Ear Training

[stewblack]

Just started doing this.

I am spectacularly bad at it.

[Guest]

It really helps at first to have something to make the sounds with to tie what you see being played (of written) to what you are hearing. A small keyboard can make a big difference. You don’t have to have piano skills, just a bit of basic knowledge of chords.
 

I use Musescore - I can insert chord symbols above the music and play it back. I make a bunch of single note lines into a chart and play them back to train with (I have a bad memory so forget what I put down quickly). Start with single notes as that’s what bass does most of the time. 

For chords a piano helps even more because you get to hear different chord voicing a, which makes a massive difference. A chord can sound very different depending on the voicing. 
Start by trying to hear the bass note and the top note of the chord (often the melody), then the bit in the middle is a process of elimination - does it sound simple or complex? If simple then it’s probably a straight major or minor. If complex then the flavour of chord will give you a guide - e.g a major sound that is more complex is often a maj7, maj9 or maj7#11, less commonly a 6/9 or maj13, even less common a maj7#5. A working knowledge of basic harmony (cycle of 4ths, common chord progressions etc.) also helps.

 

As a real world example my last transcription (see my transcription thread) was done after working out the keyboard part as I was interested in the chords. I could hear that the first 2 chords sounded the same, but the bass note went down whilst the top note was going up. It sounded unresolved so didn’t sound major or minor, so I guessed it was some kind of suspended chord. I tried a sus4 but it didn’t sound quite right. Next was a sus2 and that worked perfectly. Then it was a case of working out the bass line and chords.

 

I usually work out what I think the chords are in Musescore then key the track at tempo and play them back together.

 

A slow down app is also a real boon for faster or more tricky parts. I’ve got decent ears but don’t ever feel it’s cheating - if it helps you work it out, it’s all positive!

 

Finally - whilst some people are a natural at playing by ear, most top musicians got good with lots of practice and anyone can develop good ears

[bassman7755]

On 26/09/2021 at 11:19, stewblack said:

Just started doing this.

I am spectacularly bad at it.

 

Look at it this way - worse you are at it the more beneficial it will be.

 

What material are you studying ?. 

 

Back in the day I did part one of David Burges relative pitch course which was hard work but very beneficial. If I was doing something now I would probably go for Rick Beato's ear training course https://beatoeartraining.com/

 

I also highly recommend studying some so-called "functional" (or sometimes "contextual") ear training which focusses on relating everything you hear to a tonal centre.

To explain the difference: classic ear training teaches to hear the sequence C - A - G as a 6th up followed by a 2nd down whereas functional training teaches you to hear it as a tonic then 6th followed by a 5th (relative to the the assumed tonic C). Bruce Arnold has lots of good material in this vein  https://muse-eek.com/category/ear-training/

 

EDIT: I wrote this assuming you are taking about actual ear training and not transcription (learning or analysing a song by listening to it) which is a completely different thing.

Edited October 9, 2021 by bassman7755

[stewblack]

Thank you for the suggestions @bassman7755 all I have done so far is use an android app for a few days. 

[stewblack]

That's @FDC484950 I use musescore so will definitely look into that

[greghagger]

On 26/09/2021 at 17:44, bassman7755 said:

 

Look at it this way - worse you are at it the more beneficial it will be.

 

What material are you studying ?. 

 

Back in the day I did part one of David Burges relative pitch course which was hard work but very beneficial. If I was doing something now I would probably go for Rick Beato's ear training course https://beatoeartraining.com/

 

I also highly recommend studying some so-called "functional" (or sometimes "contextual") ear training which focusses on relating everything you hear to a tonal centre.

To explain the difference: classic ear training teaches to hear the sequence as C - A - G as a 6th up followed by a 2nd down whereas functional training teaches you to hear it as a tonic then 6th followed by a 5th (relative to the the assumed tonic 6). Bruce Arnold has lots of good material in this vein  https://muse-eek.com/category/ear-training/

 

EDIT: I wrote this assuming you are taking about actual ear training and not transcription (learning or analysing a song by listening to it) which is a completely different thing.

Great advice here @stewblack from @bassman7755 

 

Along these lines, there’s an app called ‘Functional Ear Trainer’ that’s very good.  
 

If you’re putting the work in, you’ll find that you progress very quickly with Ear Training. 

[WishICouldWalk]

I think it's important to understand that you're not spectacularly bad, you just haven't done the work. Ear training involves masses of repetition - it took me about 6 months to learn interval recognition. I've been working on triads and 7 chords for a few months and the penny is starting to drop. You'll get there, you just need to persevere.

[stewblack]

I have been persevering, a few minutes a day and gradually increasing the number of intervals.

Its definitely getting better 

[chris_b]

1 hour ago, stewblack said:

I have been persevering, a few minutes a day and gradually increasing the number of intervals.

Its definitely getting better 

 

Don't just learn intervals without any references. Listen to them in the context of a song.

 

Surely you can identify the components of a 12 bar blues, eq 1, 4 and 5, and 1, 2 and 5? Start with those and you are on your way.

[stewblack]

12 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

Don't just learn intervals without any references. Listen to them in the context of a song.

 

Surely you can identify the components of a 12 bar blues, eq 1, 4 and 5, and 1, 2 and 5? Start with those and you are on your way.

At present I'm working to a structure as part of bass lessons I'm taking.

But yes the twelve bar blues is very recognisable