Ear Training: High and Low

I came across a fun game for Preschool piano players! You may want to visit my WunderKeys Pinterest Board for additional resources. This particular game caught my eye because it's a familiar story, Five Little Monkeys! It's called, High and Low Game.

This upcoming week in the New Year I'll be sharing with my 3 to 5-year-old piano students High and Low Tones. For adults, it's an easy concept to play high melody tones with the right hand above Middle C. It's obvious to us that our left hand will grab chords and yes, sometimes single notes in the bass below Middle C.

I start kids with ear training right away. A popular free app I use is called Blob Chorus. For adults, I wrote about Jazz Musician's Ear and an article, Piano Lesson: Ear Training.

Another free app for ear training is, Relative Pitch Lite. Adults will like this one, too.

You may be interested in Hear and Play PITCH Ear Training Software.

Closing out 2016. Hope it's been kind to you... Here's looking ahead to a great New Year!

Blessings,

-- LadyD

 "The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

Ear Training: Major and Minor Triads

One of the best ways to improve your musicianship is by taking the time to sing and actively listen to musical materials you use everyday. Let's consider our most basic chords, major and minor triads. These chords are made up of different combinations of major and minor thirds. A major third (M3) spans the distance of two whole steps (G-B); a minor third (m3) covers one-and-a-half steps (G-Bb).

You can construct those triads by using formulas: Major triad = M3 + m3; minor triad = m3 + M3 (spelled from the bottom up). If you know your major and minor scales, you can refer to these relationships between the degrees of the scale. Try the following exercises at the piano to review thirds and triads.

Using the numbers 1 2 3 4 5, sing the first five notes of a major scale starting on G. Check yourself on the piano. Next break the triad down into its two stacked thirds. Sing 1 2 3 and then leave out 2, singing 1-3 (G-B, a major 3rd). Next, sing 3 4 5, then just 3-5 (B-D, a minor third). Finally, sing 1 2 3 4 5, then 1-3-5. Congratulations! You have just sung a major triad (G-B-D).

Sing:

G-A-B-C-D
G-A-B
G-B (M3)
B, C, D
B, D (m3)
G-B-D (Major triad = M3 + m3)

For a minor triad, use the minor scale as your reference. Remember, a minor scale has a half step between sale degrees 2-3, so Bb is scale degree3 in G minor. Follow the same steps as above: 1 2 3 4 5. Then 1 2 3, 1-3, 3 4 5, 3-5. Finally, 12345: 1-3-5. Congratulations! You have just sung a minor triad (G-Bb-D). Do this same exercise starting on other notes within your voice range and you will improve your ability to quickly construct and recognize thirds and triads... by ear.


Hear and Play has just released a new software, Song Tutor and the Vocal Mastery System is a good resource for the vocalist/musician. Be sure and catch the following former posts I blogged about.

Ear Training

Ear Training Piano Lesson

Friday Freebie: Ear Training

Learn Songs By Ear

Practical Approach to Ear Training

Types of Ear Musicians

photo credit: Sunny Spot via photopin (license)
article credit: Joan Stiles

Blessings,






"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

Ten Tips For Piano Players

Tips for Piano Players

1.    Piano Practice

Practice Tips

2.    Ear Training

Ear-Training Article

3.    Sight Reading

Sight-Reading-Practice-Tips

4.    Chord Construction

Constructing-Simple-Chords

5. Chord Recognition

How-to-Form-Chords

5.    Pedal Practice

Damper-Pedal-Practice

6.    Suspended Chords

How-to-Play-Suspended-Chords

7.    Rhythm Workshop

Workshop-of-Rhythm

8.    Diatonic Harmony

Diatonic-Harmony-To-The-Musician

9.    Chord Voicings

The-Art-of-Piano-Chord-Voicings

10. Harmonize The Melody

How-Do-I-Harmonize-These-Melodies

Let's talk a little about some of these points...

#7 Rhythm:

You can hear and play rhythm patterns into different groups, like rhythm & blues, jazz, rock, dance patterns, marches, waltzes, swing, discos, ballads, gospel, bossa-novas and more. Practicing complex rhythms is indeed challenging. Learning how eight notes and dotted quarter notes relate and sound in one measure. Duane Shinn discovered how to establish a baseline in his left hand.

