I've always struggled with my ear and I have to say, jusy a few minutes every day with this method for the last week and already I can hit any note and sing fifths, fourths, and thirds all the way through the cycle. Just gotta work in the other intervals!
It all takes time. If I can dispel one thing for you, it would be this: You've heard these things all of your life; but now you're assigning a *name* to what you've already heard. Now you're analyzing what you sing/play. Once you've gotten the concept down, you will be that much more powerful in not only knowledge, but you will be able to build on that foundation. I am talking from almost 60 years on this planet, and it really does take time. And just like physical training, you are training your ear. Keep at it -- you'll do just fine!
In addition to the helpful comments above, I'd add: this is *ear training* 101, not music theory 101. 55 years on planet and I'd like to emphasise the comments above: true genius and talent is exceptionally rare; for the rest of us poor schmucks practice is the only path to greatness, or even moderate competence. Keep at it! Build up to an hour a day and keep it there until you stop progressing.
This is one of THE MOST important lesson of my modest musical life. Had I learned this early on, I can only imagine where I'd be today. Thanks. I know incorporate this DAILY!
I'm a junior undergrad theory major. The ear training was kicking my butt! This has unlocked something in my brain and things are clicking finally. Thanks!
"Fifths are tricky for people especially descending fifths. I'm not sure why, probably from not practicing." OKAY OKAY I'LL PRACTICE MORE *runs away sobbing*
They're easy for me because I grew up in a place where polka is popular. That polka bass line is always alternating fifths. Same with most rockabilly, old school country, etc.
Cool In addition I'd play random tones from different octaves and then sing them in the same octave. For example, C2 (~65Hz) and D5 (~587Hz) to -> C3 (~131Hz) and D3 (~147Hz) Squeezing the tones as close as possible.
Domoarogato Mr. Beato... I never thought of this before. I struggled for years with ear training, only got marginally better... I think this idea of using symmetrical chords to train 3rds is genius.. I'm going to start trying to train my ears again.
Learning these from a guitar POV right now, and this was amazing! Take a step back and think about them from a piano perspective and attack the ascending/descending simultaneously. Thank you!!!
Wow, I like this method as you are using the augmented triad to find both the upper and lower of the same interval-genius and because we know our triads we can check ourselves for correctness. Thank you!
A little trick that will help is to find song snippets that contain the intervals. For example: P4 asc: "Here Comes" the Bride, Min7 asc: Have you driven "a Ford" lately, etc...
I am in the process of finally training my ear after many years of playing guitar, maybe I'm alone in this but I personally find b2 and 7 to be the easiest intervals to hear, its usually 3's and 6's I struggle with the most.
for those who don't know augmented chords , half diminished and full diminished chords: augmented chords is simply an angry plunk on piano sounding big chord. a full diminished is a train sounding toddler on piano like cluster chord. half diminished is only present when at least a 4 note chord... pretty sure.
Hello Rick. I'm so glad I found your channel a week ago. your videos are well made and the content is great. Are there any videos for learning music theory basics, like from the really beginning? Keep up the great work :)
Hey Rick! Thanks for the great lesson. Do you suggest working with one interval at a time, until one can nail it 100% or do you suggest working on a couple of intervals at the same time? Thanks for your answer :)
One thing I want to try is to sit at a piano, and just play a Middle C in quarter notes. Over and over. And over. And over. This is akin to Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi starting out each year of a football season by holding up a football and saying, "This is a football." Did it every year. In music, telling yourself "This is a Middle C (or "This is a C")" is to establish a center. Then play a second key, either above or below it. Hopefully you know the names of the intervals by now, but for the sake of training your ear without assigning a name to the interval, you're OK for the moment. Back to my illustration: Just as an example, play a Middle C and the adjacent Db (next black key to the C). Play them simultaneously. Over and over. And over. And over. Play them as quarter notes (one beat at a moderate tempo). Play them once and hold the keys down for a long time. Then play them alternately: C,Db,C,Db,C,Db, etc. Tell yourself, "This is a minor 2nd" over and over again. I also recommend as a reinforcement playing C and the adjacent B, 1/2 step below the Middle C, because this, too, is a m2 (distinguished from a major 2, with a capital in the M2 nomenclature). Listen to the clashing. And listen again. And again, using some of the ideas described above as to how to play them. You can then branch out into starting on another note, say, an F#, then play the keys adjacent to it. And so on. From there, you can branch out into other notes, and other intervals: M2, P5, whatever. I really, really like Rick's approach to listening for the intervals, and how to achieve them when singing. With instruments, it is in many ways easier to catch intervals, as a certain fretboard/fingerboard pattern (true of all string instruments), or a combination of keys (woodwinds) or valves (brass, including a trombone, minus the valves, but holding the slide in a certain position) will always yield a certain interval. Back to the voice: I have no problem sliding from one note to another to listen for the proper interval, PROVIDED that you don't "whiskey-slide" from one note to another -- make it musical, such as a portamento or a controlled, slower slide (down or up). When my son was in soccer, they referred to it as "touches." You have "good touches" and "bad touches." Both are valuable, so that you can reinforce the good ones, and learn from your bad ones. I hope this helps.
