Imagine being able to listen to any song and recognize every note of the melody by ear. What would that do for your musical creativity and improvising? Now imagine learning this skill in just 10 weeks and having it for the rest of your life! This is what we will do in this workshop.
I have tried many different methods of ear training. I have tried interval recognition apps, functional ear training and even a perfect pitch course. But I have yet to recognize a single note when listening to real music! Can you give me any guidance?
To understand music by ear, should we try to hear each note relative to the chord of the moment or relative to the overall key of the song?
In this video I demonstrate why tonal ear training is so much more powerful than listening for intervals, especially over long or complex chord progressions.
In this video demonstration with tenor sax and piano, we demonstrate how IFR students are able to instantly find the key of the music by ear.
I play the guitar and in order to avoid getting lost on the fretboard I say the numbers of the scale out loud. So I literally say "1, 2, 3" etc out loud as I'm playing. Will this be like a crutch in the future where I can't move around unless I count the notes?
"When I'm practicing Seven Worlds, sometimes I lose my orientation and I can't feel the tonal center anymore. So for example note 2 doesn't feel like home anymore. Instead my ear keeps wanting to resolve to note 1. Do you have any tips for this?"
To recognize chords by ear, is it helpful to listen to one particular instrument or should we be listening for something else?
I'm currently singing and playing short tunes like nursery rhymes, hymns, etc. The way I do it is that I will play a tune only once and try to make my best attempt at playing the correct notes the very first time. Is this approach a good one?
In this video you'll learn the most important technique for recognizing songs and melodies by ear. The technique is to focus on the path that the melody traces through the overall key of the music.