#6 Suspended

Suspensions (sus) are chords in which the 4th degree of the scale takes the place of the 3rd degree.

Example:

Csus = CFG and C7sus = CFGBb

Gsus = GCD and G7sus = GCDF

You’ll find suspended chords to Jesus Mighty God and a Tom Petty song at an earlier post of mine, how-to-play-suspended-chords

Duane illustrates these examples very well, suspensions

Example of suspended Chords:

Amazing Love by Hillsong

Intro: (D/F# G2 Asus A)

D/F#   G2           Asus        A     
I’m forgiven, because you were forsaken
D/F#   G2          Asus         A
I’m accepted, you were condemned
D/F#   G2          Asus         A
I’m alive and well, your spirit is within me
G2          A             D
Because you died and rose again
[ Tab from: http://www.guitaretab.com/h/hillsong/255499.html ]
Chorus:
D2		      G2
Amazing love, how can it be
D2                    Asus     A
That you my king would die for me
D2               G2
Amazing love, I know its true
D2 	      Asus    A
Its my joy to honour you

G                 A    D2
In all I do I honour you

Bridge:
D    D2    D  D2
You are my king, you are my king
D    D2    D  D2         D       D2    D
Jesus, you are my king, Jesus, you are my king

#5 Chords... So many to know.

major chords

  

  minor chords

  

  diminished chords

  

  augmented chords

6th chords

minor 6th chords

7th chords

minor 7th chords

7th with aug 5th chords

7th with flat 5th chords

minor 7th with flat fifth chords

diminished 7th chords

major 7th chords

major 7th chords with aug 5th

major 7th chords with flat 5th

major 7th chords with flat 3rd and flat 5th

major 7th chords with flat 3rd and sharp 5th

9th chords with all their variations (flat 5th, maj 7, etc.)

11th chords

13th chords

If you enjoyed this blog post, please consider following on Bloglovin'
Keep in touch with me on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube and Pinterest, too!

 
"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

Related articles

• Play Diminished 7th, Half Diminished 7th Chords
• Let Everything: Kim Gentes
• How To Play Auld Lang Syne
• The 9th Chord

Friday Freebie: Ear Training

Photo Credit: Easy Ear Training

You'll find free Tutorials, Quizzes and Discussion Forums to help you with ear training,
plus a free 68 page eBook at http://www.easyeartraining.com/


Ear training is a skill that improves with daily practice. That's why I admire the folks at
HearandPlay.com because they are masters at playing by ear, especially Jermaine Griggs.

This wonderful site, Easy Training, offers a free pack of interval training tracks at Intervals with these free tracks. "The downloadable pack includes 5 MP3 files, each of which is about 3 minutes long. Each focuses on a different interval."

Photo Credit: Blob Chorus Music Education App

A delightful app that I discovered at http://musicianswithapps.com provides
great ear training for children and adults, too. Listen to the Blob and then match the tone with
King Blob. It's free!

Here's an article I wrote awhile back on ear training.

Ear training is especially important if you want to improvise, compose, or figure out melodies and chords to songs by ear. A good musical ear is an acquired skill, not a gift. And like other skills, it is acquired through practice.
The more we train our ear to recognize this connection, the more we enjoy playing music, because we learn to understand what we play.

Here are a few questions I am often asked.

Who needs ear training?
All musicians need to train their ear in order to know what they are playing and to anticipate what they are about to play!

Why do ear training?
Because understanding the sounds we hear will be necessary to:
* Jam with other musicians
* Compose music
* Sing in tune

There are 3 qualities that every good jazz musician must possess:
* a great ear
* a strong sense of time
* a unique sound.

While there are many different ways to approach these skills, the first two always require a certain amount of drilling. The ear can be thought of as a muscle and to a certain degree must be trained like one. Improved ears will lead to better intonation, improvisation, ensemble playing and transcription skills. With that in mind, here are three great ways of dramatically improving your students' ears and, hopefully, their overall playing.

