The Secret of Ear Training

The secret of ear training is in the feeling. All musical structures have a particular feeling-state associated with them which we can learn to recognize. This video outlines a practical method for gaining familiarity with recognizing THE TONIC - the most fundamental and important sound/feeling in music.

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Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:20 - The "Tonic"
03:28 - Level 1 - Scales
04:55 - Level 2 - Chords
06:15 - Level 3 - Real Music
12:56 - Final Remarks

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#eartraining #musictheory

[jtonthatrack]

Lol when the note doesn’t resolve I feel ANGER

[joshkasen]

1. Love the video. Wonderfully produced.
2. Thank you for actually playing the final note and not leaving me with that terrible “feeling” 😅

[Lwhale.]

As a singer, I’ve always felt insecure about my note / Interval / chord recognition abilities, but after being able to recognize the tonic note in all the exercises in the video, this renewed my confidence and made me want to make music moving forward. THANK YOU 🙌🙌

Also, OMG man, you have the most transfixing eyes 👁️👁️ I have ever seen

[dawnyurenwick]

This makes me think of the episode of The Office where Andy starts singing a song about the other businesses in a building and Pam cuts him off before he can finish singing on the tonic…so he begs her to let him resolve the melody 😂

[nickolawl]

As a music teacher, I always like to keep watching content from other teachers, to see if I can come up with new approaches. I've never seen this approach to ear training, and it makes so much sense. I will surely use it in my future lectures

[nikooplayer]

This was probably the best course I had on ear training. Thanks.

[yiler]

This is definitely one of the best ear training tutorials I’ve seen. It almost feels like unlocking a new superpower after watching this.

[roomsey]

Today I learned that I'm really good at tonic recognition. I do it all the time when I'm doing solos.

[bobloblaw]

This is why I think most people who play lots of instruments started out on drums. It speeds up the feeling process necessary to make learning scales and chords less stressful and easier to apply to your music. You can't force precision, it's a slow crawling into more fluid movement. Just like with correcting your bodies movements....no amount of adjustments, massage, nor pushing through it, or over-working will 100% fix anything, since you have to train the mind/body connection to function as one to allow free flow. The mind and body already know natural movement, it's just lost at a very early age. Music is no different of a sense to the brain. Rhythm literally opens the body up without conscious effort.

[vcodev]

Thanks for revealing the secret of ear training, feeling is the main ingredient that most of the music teacher never mention, thanks for guiding us in the right track as always.

[poj]

Never realised that I have always done this naturally and since learning music theory It's been making so much sense. Feeling really is key.

[eneldia]

Thanks for this clear explanation. Years of playing the guitar and years of vocal entonation issues. Finally I am getting there.

[maypling]

i think this concept exists in language learning too. in our native tongue, we won't always be able to say exactly how we know something is gibberish, or why someone's accent doesn't sound native - we just know that it sounds 'off'. (maybe two words that should rhyme don't, or a word is unusual for a certain context, etc.) spelling as well - if it looks off we keep trying different things until it's resolved/familiar. this intuition is built somewhat passively over time as a child, but can still be achieved as an adult, especially with active learning.

all to say, listening is super important to build a strong foundation! thanks for sharing ♥

[away_]

Musical Blue balls is crazy, love this

[ThomasJLarsen]

A nice tool analyzing music in your head is the fact that about 95 – 99 % of all melodies in Western music (classic, jazz, pop, rock, anything), end on the tonic.
Check it out (without touching an instrument if you are trained).

[SaveManWoman]

When it comes to feeling, I have benefited in an immense way from studying Indian classical music. Look up Navtej Singh who teaches masterly. I have learned from him in 4 months what would have taken 10 years. Hard to explain but you will thank me a billions. Navtej Singh also plays amazing harmonium you will most definitely enjoy if you are music lover.

[clockworkhearts]

oh! I've been doing this unknowingly since I was a kid. I liked to try to guess what note would come next in a song, or I'd make up little tunes to hum and try to find notes that made the most sense together. I've never had any musical training so it's great to finally have a word for this.

[drymonday]

I learned how to play by ear and music theory from a very young age and i can say hands down it is the most important thing you can learn as a musician that will separate you from others

[guscox]

Your idea of feeling is really true in my experience. I was practicing ii V I in ascending keys, but instead of doing it logically I was trying to hear the next key centre each time, then working backwards to ‘hear’ V and then ii. It’s hard but rewarding. Respect to you and anyone who gets into this.

[justapieceofbread]

This was really helpful as a self taught musician. I didn't know how to improve or test my own hearing ability and i was surprised to nail the real music part! (Level three)