I've being playing guitar for a few years and I'm having trouble distinguishing major chords from minor. It's funny, because I could tell intervals.
Eg. if you played a root and another note, I could tell you whether it was third, fifth, sixth extra.
I know minor chords have a dark/melancholy feel and Major chords are brighter, and that the difference is the flattened third for minor chords.
And I can hear that when I play Am versus A.
But if someone plays a chord out of context, I can't tell whether it's Major or minor – I'd have to hear A major and A minor before I could confirm which was which.
Is there any way I can improve my ear for this, as I'd regard it as a fairly fundamental thing to know. I've tried the http://www.good-ear.com but this really just confirms that I'm woefull at it.
Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
I don't know if it's contained in the site you have there, but try sitting down with the guitar like you normally do, strum an A major (for example), and then pluck each note individually. While you pluck, sing or hum along with each note - a vocal arpeggio if you will.
Then pluck the other way up the chord and do the same.
You have to internalize it more.
You can also, even without the guitar or any instrument, just hum a note, try to find the 3rd (major or minor), hum that, then hum the fifth. Sometimes vocalizing notes makes them easier to hear for some reason.
Best regards.
Yes, thats sounds liek a good idea. Thanks