Associating a familiar melody with each interval is a quick way to learn an interval's distinct sound. For example, a melodic interval can be ascending or descending. Either way, it's still the same interval. Now, you don't want to get confused with interval inversions because a minor third will is still a minor third no matter which note comes first.

Intervals can be classified as consonant or dissonant. I can tell you that it's much easier to hear the consonance or dissonance of harmonic intervals than melodic ones.

Here's a list showing you the relative stability (consonance) or instability (dissonance) of the octaves up to an octave.

Consonant: Perfect, unison, m3, P4, P5, m6, P octave.

Dissonant: m2, M2, +4. (o5), m7, M7.

Another gentle approach is to describe Hollow Sounds, like austere and earthy, Indian drones and Scottish bagpipes or heavy metal rhythm-guitar.

Hallow: Perfect unison, P4, P5, P octave. This would be perfect intervals and their inversions.)

Sweet: m3, M3, m6, M6. (thirds and sixths)

Now there are active and passive methods for ear training. A passive drill would be to play two notes in succession and listen to that interval. Sometimes you will be asked to name the next note.

Harmonic intervals can be drilled the same way. These types of drills can be done with chords or chord progressions.

Are you familiar with the underlying scales and moveable "Do" solfege?
It's essential that you learn to sing a chromatic scale. As chromaticism is prevalent throughout modern jazz, this exercise will improve both intonation and students' understanding of the genre. When singing through the chromatic scale, remember to use sharps when ascending and flats when descending.

Chromatic Scale Ascending:
C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C
Do, Di, Re, Ri, Mi, Fa, Fi, Sol, Si, La, U, Ti, Do

Chromatic Scale Descending
C, B, Bb, A, Ab, G, Gb, F, E, Eb, D, Db, C
Do, Ti, Te, La, Le, Sol, Se, Fa, Mi, Me, Re, Ra, Do

Target Tones
Target tones are an essential part of any ear training regimen. They force students to hear not only chord tones, but surrounding tones as well. Now, many students can correctly sing a major scale but they have some difficulty picking out specific intervals at random.
With respect to the scales and scale degrees, the best way to practice this is through the use of target tones. Here are a few exercises:
C, // C, D, C // E, D, C // F, E, D // C, G, A // B, C, A // B, C, B // C
Ear training leads to better intonation, improvisation, band playing and transcription skills overall.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6462345

If you're looking for more digital ear training software, visit Pitch.






"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

Practical Approach to Ear Training

I want to give a shout out to Richard, Liz, Joshua and Tyrus for asking me about ear training and those who are learning to play by ear with the number system. I was reading a great article in one of my jazz magazines and thought I'd share some great tips with you.

Ear training can be a valuable tool to help students learn effectively. The better your ability to hear, the faster you learn -- and the slower you forget. The ability of the ear to hear is the intuitive, non-intellectual part of music, and it enhances the jazz player's ability to "hear" where the next notes are coming from. 


A few players naturally have excellent ear training -- some educators call it "perfect pitch." People who don't have this natural talent need ear training. Having a good ear means that you can hear the right note before you play it. It doesn't mean when you play a wrong note you then fumble around and find the right note through trial and error.


For people who have a good ear, music is easier for them and more natural to learn. That's not to say  they don't have to practice and work hard to achieve expertise in music. Many of us recognize that perhaps the fastest way to become a skilled musician is to play everything you know, hear and sing in 12 keys. The focus here is to hear and sing melodic shapes and intervals, in as many keys as possible.


Recognizing the shape of an arpeggiated chord eventually makes hearing harmony possible. By thinking of these shapes as chords, one starts to hear harmony as well as melody. The next step is to sing a melody and arpeggiate down, making the sound of the chord. To do this, you have to know what the melody is in relationship to the chord.


When you put away your music and try to play the song without music, do you really know it? If you can't sing the song, you don't really know it. If you don't know what the melody note is in relationship to the chord or the root motion of the harmony, then you don't know the song.


The melody and the harmony have everything to do with each other. If the piano player sees that the melody is a major 7th, he will structure the chord taking into consideration the melody. If the melody has a flat 9, he would not play a natural 9. This relationship of melody and harmony is key in learning a song.


