What's ear training, do I need it ...?

Everyone in the group generally agrees that one of the most important aspects of playing Jazz is having a "good ear". Here are some suggestions to help train the ear taken from various posts in the group.

I have spent time with the Dave L Burge perfect pitch and it never did anything for me except maybe sharpen my awareness.

However, I did get his relative pitch training course years ago (it was on cassettes back then, now it's on CD's) and I used it while driving - which really helped me a lot. One of the things he does in that course is something he calls "lightening rounds" where he plays intervals very fast and your ear adjusts to hearing the "color" of the interval so you can identify it very quickly (not just intervals, chords and inversions as well).

On the other hand, I think that these days the best bet is to buy an ear-training software package. They are usually under $50 and they are so much more versatile than a fixed set of tapes or even a class, because you can tailor it to your own weaknesses. For example, I found that even when I knew intervals instantly, I had problems with 4-5 note melody dictations where the intervals come in rapid succession. Also, it's a lot less embarrassing to make mistakes in front of your computer than in front of a teacher or a class.

I have used: Earope as well as Music Box and Earmaster Pro.

With regard to ear training, try carrying a set of chromatic pitch pipes in your pocket and testing your self on intervals.

With regard to Relative Pitch and Ear Training, this is a big subject! Check Out Ear Training Links for more information . Ear Training is not just a course you tick done that move on etc, it's like playing the guitar, a lifelong practice, which as you practice you get better! Approached in this way, will enable you to relax into it and give

yourself time! It's not for nothing that music students at college/university often refer to Ear Training class as Fear Training! Part of the reason for this is that Ear Training Courses, IMHO force people to progress at rates faster than their ears often allow and/or the anxiety produced by

So take your time, be patience with yourself and relax whilst working on ear training!

One of the things that helped me (and others) is singing. I try to sing everything before I play anything - and I'm no singer!

For those new to this I recommend the the following simple exercise can get you on the right path:

1. Practice singing the Major Scale using the Solfeggio Syllables giving yourself a reference note. One note only and then sing from there.

UP
Do-Re-Me-Fa-So-La-Te-Do
Down
Do-Te-La-So-Fa-Me-Re-Do

Listen carefully for the half step pitches Fa-Me, Te-Do

2. Practice singing the intervals UP and Down, giving youself a reference note:

UP
Do-Re
Do-Me
Do-Fa
etc.

Down
Do-Te
Do-La
Do-So
etc.

3. Practice singing from any point in the scale, giving yourself a reference note:

Eg Play Note, Sing La
La-So-Fa-Me-Re-Do
etc.
 

Another similar thing I learned from guitarist Rick Stone is to:

1. Open a fake book and play the melody to a song you don't know

2. Play the melody in open position only (to avoid memorizing the fingering)

3. Now, while looking at the melody - transpose the song up a 1/2 step in your head - still playing it in open position, so that you don't just slide your finger up one fret. This forces you to become aware of the intervals and modulations.

4. Keep transposing it up in 1/2 steps, always playing it in open position and always reading off the chart in the original key.

For beginners/intermediate players, a great exercise (I think from a Tommy Tedesco column in guitar magazine in the 80s) is very simply to take a melody you know very well, but have never played on a guitar and try to play it. It is surprising how tough this can be sometimes without hitting a wrong note. This is a good test to see if you can actually 'play what you hear'.

Start with stuff as simple as yankee doodle dandy, happy birthday, or the Gilligan's island theme or whatever...

Just try a couple of melodies a day, and that's it. This may not be 'ear training' in the sense of perfect pitch, but it sure develops the sense of intervals and relative pitch...(i.e., what is the interval between the first two notes of the Gilligan tune? etc...)

There has been alot of discussion regarding playing by ear and/or playing without fakebooks, etc.

Players will always tell students to learn tunes but one thing that never seems to be discussed is just how one goes about learning tunes.

As jazz musicians we cannot rely on "finger" memory the way a classical player might. We may be called upon to play tunes that we havent played for a long time.
 

I would like to start off this thread initially just focussing on tips for learning the melodies to songs.

The first thing about playing by ear is that you can't play something you can't sing.

ALot of times people think they know tunes because they will recognize them if they hear them and even recognize some mistakes if played. But yet if you ask them to sing the tune the will get about

two bars and then get really unclear. They probably know the catchy "hook" part of the tune.

With my students I start them off playing by ear all the songs we learn as kids because those are usually totally clear to us.

Thus "Mary Had A Little Lamb", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little
Star", "Happy Birthday", etc.

My main instruments are piano and guitar but I teach improvising to people on other instruments and it's amazing how many jazz musicians know all about "Giant Steps" but can't play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" without a book. Of course they can't play "Giant
Steps" either without looking at a book.

So, anyway the first thing is to make a list of these tunes. I'll be posting some lists I have. Others may do the same.

The next thing to realize is that almost all tunes end on the note of the key. So if the tune is in the key of C it
will end on C.

SO then I have people pick out the melodies to all these kids songs in the key of C. Not all will start on C but they will al end on C. Of course once they can really play them in C then the next thing is to play them in all the other keys.

