear. I haven't heard it expressed in this way before.

I've been using GNU Solfege for a little while up to now, identifying intervals mainly. I play the interval in Solfege and then try to duplicate it on the saxophone.

I like the Functional Ear Trainer app but I don't really know if it's worthwhile to use it? @mizmar, what do you think if you can comment?

 

[mizmar]

I like the Functional Ear Trainer app but I don't really know if it's worthwhile to use it? @mizmar, what do you think if you can comment?

Hi.
I can't say it's a silver bullet for me - but even if it was, the effectiveness of one tool or technique can vary wildly for mature learners.
Sounds like you're doing sturdy work on interval recognition training, certainly a good thing.

 

[wakyct]

So this is probably old hat to a lot of folks here but for any interested beginners like myself -- it seems these ear training apps kind of do work.

A month ago I would get a pretty low score (20-30%) identifying scale degrees played from the whole range of the piano (the 'Many Octaves' game in the Functional app).

Lately, and it's kind of mystifying to me what is even happening when I listen, I am getting more like 60% correct. Certain degrees, like 4ths, seem easier to identify for some reason. My brain just 'knows' it's a 4th somehow pretty consistently. Also, it's not like I practice with the app regularly. Maybe a few times a week.

Of course I don't know if this is helping my playing at all 😉.

 

[mizmar]

Worth, IMHO, plugging away at several approaches... bit by bit, stuff will stick.

As an aside, a thing that has given my ears a definite improvement is learning the reed flute (nay) it's so unstable that almost every note has to be adjusted (embouchure, angle, pressure...). All in all, keep challenging yourself.

 

[PiccoloPirate]

This might be considered a
Musical Ear Training APPliance. 😎
Learn to play a C major scale with the correct fingering.
Of course you are internalizing/humming the tones as you play.
Then play a C and add the Major 3rd.
Get that interval in your mind.
Then play the C and internalize/hum the
Major 3rd. Then while still holding the C add the Major 3rd.
Adjust your mind and hum,
as necessary.
Do it with all intervals, chords etc etc.

Melodicas may not be perfectly in tune but close enough. Learning to tune the reeds is doable.
The newer ones are easy to keep clean and easier to carry than a SqueezeBox, Steel Drum or Piano.
Especially while swimming to your boat, on the hook, with a flute and melodica in a dry bag.
You can even make a device that puts air into the melodica via a foot pedal contraption and sing away.
Shown is a Hohner Professional 36 and an earlier one.
Who knows, once you can be chordal, you might write some tunes.

Best of all, no batteries required,
just fish, chips and a pint of beer.

 

[AaronTMartin78]

I don’t think that I saw EarMaster mentioned in the advice replies. I’ve used it for a couple years and I think that it’s pretty great. For a cloud subscription fee of under 40 USD/yr, your progress can be synced across multiple devices (I prefer to use the iPad since screen real estate on the average smartphone can be a bit tight for some of the exercises). They do have stand-alone versions of the app and a free version, as well. Highly recommended. EarMaster - Ear Training, Sight-Singing and Rhythm Training App for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android

 

[mizmar]

it seems these ear training apps kind of do work.

Just to point out that judging if gamified apps work, based on how your score is improving, doesn't distinguished between Improved ears and just learning the game. You need a seperat test.

This site, for example - useful in many ways - has an ear test... if you try this say every month or so, you'd have a better assessment.

musictheory.net - Exercises

Introductory and intermediate music theory lessons, exercises, ear trainers, and calculators.

www.musictheory.net