If you haven’t read Part One of this article, here’s a quick summation: in ear training, as in most musical pursuits, some of the most productive moments don’t come from dedicated practice time or specific exercises. In fact, they come from those fleeting moments of inspiration that strike you powerfully when hearing a surprisingly great song, seeing a favorite band live, and myriad other unexpected and seemingly random musical occurrences.

It follows, then, that a great deal can be accomplished by creating personal methods for capitalizing on these moments, rather than letting them pass by (and eventually fade).

I also mentioned that the operative word in this approach is “personal” – hence why this advice should be taken as informal suggestions for developing methods that work with your creative process.

The tricks we’ll look at today, along with those from Part One, are ways I’ve found helpful in reframing ear training as a constant daily process. In order to make any of them fit snugly with the rest of your daily responsibilities and pursuits, it will probably have to be tweaked!

So let’s continue, with some ideas that might inspire you to approach ear training, composition, and learning music theory in less orthodox and more personal ways…

Suggestion #3: Theory’s Not Math – It’s Grammar!

Musicians have an unfortunate tendency to compare theory with mathematical rules and equations. It’s easy to see why: in a theory class it’s likely that you’ll be graded on your ability to follow the rules (e.g. of proper part-writing), stick to guidelines (e.g. for clear notation), and obey other (arguably arcane) specificities.

The trouble is that unlike, say, the quadratic formula, we can look around after class… and find a nearly unlimited body of music that intentionally breaks any of these rules!

It’s more accurate, therefore, to compare the rules of theory (which, of course, define what we are attempting to train our ears for) to a proper dialect – like “Standard Written English”.

In English, there are all sorts of arguments for and against obeying rules (like avoiding split infinitives, and so on). Somehow I can’t help but think of corresponding musical issues (like the dreaded ‘parallel fifths’) when I remember my old English classes.

Treat musical styles as dialects

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You know that feeling when you hear a mind-blowing song: that bittersweet mix of awe and… dejection?

The immediate listening experience can be immensely rewarding, but to hear a composition which takes advantage of music theory to a greater degree than we’re capable of can also be a truly humbling experience.

At times it can make the road ahead seem so long and arduous that we forget the musicians we’re listening to still put on great records themselves and feel much the same thing.

There are essentially two responses an aspiring musician can choose between when faced with this situation. Either we look up to them, or we assume they’d look down on us. The first is a path of infinite inspiration, but it seems to be the latter option that is most often our default reaction.

Most of us have doubts we could ever reach such great heights, which can considerably limit our growth as artists. The humbled musician begins to see the worlds of music theory, ear training, and instrumental skill as a giant web of untranslatable complexity. We start thinking about notes on a staff in terms of mathematical equations, and become intimidated by our own conceptions of what is, in reality, nowhere near as complicated as we’ve convinced ourselves.

The first type of response, a positive one, is much more difficult to cultivate. There are however methods that can help optimize this passive listening experience, and ideally turn that otherwise fleeting inspiration into a moment as educational as any formal theory class. Well, at least as valuable as the classes I’ve taken (which, to be fair, have not set the bar very high!)

What follows are a couple of tricks I use on a daily basis. Click to read the rest…

If you have a lot of experience with theory classes or with playing in an organized ensemble, you’re probably familiar with two different but equally important types of ear training method.

When we sit down to practice though, we tend to focus only on one of them: the basic, practice-the-interval-until-you-could-recognize-it-asleep memorization method (or derivatives of it, like sight-reading). I like to refer to this approach as “melodic”, as it emphasizes the musical elements necessary in carrying a tune or solo improvisation.

It’s the second type, “harmonic”, that musicians sometimes forget: training your ear to hear the subtly different types of chords beyond the basic triad. Practicing one type improves the other, and a well-balanced approach is the fastest way to start hearing results from your training in everyday jam sessions.

In this post we’ll take a closer look at both of these styles of ear training and identify the best techniques for developing them.

Before we move on it’s important to note that any classifications like these are, of course, only effective as basic guides to help these concepts sink in. For instance, you might find it just as helpful to adapt what we’ll refer to as “melodic” methods to do harmonic training, and vice versa. These subdivisions of ear training are not rules – just a logical dichotomy between the two general types that, if practiced in parallel, could help you develop a better ear.

Type 1: Melodic

Melodic ear training is the type we tend to emphasize – sometimes to a fault! If you’ve ever quizzed yourself on intervals with a keyboard or practiced sight singing, you’ve been training melodically. This type of training can be extremely important in developing the ability to solo instrumentally or in composing vocal melodies, and it will help you become familiar with different types of scales and modes. If, for example, you were working on a song built around a harmonic minor scale, you could practice running the notes up and down to get acquainted with the distinctive characteristics of the scale.

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