play by ear training

[daz]

I have seen several train your ears/play by ear type adverts lately. Some are for cd or dvds and others are computer programmes. Most cost over £100. What is the basis for these type of things. Has anyone out there tried them? Is it worth scouring usenet for them and trying, or am i wasting my time?

[Doddy]

I've never used them so I can't really comment,but I wouldn't want to spend that kind
of money on them.
You are probably better off spending time at a keyboard playing various intervals
and chords whilst actively listening for the differences. With practice you will
begin to hear the tonality of certain chords and and the intervals between the
notes. It's all about practice and listening.
Alot of these programs tout 'perfect pitch',in reality you are just as well off working
on 'relative pitch'. Once you get to the point where you can sing,say, an A, you can
figure out other notes in relation to it by 'hearing' the interval between the A and
the note played.

[daz]

this is the sort of thing imean: I have no connection whatsover with any of these companies or websites. in fact i have a sneaking suspicion that all the stuff they sell you can be learned for free, somehow or someway ?
[url="http://www.perfectpitch.com/relativepitch.htm"]relative pitch[/url]
[url="http://www.perfectpitch.com/"]perfect pitch[/url]
[url="http://www.purepitchmethod.com/?hop=index5htm"]absolute & relative pitch[/url]

Anyone out there tried them or similar?

Edited March 29, 2010 by daz

[Major-Minor]

Doddy is absolutely right. You are much better off doing it yourself at the piano (or any instrument in fact). Relative pitch simply means you can recognise the various intervals like major 3rds or perfect fifths or whatever. Each interval has a distinct character that you can train your ear to recognise.Its just down to practice like everything else in music. There is no quick way. Just hard slog.

Very few people have perfect pitch. Some of my BBC orchestra colleagues have it, and now after a long career hearing and reading music constantly I can often guess pitches or keys correctly.

Having good relative pitch is essential if you want to improvise in a group setting. Knowing which direction the pianist or guitarist is going in is vital. But this comes from getting out there and doing it as much as you possibly can.

It may be that the products you mention are worth getting and could actually help you, but I can't help feeling there is a lot of hype in the selling of these things.

Much better to get a good teacher who can do the thing properly. When I was at music college many moons ago, we had Aural classes where the tutor would play a long melody that we had to write down just from hearing it twice with a given first note. I could usually do this fairly accurately, but alway struggled when we were expected to write down 2 or more contrapuntal lines.


The Major

[amenra]

try bass fretboard addict or absolute fretboard trainer excellent for what you want and works a few pounds to upgrade they are free programmes for bass players do a google search on names and download to your computer has helped me over the years remember one thing when bands recorded years ago the equiment was not that advanced and what could be a say example a E may sound to them as a Eb big differance, this will allow you to know the differance after training your ears a semi or whole tone note out hope you get cheers robbie

Edited April 8, 2010 by amenra

[chris_b]

That'll be a waste of £100 and your time!

Play along with songs on YouTube. Simple ones you don't already know to start with. Your ear will start working pretty quickly.

[beardybass]

The problem with those kinds of things is that you really have to stick at it for it to be worth it, can you really see yourself sitting for hours on end just listening to those things? I couldn't hack it I don't reckon.

Also, if you do what Doddy and The Major said, you'll get the full benefit of learning that stuff in a real musical context, if you can refine your aural skills whilst applying it to an instrument at the same time, that would seem -to me at least- to be the best option.

[steve]

Have a look at [url="http://www.trainear.com"]this link[/url] - they provide a free online ear trainer where you can pick the intervals or chords you want to work on. I use it as homework for lessons.

[chris_b]

[quote name='beardybass' post='800484' date='Apr 9 2010, 05:34 AM']....The problem with those kinds of things is that you really have to stick at it for it to be worth it, can you really see yourself sitting for hours on end just listening to those things? I couldn't hack it I don't reckon....[/quote]
You can learn French from a book but you'll learn it quicker and better talking to a French person. My point is that ear training is better done in context, ie 20% theory and 80% listening to music, that's where it's intended to be used, after all. And, unless you're lucky or talented, it will take a long time but you'll be a much better player for it.

[JTUK]

I always think there must be something wrong if you can't pick up the vast majority of lines by ear...particuarly in 'pop' music.
so am often bemused by requests for tab for the more simpler songs.

But, for a more educated ear, you should take piano lessons or get a gig with a real jazzer.
One of the best I knew could play such an arsenal of songs just by hearing the top line.
We made plenty of older couples day by him being able to do this.. and he could construct the song from just a few melodies. These songs were invariably old but pretty special to the people who requested them.
So harmony and theory and a good jazz piano should sort you out so you can hear most intervals... and then once you can recall the format of the song..or guess/busk it...you can sit in on so many throw together gigs and no one is any the wiser that you have never met most of them before the gig.

[thunderbird13]

[quote name='JTUK' post='800928' date='Apr 9 2010, 03:00 PM']I always think there must be something wrong if you can't pick up the vast majority of lines by ear...particuarly in 'pop' music.
so am often bemused by requests for tab for the more simpler songs.[/quote]

I've often struggled to work out simple 'pop' lines so I've used tab - perhaps I should just give up

[Rockbassix]

My mate downloaded and bought this one it says $49.99 but i'm sure he said he paid $29.99 so maybe it's available elsewhere cheaper!

[url="http://guitar-and-bass-ear-trainer.filecart.com/"]http://guitar-and-bass-ear-trainer.filecart.com/[/url]
The screenhot shows the guitar version but there's an option to change it to bass.

You can download the trial for free from most of the download sites then you can pay to upgrade if you find it helpful

Me and my mate have different opinions of this!

I tried it a few times after my mate upgraded to the full version but it bored me pretty quickly I prefer trying to work out tracks and play along and hopefully my ear is improving slowly as i go.
It did have some ok features and would probably help if you are willing to spend time on it.
Personally I don't think I would have the patience to sit and go through it so it would probably join the Spanish language course that currently sits on my PC doing sod all!

My mate likes it and reckons it has helped him improve but he is the very patient type who will actually sit and work through it. He started with the trial version and thought it was worth the upgrade.

I only tried the full version after he upgraded so not sure if the trial version only has some of the features or is a limited time trial of the full software.