An Arrangement for Remembrance Day

Hello folks,

I have arranged, Come, Sweet Death by J.S. Bach, is going to be performed at the Remembrance Day ceremony at 10 A.M. at U of T Scarborough Campus' Meeting Place. I know because of the setting it is hard to be excited about the piece, but it is by far the largest work I've completed, blending the transcription of the piece by Alfred Reed for concert band with my own setting for concert choir into a work with 40 some parts to be played by over 100 musicians from the UTSC concert band and concert choir.

If you live in the GTA, why don't you come out and join me for what should be a beautiful ceremony.

Lesson #27 - Inversions, Live In Toronto

Welcome back folks, and welcome to the theeartrainer.com for the very first time.

In this week's lesson we continue to take a look at the inversions of intervals and triads, a suspicious new type of chord of revealed, and as always we've got melodic dictations, rhythmic dictations and what else.

Your copy of the lesson guide can be found right here. It's hot to go, it's ready. I've recieved quite a few questions from people trying to find the old lessons. If you carefully direct your attention to the bottom right you'll see the archive link with a list of every single post. If you're looking for a link to the very first episode, it's here.

Welcome to theeartrainer.com

Hello and welcome to The Ear Trainer,

As I am sure the observant have noticed the Ear Trainer has found a new home, but fear not, all the magic is still working behind the scenes, so all your bookmarks, RSS feeds and download links will still work! I don't know about you, but I find this a joyous event.

Yours,

the Ear Trainer.

Lesson #26 - Liam Gallagher Meets the Rhythm Section

Hello and welcome back. This 26th lesson features the introduction of the melodic and harmonic device called inversion. You'll learn all about it. Also in this lesson there is melodic dictation, intervals, chords and rhythms to identify. You can find the lesson guide here, which of course will outline everything you need to check your work.

I'm sure you'll also notice that the lay out of the site had changed a little bit to something that's a touch more pleasing to the eye. Feel free to tell me what you think.

As always questions and comments can make their way to my inbox and I will be glad to send you a reply as soon as I can mannage.

Lesson #25 - At the Ear Training Corner of the World

Hi ear training deputies,

saddle up because this possy is riding out at dawn. We've got two new types of seventh chord this week, the augmented seventh, and the major seventh sharp-five chord. Take a listen now to see how well you fare. Just grandly I am sure. There's a bunch of other stuff in this lesson too. Yay!

Make sure you get your copy of the lesson guide or you will make the ear trainer very sad.

Lesson #24 - Some of My Best Friends are Ear Trainers

Hi gang, I'm gad you're back!

We've got another lesson for you all stiched up, and I feel like it's a good one. It's a review lesson, which means that there are a silly number of exercises for you to test your wits against, a total of 8. Of course the lesson guide is up and ready for your pleasure.

Make sure you tune in next week when I introduce two more types of 7th chord.

Keeping a Consistant Schedule

There's merits to doing so and they are many; let's talk about what makes a schedule a good one.

A good schedule balances a mixture of long term and short term goals. It's just important to enjoy the task of learning how to play music as it is to become the musician you want to. If you sacrifice each day of your life to follow your dream of being the best pianist in the universe you can miss out on a lot of experiences that could have taught you much about the world and your own creativity. You might find yourself, thirty years later not knowing why the hell you learned how to play the piano in the first place. However if you live for the moment and never think about where you're headed you loose all the benifits that a well constructed plan produces.

Somewhere between those two points, today for tomorrow, or tomorrow for today, lies the best combination and the best investment of your time. The combination will largely depend on the individual. For example a student who really wishes to arrive at technical mastery of their craft will need to be more disiplined than someone who feels their involvement with music is more spritual, but the technical master is nothing without inspiration and the spritual musician is nothing without technique.

So how does a schedule help then? Well, if you can sit down at once and try to project what kind of progress you would like to make and in which areas and then you adhere to those goals you are able to ensure you're following a given trajectory. If in following this plan you discover that it's not all that it was cracked up to be, then you have a stable record of what your ideals and have a solid basis to improve your methods. You can easily identify what practices aren't best suiting your goal for being an artist.

That's all for now! Keep in touch ear trainers.

Lesson #23 - Doing Articulately

Hi howdy gee wiz you're back!

You're just in time for my introduction to articulations with the accent. You'll learn all about it inside this thrilling lesson, which bears the shortest title yet. On top of that there's all the things that you've come to depend on. Melodies, modes, and all other manner of dictations. Be sure to pick up a copy of the lesson guide for better health and prosperity in the new year.