@@snickpickle Thank you for offering this way to visualize the process and centre it. I like the idea of speaking to the intervals to strengthen the relationship to it. I’ve been playing music for a while, but theory can be confusing. Sometimes things just click, and I think I may have had one of those moments. Is the descending interval spacing from the root an inversion? Let’s say, going from C to D is a Major 2nd. Is going from C to B flat an inverted Major 2nd?
@@kyleolin3566 I would use the words "ascending" and "descending." "Inverted" and "inversion" are used when switching chords around. So a C Major root chord is C-E-G; 1st inversion is E-G-C; 2nd inversion is G-C-E. Diminished chords can have a third inversion, as can 7th chords, and so on. But an ascending m2 would be C-Db, whereas a descending m2 would be C-B, as an example. As mentioned in my original reply, you will want to do this with all other intervals, and then branch out to different starting pitches, in order to train your brain to recognize that all intervals are consistent in "distance," no matter which pitch is your starting pitch. But to me, learning both ascending and descending intervals is vital to both learning the distance between the notes, but in the case of vocals, it also makes you a better singer, because you know exactly where you're going in raising and lowering your pitch. One of my instruments (my principal brass instrument, even though I consider myself more of a string player) is [french] horn, where one *must* have knowledge of intervals, as it is so easy to overshoot or undershoot notes, due to the overtone series and a small mouthpiece! And not only learn the intervals on a keyboard, but if you are a guitar player (or any kind of string player), learn the intervals on the fretboard/fingerboard: For example, on a violin, a minor 6th is obtained by using your first finger to play the C on the A string (3rd fret on a mandolin), and place your second finger close to the first (4th fret on a mandolin), and voila, a minor 6th! (C-Ab)! Same finger pattern starting on any note gets you a minor 6! Handy to know. For an instrument that utilized P4s for tuning (bass, most guitar intervals other than open G and B -- a M3), just remember to make your adjustments accordingly: C-Ab = 3rd fret A and 6th fret Ab on D string. (Bonus for vocals: While I normally only go up to an octave in normal applications, if you want to start working into 9ths, all the way through 14ths -- and you'd better have a good vocal range to accomplish this! -- go for it! Vocally, it's hard to do!) Also, read another comment I wrote about assigning a song portion for the interval: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for an octave (first two notes); "Born Free" for descending 4th; "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" for an ascending M6; the line "There's a place for us" (from West Side Story's "Somewhere") (again, all first two notes of the phrase)...
After you hit the chords on augments and diminished; do you hit the middle note and go up then hit the middle and go lower or do you play the chord and let it ring and play the upper and lower. This is revolutionary to me.
Great exercise! But I think you have to sing the middle note too, otherwise maybe your ear Will Focus on the Interval formed by the two notes you only sing,
i guess that's why you have to play the middle note before you sing. By hearing it first you can relate to the interval between the one you sing and the one you've heard
I'm pretty good with: m2-M2-m3-p5-M6-p8. I almost never miss them. I have a pretty hard time distinguishing: tt-m7-M7-m6. And I have a hard time distinguishing M3-P4
Great material, I really love your work and the way you explain musical concepts however, PLEASE put a shoulder camera to show us what are you playing from your prospective!!!!!!!! In some of your episodes you dig into really complicated hand moves, im no pianist and it would HELP BIG TIME if we could see player prospective. (Sry for caps, its not ment to be a shout, just hoping u see the comment)
This is going to help me a lot. So would you suggest we practice all of the intervals in one sitting or start with one or two and add more as we become comfortable?