Miles Donahue says, 

"If we were to think of jazz as a car, the engine of improvising would be the mind and ear. The wheels are the mechanical ability to play what you think and hear. The internal combustion - the art - comes from the soul and creative spirit. Most jazz players learn the genre of jazz through listening to the great players who developed this art form."

So, one must work real hard with ear training. Most of us are not pros like Stan Getz, when it comes to ear training. Stan Getz possessed the ear-training equivalent of a photographic memory. Anything he heard, he remembered and could play back. He was able to improvise at a very high level without knowledge of the  theory behind what he was hearing and playing. James Moody and Chet Baker also had such reputations.

I have 2 resources to share with you. 
Add to your music library:

PITCH Ear Training Software

Piano By Ear For Starters


Oh, and do you know someone who plays the violin? Here's a great offer for you.

The Complete Violin Package is coming soon! at Virtual Sheet Music ^®

All the best,





"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

Related articles

• Book Review: The Violin's Magical Melody (Scribbles and Friends) (ladyd-books.blogspot.com)

Ear-Training Piano Lesson

Cover of B.B. KingEar training is especially important if you want to improvise, compose, or figure out melodies and chords to songs by ear. A good musical ear is an acquired skill, not a gift! and like other skills, it is acquired through practice!
  
The more we train our ear to recognize this connection, the more we enjoy playing music, because we learn to understand what we play.

Who needs ear training?

All musicians need to train their ear in order to know what they are playing and to anticipate what they are about to play!

Why do ear training?

Because understanding the sounds we hear will be necessary to:

    Jam with other musicians

   Compose music

    Sing in tune

There are 3 qualities that every good jazz musician must possess:

- a great ear, a strong sense of time, and a unique sound.

While there are many different ways to approach these skills, the first two always require a certain amount of drilling. The ear can be thought of as a muscle and to a certain degree must be trained like one. Improved ears will lead to better intonation, improvisation, ensemble playing and transcription skills. With that in mind, here are three great ways of dramatically improving your students' ears and, hopefully, their overall playing.

Associating a familiar melody with each interval is a quick way to learn an interval’s distinct sound. For example, a melodic interval can be ascending or descending. Either way, it’s still the same interval. Now, you don’t want to get confused with interval inversions because a minor third will is still a minor third no matter which note comes first.

Intervals can be classified can be classified as consonant or dissonant. I can tell you that it’s much easier to hear the consonance or dissonance of harmonic intervals than melodic ones.

Here’s a list showing you the relative stability (consonance) or instability (dissonance) of the octaves up to an octave.

Consonant: Perfect, unison, m3, P4, P5, m6, P octave.

Dissonant: m2, M2, +4. (05), m7, M7.

Another gentle approach is to describe Hollow Sounds, like austere and earthy, Indian drones and Scottish bagpipes or heavy metal rhythm- guitar.

Hallow: Perfect unison, P4, P5, P octave. This would be perfect intervals and their inversions.)

Sweet: m3, M3, m6, M6. (thirds and sixths)

Now there are active and passive methods for ear training. A passive drill would be to play two notes in succession and listen to that interval. Sometimes you will be asked to name the next note.

Harmonic intervals can be drilled the same way. These types of drills can be done with chords or chord progressions.

Are you familiar with the underlying scales and moveable "Do" solfege?


It's essential that you learn to sing a chromatic scale. As chromaticism is prevalent throughout modern jazz, this exercise will improve both intonation and students' understanding of the genre. When singing through the chromatic scale, remember to use sharps when ascending and flats when descending.


Chromatic Scale Ascending:


C,  C#,  D,   D#,  E,  F,   F#, G,  G#, A, A#, B, C
Do, Di,  Re, Ri,  Mi, Fa, Fi, Sol, Si, La, U, Ti, Do


Chromatic Scale Descending


C,   B,  Bb, A,  Ab, G,  Gb, F,  E,   Eb,  D,   Db, C
Do, Ti, Te, La, Le, Sol, Se, Fa, Mi, Me, Re, Ra, Do


Target Tones


Target tones are an essential part of any ear training regimen. They force students to hear not only chordd tones, but surrounding tones as well. Now, many students can correctly sing a major scale but they have some difficulty picking out specific intervals at random.


