In this lesson: Triads and more.
Learn about idetifying intervals, and our first dictation in 7 4 time, which is neat. When you visit the site, you can download the lesson guide.
Note: There's an error in the melodic dictation, in the episode I say that the starting note is E' above middle C', when it is in fact middle C'. Sorry for any confusion this may cause.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Lesson #5 - Intervals (But Different)
I never would have known!
In this lesson, a new kind of dictation: the triadic dictation. It's like intervals but one more. Also we cover another way to identify intervals to add some flexability to your ear training program.
In this lesson, a new kind of dictation: the triadic dictation. It's like intervals but one more. Also we cover another way to identify intervals to add some flexability to your ear training program.
Lesson #5 - Show Notes
First of all, get the lesson guide here.
As usual click the links above to download the podcast or subscribe using the rss chicklet on the left or your favorite pod catcher.
Now, triads are pretty basic in music, so get to know them well. There are only four of them so it's not hard to get started. The real difficult part will come later when you have to start identifying triads, on top of other groups of sounds. You'll still be hearing you dear old friend major triad, but he'll be with a bunch of people you don't recognize. So start now and you'll thank yourself later.
As usual click the links above to download the podcast or subscribe using the rss chicklet on the left or your favorite pod catcher.
Now, triads are pretty basic in music, so get to know them well. There are only four of them so it's not hard to get started. The real difficult part will come later when you have to start identifying triads, on top of other groups of sounds. You'll still be hearing you dear old friend major triad, but he'll be with a bunch of people you don't recognize. So start now and you'll thank yourself later.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
100 for #1
Yay!!! As of today lesson #1 has been downloaded over 100 times, which is a sum far greater than I had originally expected even for the first year. Thanks for the support and the interest internet.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Lesson #4 - Super Review Lesson 1
More and more.
In this lesson, all the extra dictations that your ears crave. Clicking the links on the blog lets you down load this lesson; make sure you pick up your copy of the pdf lesson guide and answer key, it's free.
As always, keep in touch: eartrainer@gmail.com
In this lesson, all the extra dictations that your ears crave. Clicking the links on the blog lets you down load this lesson; make sure you pick up your copy of the pdf lesson guide and answer key, it's free.
As always, keep in touch: eartrainer@gmail.com
Lesson #4 - Super Review Lesson 1
As always:
To download the podcast, click one of the links above, or subcribe to the podcast using the link on the left.
To download the pdf guide for this lesson, click here.
In this lesson I gave you lots of content to help hone your skills, and in turn, this episode's show notes will be about how you can start to build your own ear training routine. With this podcast we started at just about the very beginning, and slowly I have been adding on new ideas and making the exercises harder. If the only ear training you're doing is with this podcast, then eventually you'll find your self left behind; once a week is better than zero times a week, but if you want to have those shiney golden ears, you'll need to put in a bit more time.
The good news is that you wont need to put in very much more time, at all. In fact, if you're doing more than say, 30 minutes every other day, it's likey that you're not using your time as well as you could. The devoted will claim that no time is truley wasted, but you'll find that the first half hour of practice is far more productive than the second, and so on. The best thing you can do for your ears is sit down three times a week, for at least 20 minutes, 45 at most, and really conentrate on listening to your exercises and doing them to the best of your ability, then move on to your regular practice as you normally would, ears primed and ready.
Practicing ear training is best done with a buddy. As much as I would love to be your friend, I'm more or less an NPC, I only say one set of phrases a week, and as such the exercises I play for you will get repetitive, until the new episodt we is released of course. So grab a friend to ear train with. Play intervals and melodies and have them identify, and then switch. Having to pound out the same rhythm six times as evenly and regularly as you can muster while they correct their work will teach you a very hard lesson about the consistancy of your time. It's an experience worth having.
If you don't have a buddy, don't worry. Just sitting at the piano, playing intervals and singing them back will go a very long way to improve your tunning, even though it doesn't seem to work for singers. I jest, I'm a chourister myself.
Next week I'll talk about methods you can use to help you practice with just your self and an instrument.
To download the podcast, click one of the links above, or subcribe to the podcast using the link on the left.
To download the pdf guide for this lesson, click here.
In this lesson I gave you lots of content to help hone your skills, and in turn, this episode's show notes will be about how you can start to build your own ear training routine. With this podcast we started at just about the very beginning, and slowly I have been adding on new ideas and making the exercises harder. If the only ear training you're doing is with this podcast, then eventually you'll find your self left behind; once a week is better than zero times a week, but if you want to have those shiney golden ears, you'll need to put in a bit more time.
The good news is that you wont need to put in very much more time, at all. In fact, if you're doing more than say, 30 minutes every other day, it's likey that you're not using your time as well as you could. The devoted will claim that no time is truley wasted, but you'll find that the first half hour of practice is far more productive than the second, and so on. The best thing you can do for your ears is sit down three times a week, for at least 20 minutes, 45 at most, and really conentrate on listening to your exercises and doing them to the best of your ability, then move on to your regular practice as you normally would, ears primed and ready.
Practicing ear training is best done with a buddy. As much as I would love to be your friend, I'm more or less an NPC, I only say one set of phrases a week, and as such the exercises I play for you will get repetitive, until the new episodt we is released of course. So grab a friend to ear train with. Play intervals and melodies and have them identify, and then switch. Having to pound out the same rhythm six times as evenly and regularly as you can muster while they correct their work will teach you a very hard lesson about the consistancy of your time. It's an experience worth having.