Lee Jay Bird Music do a couple every day for a couple days. if you can't guarantee your singing the right intervals away from your instrument then I wouldn't move on. do close intervals. or the major minor of the same. starting major minor 3rd is really good. i did a slightly different method a couple years ago. the one thing I would add to this video's method would be to play the chord and sing all of the notes. of standard chords to listen inside of the chords. Rick talks about this in another video.
The key here is how to put this in a routine? Do I practice each interval going up & down by a tone and semitone on each day for 2 weeks & repeat? OR Do I practice all the 12 intervals at once in a day and go up & down every day in 2 weeks & repeat? If none of the above, then how should I segregate this?
Hey Rick. Do you recommend doing all these every day or does one should stick to the major third for a while then move to the next set of intervals ? Thanks
Thanks for your tip. I'm Impressed your harmonic concepts, then I've just bought the Beato book, going to start Ear training also. I have a question. Is it OK if I do this exercise with my guitar? I care about inaccurate pitch problems.
What a convoluted approach. Just find songs you know well that feature each interval, and associate them with the interval. A couple examples: Major 5th up: Twinkle, Twinkle. Major 3rd down: Beethoven’s 5th. … and so on Much, much, much easier.
I read that you should practice both intervals and scale degree hearing, for me scale degree feels faster (maybe because i did't practice intervals that mach), so is there any video on that, i cant find
It also has to span 3 letter names. So the interval A-C has the letter names A, B, and C contained within it, and is 3 semitones, so it is a minor third. However, a Gb to an A# is 3 semitones still, but because it only spans 2 letter names, it is a second. Turns out that you can have what is called an augmented second. This is a second that spans 3 semitones. This interval typically appears in Harmonic minor, between the 6th and 7th notes (C D Eb F G Ab B C). Note how when you play Ab and B in the context of a harmonic minor, it sounds completely different to the minor third. This is because it isn't a minor version of a major third, it's an augmented version of a major second!
Hopefully this helps you sear the interval into your brain. It is easy enough to sing it when the chord is fresh in your head. But switch keys and try to sing the interval without first loading the new sound into your head.....disaster
@@lambdaman3228 Rick is the kind of person who _deserves_ to have a bit of an ego and yet he remains open minded and aware. It was similar to a "faith in humanity restored" moment where you tear up a little rather than full on bawling.
Thanks, Rick! But about those songs -- I'm old so they might help me! ;-) A really cool idea might be to call on your many followers to make suggestions and put together a list. There might be dozens of examples for every interval -- sometimes old ones, sometimes new ones, some from jazz standards or Broadway, some from Blues standards, some from classic rock, some from '80s new-wave pop or grunge rock or metal. That way students can look at the list and pick out the ones they know.
I have all your courses. I've been doing your interactive ear training and I'm having a real hard time distinguishing between the harmonic 4ths and 5ths. For some reason I'm having trouble isolating the notes when you play them harmonically. I try to pick out the tones and I even check them on my acoustic guitar. I find myself mistaking 5ths for 4ths because I think I am hearing the octave below the high note of the 5th. I've been a very competent musician for 49 years, playing 4 instruments and singing. This is embarrassing. i do arrangements for clients and I can't figure out why I can't hear this correctly. A few times I really thought your program might be wrong. I'm going batty. Can you point me in the right direction on how to hear these? Edit: I should also add that the melodic 4ths and 5ths was very easy for me. It's just the harmonic ones I'm having trouble with.
This is so friggin hard for me! I've been doing music forever and always gotten away without having to play or hear by ear but now I can't escape it! I'm in a music theory 2 class and we have to pass the oral training! To make it worse I have straight A's so I have to keep it going and figure this thing out!!!
