Interval training problems.

[pavankumarnrParticipant]

I am having problems with differenciating between Major and Minors as well as the descending intervals. Is it important to be a perfectionist before I move on to the other fields of training like scales and chords.
I want to be able to identify the sounds and be able to play them on my guitar. I guess the chords recognition and scales recognition would be a very big step towards it. Any suggestion would be a lot of help for me.

[stebautistaParticipant]

Hi @pavankumarnr,
I find this link really helpful for me. There is an exercise pack you can download from there. For me, though I am striving for perfection, it is always best to take the exercises one at a time. Try to do at least one exercise a day and take time to go through each one of it. I think that will help a lot.

Hope it helps! ;)

[christopher-suttonKeymaster]

Hi @pavankumarnr,

Thanks for posting your question here!

For distinguishing major and minor, I would have two tips:

1. Use chords or keys to practice telling major from minor in a different context. For example, you might find it easier to tell major and minor triads apart than the intervals of major and minor thirds, so practising those may be more rewarding while also building up your sense of relative pitch and letting you improve on the interval recognition in an indirect way.
2. Mix up your intervals. If you’re trying to tell major from minor thirds, or major from minor sevenths, etc. this can be difficult, because the intervals are close to the same pitch distance. So you can distinguish them based on their sound character but not based on their size. Mix up the intervals you’re practising with to include more differently-sized intervals (e.g. practising major third vs minor seventh, and minor third vs major seventh) for a while, and you’ll train your ears in a different way which should help when you return to major third vs minor third etc.

I would not recommend being a perfectionist. It’s important to spend some time on small groups of intervals before moving on, so that you can solidify those and avoid confusing your ears (and yourself!) too quickly. More details here.

Beyond that, my advice would be similar to what I suggested for @mrear recently – there are other resources you should consider that are more closely related to your overall goal of playing guitar by ear.

Does that help?

[pavankumarnrParticipant]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your suggestions :).

@stebautista, I am familiar with the page and was also first steps in learning the intervals.

@christopher-sutton, I will try your suggestions for a month. I think it is a wonderful idea to recognise triads since they have distinctive chord qualities rather than trying to recognise intervals. I will surely put my comments after I experiment on it.

Hear good,
Pavan.

[christopher-suttonKeymaster]

Hi @pavankumarnr,

Great! I hope it will work well, and do please keep us updated on your progress.

(… and that may be the best sign-off phrase I’ve ever seen on our forums ;) )

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