If you don't have a buddy, don't worry. Just sitting at the piano, playing intervals and singing them back will go a very long way to improve your tunning, even though it doesn't seem to work for singers. I jest, I'm a chourister myself.
Next week I'll talk about methods you can use to help you practice with just your self and an instrument.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
If You Like what You Hear
The podcast is now up on Podcast Alley:
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-ea0ce39ca0c1fe693d572b606f17ba7e}
Neat.
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-ea0ce39ca0c1fe693d572b606f17ba7e}
Neat.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Lesson #3 - Show Notes
First off:
As always, to download the podcast, click one of the links above, or subcribe to the podcast using the link on the left.
To download the pdf guide for this lesson, click here.
At first it's very helpful to think of a song you know well when you are learning to identify intervals. The important thing is that you're able to get the answers right, because you won't learn nearly as fast from getting incredibly difficult questions wrong consistently as you will from getting realistic questions right consistently. Much of what holds many people back is being dishonest about how good they actually are at playing music. It's totally fine to be bad at your instrument so long as you know you're getting better.
Very few people are born with innate musical ability, and very few of them ever amount to anything. Name ten musicians in the last 100 years that was born knowing how to play their instrument. Now name ten musicians from the last 100 years whose music you like. Think about people like Glen Gould or Charlie Parker who destroyed their lives with pathetic drug abuse; clearly there’s more to a good musician than divine inspiration.
There are 14 different intervals that span the octave, think of 14 tunes or memorable passages that you like that have that interval, make sure they’re memorable. Here’s my list:
Unison: Lady Bird by Tadd Dameron.
Minor Second: The Jaws theme by John William
Major Second: Body and Sound by Haymen, Eyton, Sour and Green
Minor Third: Misty by Errol Garner (who if you haven’t heard you need to check out)
Major Third: Summertime by Gershwin
Perfect Fourth: Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise, Hamerstine and Romburg
Tritone: Diminished Fifth, by Bela Bartok
Perfect Fifth: The Flintstone’s Theme, by Hoyt S. Curtin (a tune played over rhythm changes)
Minor Sixth: Black Orpheus, by Louis Bonfi
Major Sixth: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean Shore, a traditional Scottish folksong
Minor Seventh: I actually don’t have one for this interval.
Major Seventh: I Love You, by Cole Porter (which has always sounded a lot like Night and Day to me, which was written for the musical, Gay Divorce, which ironically debuted before his production, Gay Marriage, which is still awaiting approval of the sensors in most U.S. states)
Octave: Willow Weep for Me, by Ann Ronell
So there you go. They are very useful at first so long as the tune is one you can call forth in your mind right away. Eventually you will find that you are able to figure out what the interval is without needing to think of the tune, but until then, just enjoy singing those songs you love.
As always, to download the podcast, click one of the links above, or subcribe to the podcast using the link on the left.
To download the pdf guide for this lesson, click here.
At first it's very helpful to think of a song you know well when you are learning to identify intervals. The important thing is that you're able to get the answers right, because you won't learn nearly as fast from getting incredibly difficult questions wrong consistently as you will from getting realistic questions right consistently. Much of what holds many people back is being dishonest about how good they actually are at playing music. It's totally fine to be bad at your instrument so long as you know you're getting better.
Very few people are born with innate musical ability, and very few of them ever amount to anything. Name ten musicians in the last 100 years that was born knowing how to play their instrument. Now name ten musicians from the last 100 years whose music you like. Think about people like Glen Gould or Charlie Parker who destroyed their lives with pathetic drug abuse; clearly there’s more to a good musician than divine inspiration.
There are 14 different intervals that span the octave, think of 14 tunes or memorable passages that you like that have that interval, make sure they’re memorable. Here’s my list:
Unison: Lady Bird by Tadd Dameron.
Minor Second: The Jaws theme by John William
Major Second: Body and Sound by Haymen, Eyton, Sour and Green
Minor Third: Misty by Errol Garner (who if you haven’t heard you need to check out)
Major Third: Summertime by Gershwin
Perfect Fourth: Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise, Hamerstine and Romburg
Tritone: Diminished Fifth, by Bela Bartok
Perfect Fifth: The Flintstone’s Theme, by Hoyt S. Curtin (a tune played over rhythm changes)
Minor Sixth: Black Orpheus, by Louis Bonfi
Major Sixth: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean Shore, a traditional Scottish folksong
Minor Seventh: I actually don’t have one for this interval.
Major Seventh: I Love You, by Cole Porter (which has always sounded a lot like Night and Day to me, which was written for the musical, Gay Divorce, which ironically debuted before his production, Gay Marriage, which is still awaiting approval of the sensors in most U.S. states)
Octave: Willow Weep for Me, by Ann Ronell
So there you go. They are very useful at first so long as the tune is one you can call forth in your mind right away. Eventually you will find that you are able to figure out what the interval is without needing to think of the tune, but until then, just enjoy singing those songs you love.
Lesson #3 - Ties and the Full Octave
Rhythms and more.
In this lesson: learn about tied rhythms and the remaining intervals in the octave.
Got questions or comments? eartrainer@gmail.com
In this lesson: learn about tied rhythms and the remaining intervals in the octave.
Got questions or comments? eartrainer@gmail.com
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