Thanks once again for listening,

Liam "the Ear Trainer" Gallagher

The Articles Collected

Hello Ear Trainer Deputies,

this is just a note to direct everyone's attention to the top left of their screen where they should now see a few tabs. One of them reads "Articles about Practice and Method". If you click that link, you'll be magically transported to a wonderful word where all the articles that I have written for the site live in one place and in peace. More lessons are on their way!

As is always the case. If you've got something to say, say it to the boss, that's me. Yay!!! You can always contact me at eartrainer@gmail.com or by commenting to let me how good or bad of a job I am doing, what ever the case may be.

Lesson #22 - Now Is the Time

Hi gang,

welcome back to another lesson with the Ear trainer. I'm glad you've joined me. In this lesson there's lots of cool crazy stuff going all over the place... I introduce the diminished scales, in all of their dimorphic wonder. There's a melody that I think is pretty nice, and a few other things that I am sure you will learn from. If you've come this far you likely know to, but I wil remind you anyways... check out the lesson guide which can be found in the preceeding link.

If you've any questions or comments, send them off to my inbox and you will be sure to recieve a reply.

Until next time!

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Hello folks, if you're in Toronto this week there's a show you don't want to miss. I'll be at the door taking your money, but I can assure you that it's going to a better place. Here's more information:

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
TRANZAC (292 Brunswick Ave, Toronto)
22nd of April, 8pm
$10/$20 with CD

featuring
Kevin Turcotte -trumpet
William Carn - trombone
Peter Lutek - bassoon
Tania Gill - piano, harmonium, glockenspiel
Joseph Phillips - double bass
Andrew Downing - cello
Kathleen Kajioka - violin

The CD SILENTS was recorded in 2009 and features original chamber suites from the scores to the films The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Impossible Voyage.

www.andrewdowning.com
www.tranzac.org
www.blackhenmusic.com

Singing the Next Note

There's a great trick you can use to both learn music and improve your ears, and as far as I know it doesn't have a formal name to sport, so I'll just call this trick by a name that describes it, thus Singing the Next Note.

It's quite simple really; take a peice of music you are learning or working on and sit down with your instrument or a piano (if you're a singer) and play yourself a triad based upon the key that the piece of music is in. Now that's you've got the key in your ears, try to predict in your mind what the first note will sound like, then sing the first note of the piece, and then strike the note on your instrument.

At this point something very interesting happens, you're likely to get three differnet pitches, the note you sang, the note you played on your insturment, and the note that you have in your head that tells you what the song is actually supposed to sound like.Which one is right? Any of them could be, or none of them really, but at any rate it should be fairly clear which one is which. You'll know it when the piano is out of tune and you're sure you sang the right pitch, and you'll know it when you sang a minor third above the root of what is supposed to be a major triad. It's a strange interaction of your abilities, even though it's not a piece you know, unless it is much more difficult than anything you're used to you'll always know which of those three sounds is wrong. You have the ability to predict pitches that can correct your ability to sing them, and you have an ear that will help you tune, and you have a intelectual ability that will put pitches in their correct place even if you don't know what they're supposed to sound like ahead of time.

The goal of this exercise is to not over use any one of your assests but rather to come to an understanding of when you're using one to compinsate for the other. The result you're looking for is the ability reproduce the piece correctly by any of the three means, to be able to sing the piece accurately and in tune, to be able to hear the piece in all it's detail in your head, and (unless you're playing an instrument like the guitar or piano) to be able to play the piece accrurately and in tune on your own instrument.

It's a slow process, moving through a selection of music note for note, but you have my word that you'll never forget music that you learn in this way.

Lesson #21 - Collatin’ with the Ear Trainer

Hello ear training deputies,

it's nice to have you back! In this episode we've got modes, melodies and lots more. Look forward to next week's lesson though, when some new exercises are going to be added into the mix. I refuse to tell you what they are now though, so you'll have to wait. Make sure you check out the lesson guide and learn well from it. I put some time into these things so don't break my heart.

Until next time,
Liam Gallagher

Lesson #20 - Waitin' with the Ear Trainer

Hello and welcome back to the Ear Trainer,

this lessons is the most 20th lesson of them all. Fantastic! This lesson is pretty straight forward, but that doesn't make it any less educational. We've got seventh chords and intervals and melodies and more. Make sure you check out the lesson guide so you can follow along and check your work. No peaking at the answers though! You'll only be cheating yourself.