These tunes are almost
entirely diatonic though frankly even standards are for the most part except where they have key changes.

Even my five year old piano students know that each week they are working on a different scale and I will ask them at the lesson to play several songs they know in the key for that
week.

From here, the next thing is to start learning standards that you already can sing, at least to some extent.

This process develops over time and is the first step to gaining confidence in playing without seeing the notes.

I think that most professional jazz
musicians did this when they were kids.

Anyway I'll stop here for now.

[later...]

The first thing you need when playing the melody of a tune is the starting note. Sounds simple but how do you find it?

Well there is not just one way.

If it's a tune you've
played for a while you might just remember what the note is in some particular key. For example you might just remember that "Stella by Starlight" starts on Bb when playing in the key of Bb. Then you are done. If you're playing the tune in Bb the starting note is Bb, if you are playing the tune
in C the starting note is C. Some people that are very visual will find it easy to just remember what the sheet of music that you first saw if on looked like.

(One note here is... know your major scales. That means in this case to know the notes and what note each degree of the scale is.
For example, the fourth note in the key of C is F, in the key of Bb it's Eb.)

Sometimes you might remember that a tune starts on a particular degree of the scale. For example you might remember that it starts on the fifth degree of the scale. So you remember that "Happy Birthday" starts
on the fifth degree of the scale so in the key of C that would be G.

I have another technique I use which is a little hard to explain but works quite well and is part of a larger ear training regime.

Play a major scale up and down, not too fast. Think of the scale degrees or even
sing the scale as 1-2-3-4...

C D E F G A B C B A G F E D C .
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Then pick any note of the scale and play it.

See if you can hear where that note wants to go.

If you play a B in C major you should hear that it wants to go up to C. This
is the sound of 7 going to 1. You should hear 7 - 1. Or if it goes to resting point after one note then it started on the 7.

If you play an F it should want to either go down or up to C. In other words you should hear either 4-3-2-1 or 4-5-6-7-1. Or , if you hear 5 notes up to 1, then it
started on the 4.

Once you hear in what direction the note wants to go in (up or down), continue singing from that note until it gets to a resting point. The resting point should be the first degree of the scale, or C in this case. You can tell by how many notes it takes what degree of
the scale you started on. Sometimes you will just hear the numbers 6-7-1.

(You could also do all of this with do-re-mi... if you want).

This is a general excercise that is good for ear training though I've never seen it mentioned in any book. It's just something I developed for
myself.

Now how does this apply to finding the starting note of tunes??

Think of a tune you are going to play. Suppose it's Satin Doll. Try to start getting an aural idea of that tune. You can sing a few bars out loud or in your head or try and remember a recording of it or
whatever you need to do to get the tune happening in your mind in some aural way.

Then think of the starting note, in an "aural" way. You may do this by singing it or hearing it in your head. Now see if you can hear where the note wants to go.

In the case of Satin Doll you should
hear 6-7-1.

This excercise works well over a period of time so don't be impatient.

Of course you eventually hope that you'll just go to the starting note without thinking about it but these are some ideas that can help you get to that place.

[later]

I mentioned
that I would submit some lists of basic "kid" tunes for beginning practice on playing by ear. Please see my earlier discussions on this topic. Remember that initially the idea is to just be able to play the melody in C and once that is clear, play it in all the other keys.

There are lot
of reasons for doing this. 1) Almost all jazz artists and professional musicians I've met started doing this when they were kids. If you didnt then you need to. 2) It gets one into the idea of playing songs that you havent played for a long time. I.e. calling up the old inner CD player. 3) They
are great melodies. 4) You should be able to play what you know.

I havent located my beginning list but I'll try and do some of it from memory. Others are free to add tunes.I'll build a database and post the results from suggestion tunes from others.

The point is to choose tunes
that one is totally clear about. As such depending on our childhood, this list will be different. There are many people on this list that didnt grow up in the USA as I did so they may have a totally different list of tunes they have known since childhood.

So I don't mean learning tunes

In general most tunes have a key signature, yes there may be modulations to other keys, but generally harmony wise the tune starts out in the key makes some harmonic changes and then ends up back at the key.

Our ear hears this journey and hears this journey in relationship to the key.

So lets take a Blues in F:

|F | Bb7 | F | F7 |
|Bb7 | G#Dim/B| F/C | D7b9 |
|Gm7 | C7 | F D7b9 | Gm7 C7|

Harmonically the bass line goes from F to Bb Back to F etc. A good way to start is to play the roots and sing the roots with a backing track.

As our ear
hears the progression in relationship to the key ie. F. Next Sing the tune as a series of intervals from the root F-F, F-Bb, F-F, F-F, F-Bb, F-B, F-C, F-D etc following the progression.

Next just relax and listen to the backing track. Mentally sing the roots with the track.

Next
with the track sing 4 bars, mentally sing 4 bars. etc.

The exercise can be expanded to include other chords tones. But this will get you started.

The goal is to be able to hear that in relationship to the key or Do (Solfege) where the tunes moves harmonically.

The whole