Proper Listening Technique I : Mental ear training

Description

While doing any form of ear training, it is very important to practice proper listening technique. One of the most left out practices and probably the most important is the development of the inner ear. It's not just important to train the ear that listens to the sounds of the world, but the ear that hears and understands what goes on inside our head. After all, the ear is only the channel; the mind is what makes sense of what we just heard. So it only seems logical that you train the mind with specific exercises as well as the ear. In fact, if the inner ear is well trained along with the ear itself, everything is alot more vivid and in tune. Thus aural skills are mastered through and throughout. People who can sing any pitch perfectly at will are masters of this exercise combined with perfect pitch, not pitch recognition alone. Matter of fact, this skill is called Aural Recall, the highest level of Perfect Pitch ability. The way to train for this is to play the exercise and then play it back in our mind mentally. So here are the step by step exercises for different forms of ear training.

If you are practicing relative pitch, by learning intervals. The step by step approach is:

1) In your mind mentally say the interval in practice. i.e. minor second, perfect fifth, whatever it is.
2) Play the interval on the instrument you are practicing.
3) Repeat step 1, saying the interval in your mind.
4) Replay the interval heard on step 2 mentally in your mind.
5) Play it again on your instrument to see if you were right.
6) Move on and do the same interval with all 12 notes.

To test you progress, rewrite step 2 to play any note, eliminate step 3 all together. On step 5 see if the interval in your mind was the correct interval note above or below the root given.

If you are practicing chords. The step by step approach is:

1) In your mind say the chord. i.e. minor triad, major seventh.
2) Play the chord in broken form. Root to highest note and back down to root.
3) Play chord harmonically.
4) Repeat step 1.
5) Mentally replay the broken chord in your mind.
6) Check by playing the chord back in broken form.
7) Repeat step 1.
8) Mentally replay back chord harmonically as heard in step 3.
9) Play the chord on your guitar to check yourself.

To test your progress. Play any note and sing each note of the chord in broken fashion (step 2), then play the chord back in broken form on your instrument to check yourself.

If you’re practicing scales. The step by step approach is:

1) In your mind say the scale in practice. i.e. major scale, harmonic minor.
2) Play the scale ascending on your guitar to a speed you can comfortable hearing each tone.
3) Repeat step 1.
4) Play the root note again on your instrument.
5) Replay the scale in your mind. Use do-ra-me-fa-so-la ti-do (major scale) if needed.
6) Sing the scale (do-ra-me...) while playing each note up the scale (at a moderate speed) to check yourself.

Repeat the steps and do the scale descending.

A note about the scale practice. This exercise is a little harder at first then the others since it requires a little more musical memory. Another benefit once you become more proficient at this skill. But a beginner should work up the scale doing one note at a time, like trying to just get do-ra-me when first starting the exercise. Then add the rest of the notes one at a time, once the exercise becomes easier to remember. Singing scales as you practice playing them will remedy any problems you may have.

As you become proficient at the exercise as stated above. Do steps 5 and 6 ascending and descending together, rather than separate. This will push your musical memory a little farther. Who knows, you may become like Mozart and be able to completely recall an entire symphony? Probably not, but you will see an improvement in clearly recalling musical ideas that happened some time before.

If you’re practicing perfect pitch. Before mentioning a step by step approach, it is important to download some software that tests you on pitch recogniziton, like ear tune, ear test, or prolobe. The step by step process is then directly linked to which notes you are studying and learning with whichever of these programs. In all programs, you should always start out with just 2 notes. Take one of the notes and do this step by step procedure:

1) Say a note mentally in your mind. i.e. A, E, F sharp.
2) Sing the pitch that you hear in your mind.
3) * Check yourself by playing the note on your instrument. Whether you get it right or wrong, continue these steps.
4) Say the note mentally in your mind again.
5) Listen to the note as you play it on your instrument.
6) Repeat step 4.
7) Replay the note mentally in your mind.
8) * Play it on your instrument to check and see if you were right.

* Don't worry about being exactly in tune, you will probably be a little flat or a little sharp. As you get better at the exercise you'll start to sing the notes in tune better. The point is to get with in the vicinity of the note. Singing or thinking A just a little flat is ok, just as long as you’re not coming up with G#.

If you had the wrong note on step 8: repeat steps 6, 7, and 8 until you get it right. If you get it right, do steps 1 through 8 with the other note(s) you are studying on the program your using. Once you have the second note, go back and see if you can remember the first note by doing steps 1 through 8 again. Go back and forth between the 2 notes until you feel you have them, then try doing the program. Once you become proficient at 2 notes on both this exercise and the program your using, add another note. Prolobe I believe has it's own sequence of notes to study so go with that, the others you choose; whether it's chromatic or scale like. Also combined with the listening techniques I'm going to give, it is possible to obtain perfect pitch.

Once you start to progress farther and you have several notes to work with. The notes you have previously mastered, you can just refresh on them by only doing steps 1, 2, and 3. With the newer notes, I suggest doing all the steps. Mix them up by doing a note your familiar with (steps 1,2,3), and then do a note your not familiar with (steps 1-8). This will count as sort of a warm up, cause you don't want to just forget about the older notes. Plus you don't want to spend an incredible amount of time on this exercise alone either. Take about 5-10 minutes doing this before going on to doing the program exercises.

A warning also must be noted when doing the perfect pitch exercises. Make sure you have a firm grip on the notes your are practicing before you add more. It's not a race and if you move too fast, you'll soon find yourself overwhelmed with too many notes and all will be for NOTHING. The main those who try to develop the skill fail, that and just giving up. So take your time, and make sure you have mastered the previous notes before moving on. A good way to check is if once you add another note, you find yourself still making a lot of mistakes on the notes you have already done. If so go back and work on them a little more before trying to step up again.

Although these exercises seem ridiculously simple, and getting them right only requires the remembrance of something you heard only a few seconds before. Any of these exercises done daily will permanently imprint these skills in your mind. When training for any of the above exercises it is very important to include other exercises that approach the same skill. Getting to the point of mastering something in ear training has to do with going at something from many different angles. An example to better relative pitch is to also figure out songs on your own. Combined with listening and recognition exercises will produce far better results than doing just one.