Cheers,
Liam Gallagher

Join a Community Band

 It's important to play with other people, as that's more or less what music is. If you're not playing with other people it can be of great determent to your sense of time and your tuning if you go long periods of time without playing with others. Your ability to tune relatively with the other parts will blur and your sense of group time will get fuzzy.
There's a lot of reasons for not having people to play with, Maybe you've just moved and you hardly know anyone. Maybe you've just started playing and have yet to join your first ensemble. It could be that you're just coming back to your love of music after years away due to your (misguided?) pursuit of fame, fortune, or financial stability. What ever the case may be, my advise to you is to join a community group. Why? Because community groups are typically filled with three types of people (and these types aren't intended to be exhaustive) from whom you can learn and with whom you can enjoy music.

The first type are old timers, these guys have been playing music in your community for the better part of their lives. They don't want to make any money off their music, they just do it for fun and they want you to have as much fun as they do. These people (depending on where you live) will know your father, and all of the kids in your community too, and as such can tell you a lot about who is playing music and where a lot of good opportunities exist. Treat these people well, because they are the reason that there is a music community where you live in the first place.

The second type are school kids. These people come from junior high school all the way up to masters students. They're either there because their mom makes them, or because they are considering, in one way or another, playing music more seriously than the average Joe. You should get to know these people well because they're walking in the same shoes that you are, and they are the forth coming musicians, the heavy players and high school band teachers of tomorrow. If you plan on living where you're living now for some time, you're bound to get to know these people quite well, so now's the time to start working on the lifelong friendship.

The last group of people are the pros. A good musician is someone who likes music, and is dedicated to making to with other people who feel the same way. Chances are the pros got their start in a community band, just like you are now. What's more is that they stuck with that band, or at the very least sit in from time to time. It's a great chance to meet these people, play with them, and see how the operate within the community. Maybe they're very gracious and grateful for what some of the old timers did for them back in the day, that's not such a bad trait to pick up. Maybe since they've hit it big they've become self important, and they just stop in to wow everyone. It's a good chance to learn how not to behave.

There's more to community bands that you can learn from though, like how instructive playing with strangers is, or learning a new sort of repertoire that you wouldn't have otherwise, or testing your own dedication to music by playing with a group that, at times, will test your patience. In the end music is music... you can't fail by becoming more involved.

Archive Lessons

Some of you may have noticed the the first few lessons have disappeared from the feed, more over if you subscribe to the ear trainer through iTunes. Do not be afraid, those initial lessons are still available! All you need to do is check out the archive link on the left an find the lesson you’re looking for.

Ear Training Tools

Hello Ear Trainers,
Today I would like to write a little about various aids you could use to improve your ear training routine. There are a few books and tools I use that you might find of benefit too.

The first thing you need to get your hands on is something that will give you an in tune pitch. There are a lot of contraptions out there, but my favorite has always been the A 440 tuning fork. They're small, they're very affordable, and they don't go out of tune unless they have been seriously abused. Other people use pitch pipes, which are like circular harmonicas. There are a few types, some give you a pentatonic scale, and some give you a major scale in a particular key, while others offer you the chromatic scale. Some people sing the phrases of applications you can buy for various smart phones, but don't waste your money waste your money on an application when you can just use the dial tone? That's right, the dial tone has to be a pitch, so just figure out what it is and go from there. In the city I used to live the dial tone was A 440, and the boys at the local guitar shop refused to tune to anything else. Most metronomes these days with produce pitches for you too though a lot of people find these sounds quite harsh. The last place you might go is to you computer. Many musicians make use of a laptop as part of their regular practice, I know I do. There's an endless umber of java and flash programs on the web that are free to use that will produce pitches for you.

Second step is to take you chromatic tuner and throw it right in the garbage. This is mostly addressed to electric guitarists and bassists, but you banjo, mandolin and 5 string graphite cello players are to blame too. How are you going to ever learn how to identify pitch if you can't match pitch? Learning to tune your instrument is a life long process that improves your pitch. Each day as you affix your attention towards that incremental distance between those two pitches, you're improving your ability to accurately judge distance. Stop cheating your self.

The third thing to do is pick up some books with notes to read and sing. I recommend the Bach book, 371 Harmonized Chorales and 69 Chorale Melodies with figured bass. It's published by G. Schirmer, Inc. and distributed by a few different companies. I got mine through Hal Leonard, but the pieces have long entered the public domain so you should be able to find a copy without much trouble. Any reputable choral director or sheet music store attendant will know exactly which publication you're looking for. Mine cost me $15.95 back in May of 2007, so you wont expect to pay much for it. What makes this book so good is that you're getting 371 four-part chorales, (that's more than 1,490 parts) in every key, many time signatures, a wide melodic range, and in multiple clefs. Additionally, as you learn to sign by ear better you will better know one of the more important collected works of music in history, and the development of harmony and melody in western music. Also they sound good.