With respect to the scales and scale degrees, the best way to practice this is through the use of target tones. Here are a few exercises:


C, // C, D, C // E, D, C // F, E, D // C, G, A // B, C, A // B, C, B // C


Do you know the sound of these chords?

Major seventh, Major seventh b5, Major seventh +5, Sus major seventh

Minor seventh, Minor major seventh, Half diminished seventh (aka minor seven flat five), Fully diminished seventh

Dominant seventh, Dominant seventh b5, Dominant seventh +5, and Sus dominant seventh

You might be interested in these resources:


Jazz101


Jazz201


Pitch Ear Training Software


Pitch By Ear






"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

5 Tips- How To Find The Major Key of A Song By Ear

5 Tips To Help Find The Major Key of A Song By Ear!


1) Listen for the note that you can sing consistently throughout the whole song.

2) The major key (when trying to find it by ear) is the note that gives you a feeling of "home base" ... a feeling of rest and calmness. Train your ear by trying to play songs you can sing from memory on the piano. First, determine what key the song is in by finding which note the song seems to resolve on. This note is known as the tonic.


3) If the song were going to come to an end, what chord would it be?

4) Try playing octave bass notes in your left hand at the end of the song to determine what key you are in.

5) If you are not 100% sure you are singing the right note, try singing a fourth up to see if that's a better match.

Learn how to quickly recognize what key a chord progression is being played in --- regardless of its complexity!
Learn how to listen to a chord and within seconds, figure out what type of chord is being played!

A great technique to play a song by ear is to listen to the bass notes that are being played in a song. After you figure out the bass notes, then figure out the chords. Most of the time the bass notes correspond w/ chords (usually major or minor) that have that bass note as the root note of chord (except when it's a slash chord ie C/E would be C chord w/ E bass). A lot of times when the bass note is different note than the root note of the chord, it's usually another note in the same chord (ie E is another note in the C chord). If the chord that's being played w/the bass note sounds "happy" you can figure it's a major chord. If the chord sounds "sad", it's probably a minor or diminished chord.

Watch the bass notes that the guitar guy is playing in the band. You can figure out a lot of the chords.
i.e. if he's playing G C D bass notes a lot in a song, you can figure that he's playing in the key of G b/c C and D are the 4 and 5 of the key and G is the 1. A lot of times you'll find the 1, 4, and 5 of a key in the bass notes of a song. The main thing is to look for the 4 and 5 which are a whole step apart.

PRACTICE FINDING THE MAJOR KEY TO A SONG:

Use this online tool to find major keys when you're away from a piano.

http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/javapiano/javapiano.htm

Next, go to
http://www.TowerRecords.com and type in any song. You can get a 30 second sample of it. They have a wide selection to choose from,knowing the title of the song or the album.

Jermaine Griggs, the founder of HearandPlay.com, suggests the following:

"Then...

1) Listen for the note that you can sing consistently throughout the whole song.

2) The major key (when trying to find it by ear) is the note that gives you a feeling of "home base" ... a feeling of rest and calmness.

3) If the song were going to come to an end, what chord would it be? How would you hum it? In "Happy Birthday to you," you're looking for the final "YOUUUUUUUUU!"

4) Remember "Do RE MI FA SOL LA TI DO?" Well, the key that you're looking for is "DO." So as you listen to the song, try to sing "DO."

5) If you are not 100% sure you are singing the right note, try singing a fourth up to see if that's a better match. In the nursery rhyme, "The wheels on the bus go round and round," this would be like singing "The---wheels." Perhaps, wheels is the key you should be singing but you are incorrectly singing "the" when it is not the key (the tonic).

Try these to get started."

I highly recommend all of the HearandPlay music resources. I have been using them for years, incorporating them in my piano lessons, to help students play by ear. This is a very well-worth stop, so visit the H&P Blog and hear it from the professional, play-by-ear guru himself, Jermaine Griggs! You'll be glad you did!

http://www.hearandplay.com/main/tag/key-center











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