Piano lesson: auditory training
Listening training is especially important if you want to improvise, compose or decipher melodies and chords of songs by ear. A good ear for music is an acquired skill, not a gift. And like other skills, it is acquired through practice.
The more we train our ears to recognize this connection, the more we enjoy playing music, because we learn to understand what we are playing. Here are some questions that I am often asked.
Who Needs Hearing Training?
All musicians need to train their ears to know what they are playing and to anticipate what they are about to play!
Why train the ear?
Because understanding the sounds we hear will be necessary to:
* Jam with other musicians
* To compose music
* Sing in tune
There are 3 qualities that every good jazz musician must possess:
* a big ear
* a strong sense of time
* a unique sound.
While there are many different ways to approach these skills, the first two always require a certain amount of drilling. The ear can be thought of as a muscle and, to some extent, must be trained as such. Improved ears will lead to better intonation, improvisation, ensemble performance, and transcription skills. With that in mind, here are three great ways to dramatically improve your students’ ears and hopefully their overall game.
Associating a familiar melody with each interval is a quick way to learn the distinctive sound of an interval. For example, a melodic interval can be ascending or descending. Either way, it is still the same interval. Now, you don’t want to be confused with interval inversions because a minor third will is still a minor third no matter which note comes first.
Intervals can be classified as consonant or dissonant. I can tell you that it is much easier to hear the consonance or dissonance of the harmonic intervals than the melodic ones.
Here is a list showing the relative stability (consonance) or the instability (dissonance) of the octaves up to an octave.
Consonant: Perfect, unison, m3, P4, P5, m6, P octave.
Dissonant: m2, M2, +4. (o5), m7, M7.
Another soft approach is to describe Hollow Sounds, as austere and earthy, Indian drones and Scottish bagpipes or heavy metal rhythm guitars.
Hallow: Perfect Unison, P4, P5, P octave. These would be perfect intervals and your inversions.)
Sweet: m3, M3, m6, M6. (thirds and sixths)
Now there are active and passive methods for ear training. A passive exercise would be to play two notes in a row and listen to that interval. Sometimes you will be asked to name the next note.
Harmonic ranges can be drilled in the same way. These types of exercises can be performed with chords or chord progressions.
Are you familiar with the underlying scales and mobile “C” theory?
It is essential that you learn to sing a chromatic scale. Since chromaticism is prevalent throughout modern jazz, this exercise will improve both intonation and understanding of the genre by students. When singing through the chromatic scale, remember to use sharps when ascending and flats when descending.
Ascending chromatic scale:
Do, do #, re, re #, mi, fa, fa #, sol, sol #, la, la #, yes, do
Do, Di, Re, Ri, Mi, Fa, Fi, Sol, Si, La, U, Ti, Do
Chromatic scale descending
C, B, Bb, A, Ab, G, Gb, F, E, Eb, D, Db, C
Do, Ti, Te, La, Le, Sol, Se, Fa, Mi, Me, Re, Ra, Do
Destiny tones
Target tones are an essential part of any hearing training regimen. They force students to listen not only to the tones of the chords, but also to the surrounding tones. Now many students can sing a major scale correctly, but have some difficulty selecting specific intervals at random.
With regard to scales and degrees of scale, the best way to practice this is by using target tones. Here are some exercises:
C, // C, D, C // E, D, C // F, E, D // C, G, A // B, C, A // B, C, B // C
Ear training leads to better intonation, improvisation, band performance, and overall transcription skills.