Grab a sight-singing book. Most of the time there's no need to pay for these because they are a favorite item for public and university libraries to throw away. Depending upon the way things are done in your part of the world, a few times a year in your local library you'll find stacks of books marked "FREE BOOKS". There's typically a dusty old sight-singing book that no one has taken out for the last 50 years right under "M" for music. If you flick through the pages you'll notice that very little has been added to the realm of sight singing in the last 50 years, and really what you need more than anything else is some music in the right range that grows progressively more difficult.

If you can get those things together you should be hard pressed to run out of material to work on for the next 30 years or so. Your tuning fork wont rust, and you'll never get through that sight singing method book, but it's about the journey after all, it's not about getting to the last page, the one that has been intentionally left blank by the publisher.

Keep Training those ears!

Lesson #19 - Faxin' with the Ear Trainer

Hi there Ear Trainer deputies. I'm real glad you came along. This episode we've got a few gems for you.

This week we're learning about seventh cords again, becase they're important, because it's not 1300 A.D. anymore. We're also going to continue our detour into compound intervals, the kind that sound over an octave. The harmonic major scale is introduced even though very few people use it; I just kind of like it. And of course a super duper melodic dictation.

As always you can keep a strong helping of lesson guide here, and send your questions to eartrainer@gmail.com if you've any questions, comments of qurries.

Lesson #18 - The 7th Degree

Hi there ear trainers,

After a breif break so that the ear trainer could prepare for his auditions (I'm a musician too!), the ear trainer podcast is back, better than ever, with a stunning new type of dictaction. It will knock your socks clean off your feet, right through your shoes! This will be an extermely painful process!

In this lesson I introduce the 7th cords, well, five variations on the theme of the 7th chord any ways. The minor seventh chord, the major seventh chord, the half diminished seventh chord, and the augmented seventh chord. Wee! Beyond that it's business as usual, so make sure to tune in!

As always you can find that dandy pdf lesson guide right here. 

Best Method

Dear Ear Training Deputies,

One question I get a lot is about what the best method for ear training is. Well, what is the best method?

The first thing to do to make sure you get the most out of the time that you spend ear training starts with getting good night’s sleep, eating well and being active. I know that’s a mouthful of stuff you’ve heard 100 times before, but if you’re in a good state of health you will be able to learn more, faster, and retain it for longer. Fact!

The second thing to do is to practice for short periods of time. Your ear training practice will be quite a bit different than your normal practice. Unlike practicing your instrument or singing, you don't need to warm up. You do need to focus your attention, but you don't have to loosen up your muscles or joints, and you don't have to gather your dexterity. As a result you can get into the grit of your ear training faster than you can with your normal practice which will really test your mind. When your practice your instrument part of what you're doing is teaching your body parts to move as you want them to, which requires much less mental activity than ear training does. I am sure you're aware of how mentally relaxing, almost meditative working on a repeated passage again and again can be. Well ear training is different, it's all brain cells, flaring white hot all the time. Your brain will fatigue faster during ear training than it will during practicing, and so the best length of time to spend ear training is between 20 and 45 minutes, depending how you feel that day. You can trust that the first half hour will be many times more productive than the second.

Thirdly, how often should you practice ear training? EVERYDAY! For serious guys! How much time do you spend a day watching stupid t.v. show x, or lame web game y? There's a lot of good reason to watch those shows or play those games, because everyone needs a break. Well guess what, ear training is our new break. If you're just looking for 30 minutes where you can put your problems aside and not worry, look no further. If you manage to put aside that much time a day for your ear training it will show dividends in no time at all. You'll learn music faster, enjoy your playing more, and be a more perceptive and gathered musician over all. I figure that's worth 30 minutes of your time.

Last of all, make sure you're working at a good level of difficulty. You don't want your training program to be so easy that you get every question right every time, because you'll never get any better, you'll actually get worse! It shouldn't be too hard either, because you'll start to feel your efforts are futile, and that confident and interested learning is quick learning. Make sure you practice something until you are confident and comfortable with it, and then find a way to increase the difficulty. Are you having no problems with identifying your chords? Well you only need to add in some new types of chords to stretch your understanding.

That's all for today, keep sending in those questions,

The Ear Trainer

Preparing for Auditions

Hello ear trainer friends,
I thought I would write a short post with some advice on how ear training can be helpful for those who are preparing for auditions, a common enough event. There's really three pieces of advise I can offer that will make a world of difference when the big day comes and you've got to show others that you've got what it takes.

