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My last post was on ear training from the recording/mixing perspective (more about frequencies than notes, of course notes are frequencies too but I hope you know what I mean) this post is on the type of ear training that most people think about when they hear the term.

This ear training tip isn't an original idea but it's something that I've found to be very useful. And since I'm not someone who has a "naturally" good ear, I've had to work on it so I figure what works for me could be useful for other people who may struggle with it.

The tip is to associate hooks from well known melodies with intervals. For example I like to use "O COME" that begins the Christmas song "O Come All Ye Faithful" to help me remember what a descending perfect 4th sounds like. I found that by using this song association trick I was able to get through the interval training with the EarMaster software much quicker.

How does it work? When I'm not quite hearing the interval clearly I like to try to sing the song to the notes to see if it "fits." For example if I hear a descending interval and I'm not quite sure what it is but I think it may be a perfect 4th down then I can try singing "O COME" over it to see if it fits. If it does, then it is! If it doesn't then it must be something else.

Of course if you are going to go with this method to learn all of the intervals you will need to come up with song associations for every interval, but I think you should probably just start off with one or two to see how it works for you.

I kind of want to create some sort of training tools (perhaps like a YouTube video, or something that can be downloaded - perhaps for a price if it's good enough and worth it - but more likely just for free) using this concept but it's on a long list of ideas I may never get to.

Tags: Ear Training