morning ear training

[Omen]

It just dawned on me: during my morning preparation I could listen to some sort of excercise on my mp3 player to give my aural skills a boost. Does anyone know of any such free thing? Would it actually help, or must you learn from the bass itself for it to be useful?

Cheers!

[ropeman23]

That's a damn good idea! I spend at least 3 hours a day in a car and could easily do without the dull repetition of various radio stations and cd's which are kicking around in my car.

Maybe an audio theory instructional that doesn't necessitate having an instrument with you, or some sort of relative pitch training!? Anyone know of anything?

[The Funk]

I'll have a look. I'm pretty sure these things do exist!

[Eight]

I'd be in for some of that.

Had some aural training software once - it was rubbish.

If noone can find anything, perhaps thats a project for one of our hardcore boys here. I'm sure you could make enough to buy a few pints.

[burno70]

Subscribed!

It's the one area of my playing that's seriously week. I can improvise like a b*stard - but only after I know what key we're in - which is a bit embaressing at times.

[Lemuel Beam]

Keep a pitch pipe in the car. When you're bored, stick a music station on and determine the key of the tune that's currently playing with the pitch pipe. From that start point try and extrapolate the keys of the next, say, five tunes in your head.. give yourself a Crackerjack pencil if the pitch pipe agrees with you at the end

[mcgraham]

I take my iPod with me all the time. I sometimes take a notebook too. That way, wherever I am, I can transcribe things in my head, often using singing to pitch things. I use singing/thinking about the notes to get the pitches, I can then translate them to fingering from there.

I started by transcribing vocal arrangements from gospel songs I liked during my lunch hour. I literally just sat down at lunch with my iPod and some manuscript. It was hard work to start, as I didn't have my bass, but it improved my head-voice-instrument connection greatly. Often I'd sing just the starting note of a phrase, then work my way up or down a scale vocally to figure out where I was relative to the root. After a while that became second nature, so I started to do partial phrases, then whole phrases, then working out the notes as I went without stopping the song, and then also working out harmonies without stopping the song.

It sounds daunting but you have to start somewhere. Just do it and don't give up!

Mark