You might like to check out the guest post I just wrote over at MusicLessons4YouOnline.com, entitled “Want to play it? Hear it first!”

It’s about how you need to hear music in your head to be able to really bring life to your playing, and create new compositions or improvisations. I outline the steps to doing this, and how you can use ear training to help you hear more complex music in your head and connect it with your instrument. Here’s an excerpt:

“It may sound like a contradiction, but if you want to create music when you play you must be able to hear the music first – in your head. This goes doubly if you want to improvise, compose or play by ear!

Ever noticed how great jazz improvisers often sing along with their own solo? Or how rock guitarists’ mouths move as if they’re singing out each note they play? These players know exactly what sounds their instruments will make before they move their fingers to make it happen. It’s no coincidence that this is a habit shared by many of the greats!”
Read more…

Make sure you check out all the other great posts on MusicLessons4YouOnline.com too, there’s an incredible wealth of information, tutorials, and videos to help you learn music and instruments. Here’s a few starting points:

• How to Play Piano By Ear
• Guitar Practice Tip for Success (Most of these are helpful hints for any instrument, or indeed ear training!)
• 7 Reasons to Learn Music Theory

There’s also an associated site at MusicLessonsOnDVD.com which sells some great instrumental lesson DVDs.

So, take a look at the guest post and let me know what you think – in the comments here or there!

Can you identify the frequency of a kick drum? How about a snare drum? A woman’s voice? A man’s? How about an F#2 played on a piano? As an audio professional (audio recording/mixing engineer, music producer, mastering engineer, etc.) you should be able to identify these frequencies.

Why? We’ll get to that shortly. First, there are some obvious questions. What is the definition of frequency? That leads to why exactly do you need recognition skills? That ultimately leads to the overarching theme of this discussion; how do you train your ears to recognize the individual sonic fingerprints of each sound? Or, to be more precise; what exact mechanisms, or exercises do you need to develop and practice?

The practice of ear training is not relegated solely to musicians, but to anyone working in the “audio” field. Specifically, we will focus on music/recording engineers, producers, and so forth.

A lot of the beginning material will undoubtedly be familiar to seasoned professionals.

To you; be patient. Use this as a refresher.

To the audio professional just starting on the journey; we will leave nothing to assumption. Your basics will be covered.

Let us begin.
Click to read the rest…

Ear training’s a huge subject, and it can be hard to know where to start. We’ve designed a free quiz to give you a quick overview of what ear training is all about.

If you’re new to ear training, you’ll get a quick glimpse of lots of example areas which ear training could target. Done some ear training before? The quiz will help you figure out what you’re already good at, and what could do with more work. It might also throw up some new areas to train, which you haven’t thought about before…

You’ll listen to 10 sound clips and answer a multiple-choice question on each. There’s advice and guidance at the end of the quiz based on how you did.

So whether you’re new to the topic of ear training, have some skills to show off, or consider yourself an all-round wizard of sound, come take the quiz and let us know how you do!