Learning to hear different triad types and their inversions is not really that difficult, it just takes a little time and understanding. There are no shortage of different approaches to developing this important skill, including various solfege systems and other mnemonic devices. When we learn these different methodologies, we should keep in mind that the end goal is to be able to recognize a chord’s quality and inversion not unlike you would any other musical sound like a major or minor scale. This skill is analogous to the way we recognize colors or words.

Consider the word dog. We do not have to necessarily read every letter, and think about its phonetic make-up to understand this word in the context of a sentence. But what about a word like: perspicuous? We may have to take a second to sound out the word, and maybe even consult a dictionary before its meaning and context becomes clear – at least I did!

Learning to recognize musical sounds like chords is similar. We may hear a piece of music and simply recognize, for example, that it is in a major key not a minor one. But perhaps a particular chord in the music takes a few moments to work out its quality and inversion.

We can figure out a chord quality and its inversion using our understanding of basic chord types and intervals.

This article focuses on using our knowledge of the sound of major and minor triads in root position and its interval make-up to tease out the sound of different inversions of these basic chords. As with any approach, consider this one as a tool to use while you learn the different sound qualities of these sonorities.

Root Position Major and Minor Triads

You may recall that basic triads are made up of three pitches stacked in thirds from a root note. For example, a C chord is made up of the pitches C-E-G.

A C major triad

A C Major Triad Example

The above root position triad has a quality to it. We call it a “major” triad by definition: the interval from the root note to its third is a major third, and from the root note to the fifth is a perfect fifth. Musicians sometimes describe the sound of a major triad as being clear and bright, owing to the quality of its third.

The sound of a major triad also has a sense of stability to it. Click to read the rest…

Any mainstream American pop tune, Beethoven symphony, or British children’s song shares a common thread: Western harmonies. Why does Western culture center on specific chords? What is the link between memory, harmony, and ear training? Does music improve memory?

Growing up in Western culture, your ear and brain absorbed a specific “musical hierarchy” where the tonic of a scale had more importance than other pitches.[1] For example, in D Major, your ear automatically gravitates towards the pitches D, A, and G, and finds notes like C# dissonant. Even as an infant, you demonstrated a clear preference for specific Western harmonies. [2] Why is this?

Since childhood, the music you listened to impressed upon your long term memory a distinct preference for the tonic (D) and the dominant (A). Musical training affected your perception of music and your ability to recognize pitch. [1] The more musical exposure you experienced, the greater the impact on your brain and memory.

To recognize a pitch during ear training, your brain performs mental gymnastics. Click to read the rest…

Learning to recognize intervals is an important part of any musician’s development. Guitarists who play by ear should be especially interested in developing their aural skills so that they can recognize musical elements such as intervals in harmonies and melodies. For players of improvised forms like jazz a good ear is critical for improvising as well. This article reviews intervals on the guitar and teaches a very simple method for learning and identifying them.

Review of Intervals

Musical intervals measure the distance between any two pitches. We identify intervals by their size and quality. We determine the size of an interval simply by counting from one pitch name to the other. For example, the interval from the sixth string, E, to the fifth string A, is a fourth: E F G A, one two three four.

The quality of an interval, whether ‘perfect’, ‘major’, ‘minor’, ‘diminished’ or ‘augmented’, is a refinement of its size. Both an interval’s size and quality make up its unique sound: a major third sounds different than a minor third.

For the guitarist, the smallest musical distance is one fret. This distance is called a semitone. We can list the most common intervals by their number of semitones or frets:

How To Practice Intervals On The Guitar

Shortly we will review how to play some of these intervals on the guitar, but first we can take a peek at a simple method for learning how they sound. This method really involves two parts. We first want to learn how to produce an interval, and then we want to be able to recognize it.

First we play the interval we wish to learn, and sing it back. You can sing using a neutral syllable like la or ta. Below is a minor second. Play it and sing it back:

Minor Second

Minor Second Example

We repeat this play and sing back process for several different minor seconds across the guitar:

Click to read the rest…