The first part is to be able to play your piece from front to back, in time, as soon as possible. This means setting your metronome slow slow slow. A common way for people to practice is to work on the piece in sections, which is necessary for polishing those little parts that need extra work, but often they wait to long to put the whole piece together, and then stumble into problems with awkward transitions after it's way too late. Save your self the headache, practice like you perform, play entire pieces.

The second thing to do is to learn how to sing the piece. Humming of whistling along is one matter, but that's not what I mean. It's not even important that you be able to sing the piece in  time, or up to speed. What's more important is that you really know what each interval is, where the melody notes are in relationship to the harmony, and exactly how all the chords are stacked. It can be very time consuming, but there is really no better way to know a selection of music inside and out. This exercise can be really helpful to prevent some developmental problems, especially in musicians who do a lot of reading, but little improvising. I'm sure you're all well acquainted with the tone deaf pianist, someone who can play beautifully, but is too used to being seated at a machine that simply produces the right pitches for them. This exercise solves that type of problem, by taking your music making implement out of your hands, and then really concentrating on the content of the music.

The third thing to do would to be able to recite your piece simply as a series of intervals. For example, if you were learning how to play "Oh Christmas Tree", you would say "perfect fourth, unison, unison, major second, major second, unison, unison, unison, major second, major second, minor second, tritone, minor third, major second, unison, unison." Once you had that figured out, you would have the intervallic content known, and so it would be no problem to go through the whole thing and name one note after another: "g, c, c, c, d, e, e, e, d, e, f, b, d, c, c, c". Want to learn you piece in another key? No sweat, you've got everything you need and you're ready to reproduce the song and transpose from memory. Now you're really learning "Oh Christmas Tree" inside and out. In the key of D Major: a, d, d, d, e, f#, f#, f#, e, f#, g, c#, e, d, d, d. The effectiveness of this method is altered by the length of your selection however; it might not be to useful too learn your Chopin nocturne in another key, but give it a try and tell me what you think.

Keep practicing, and  good luck!

Lesson #17 - the Biggest Intervals Yet

Hi gang. Welcome back!

In this episode a new set of intervals is reviled. The intervals between an octave and a perfect 15th, some time called compound intervals. To top it off we've got melodies and more. Make sure to tune in next week when I finaly introduce seventh chords. As always, you can get your copy of the lesson guide here. It's got all the solutions you need to follow along with this episode.

If you've any questions or comments, feel free to drop me a line or two at eartrainer@gmail.com

Lesson #16 - Ears from Beyond the Stars

You're back for another episode of ear training fun,

In this episode it's business as usual as the ear trainer plows right ahead. The countdown for intervals continues, look forward to the much needed changes next week. Also, the countdown begins for the triads section, two weeks to wait for that one.Make sure to download your copy of the lesson guide, and keep training those ears.

Lesson #15 - Two Melodies, from Some Directions

ZOOOOM!!! The Ear Trainer is back!

This week the stunning and exciting change has taken place, two part melodies. This is fun because we're finally getting to a point in our training that looks and sounds like real live music, like you might actually hear. Also, this week we continue the intervals countdown; two more weeks until the long awaited improvement to that section. If you've been good, you can find the lesson guide here.

Lesson #14 - The 14th Ear Trainer Lesson

Hello, you've made it back safe and sound, I'm glad to hear it.

In this episode we review a bit of what I talked about last week so as to further ingrain it into your very soul. This includes applications of the solfege to triads, and more minor mode melodic dictations. The lesson guide containing all you need to know about this lesson is here.

Make sure you tune in next week when we'll be giving the solfege a bit of a rest, and we will be doing our first ever two part melodic dictation. Also, this week the countdown starts, three more episodes until the intevals section finally gets the love it needs.

Lesson #13 - Now Listen, You

Welcome back, you know what time it is when you're back... Ear training time. Yay!!!

This week I talk your ear off about music theory. This is the longest episode to date, on account of my being so windy, but you have my word that I wont do it again. NEVER. That aside, this week we covered the chromatic solfege, and introduced two new types of scales, the harmonic minor, and the melodic minor. Yay for ear training! Yay for education!

As always, you can follow the links to this week's lesson guide.

Lesson #12 - This Time Its Interesting

In this episode:

The intervals section recives a much needed face lift by way of singing and matching pitch. The modes are still in and the melodic dictations are continuing with their aeolian theme. All of the sections of dictations are present in this episode, and as such it's duration clocks in at just over 11 minutes. It's going to be a fun one guys.

As always, you can pick up the lesson guide and answer key here.