I've been playing guitar now for a year or so and want to start getting my ear trained a little better. I like to play mostly blues, and am trying to learn some jazz type stuff. I was wondering if i should start out learning all the intervals by ear?? Or is there another path i should take to get my ear better, because its pretty bad now.
Learning to recognise intervals is a good way to train your ear. There are free ear training programs around that let you improve gradually, such as:
http://www.miles.be
Start with simple major scale intervals then eventually advance to the chromatic scale, featuring all intervals. melodic, rising and falling and harmonic.
Chords too. Start with simple majors and minors in a major key then eventually introduce sevenths, ninths, etc chord inversions - and then move out of key to base them on any root.
At the same time, you can work on short melodic phrases chords and chord progressions. You can gradually increase the length of melodic phrases. You hear the phrase and reproduce it on the guitar. As your phrases get longer, your ear and memory will be forced to improve accordingly to keep up. Most ear training programs let you do all that.
Always have a practical application too so as to train your ear with real music. Try to work out the chords of simple pop songs on the radio, for example. Don't start with Jazz - too many weird chords and unexpected progressions - but it will become easier as your ear starts to recognise extended and chromatic chords.
I once heard something about learning intervals where you relate each interval to a song ( like the wedding march) to make it easier to memorize. Have u ever heard of this and if so do you have any examples??? Thanks for the above reply.
I once heard something about learning intervals where you relate each interval to a song ( like the wedding march) to make it easier to memorize. Have u ever heard of this and if so do you have any examples??? Thanks for the above reply.
Sure - It's quite a common way to recognise intervals at first. Here are just a few examples of rising melodic intervals. I'm sure you'll get a heap of others too, after this.
Maj 2nd - Doh, a dear (can't think of that song's name)
Min 3rd - Greensleeves, Stairway to Heaven (guitar intro)
Maj 3rd - can't think of any, except the school choir practice arpeggio Doh Me So Doh
Perfect 4th - Plaisir D'Amour - a bit obscure - I'm sure there are better examples.
Augmented 4th/ diminished 5th - Maria (West Side Story)
Perfect 5th - Twinkle Twinkle little star (2nd and 3rd notes)
Maj 6 - My Bonnie lies over the ocean
7th - Can't think of any
Octave - Somewhere over the rainbow.
Perfect 4th - Plaisir D'Amour - a bit obscure - I'm sure there are better examples.
The somewhat oriental sounding into riff for Turning Japanese by The Vapors is a series of fourths.
-=tension & release=-
thanks a lot, i think i know most of those songs and can recognize a lot of the notes by ear which should really help me in getting my ear trained a little better.
Perfect 4th - Plaisir D'Amour - a bit obscure - I'm sure there are better examples.
The somewhat oriental sounding into riff for Turning Japanese by The Vapors is a series of fourths.
That reminds me I need to learn that song!
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m6 - conquest of paradise, Vangelis
M6 - My Way - Frank Sinatra
P4 - I wish you a Merry Christmas
