Contextual Ear Training

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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Q I have recently purchased one of your books. It's refreshing to find a well written music book. Thanks!

I've just begun to try your technique and had a few questions. I was hoping the book would answer them but it did not.

First let me say I have no formal ear training. I listen to your CD on the way to work and back (1 hour+1 hour daily). I was in band in elementary school and have taught myself guitar over the past 10 years. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. Even though I sing and play guitar, it seems I really can't even tell if a note is in key unless the chord is playing in the background simultaneously with the note. Is this common? On your CD I can usually recognize if the note is either C or G, but don't know which one it is. The rest of the notes all sound the same to me. Is there anybody that has tried in earnest to train his or her ears that just can't do it? How long does it usually take before I will start to recognize the notes?

Thanks in advance. I will let you know my progress if you're interested.
A Your experience is very common with beginners who are trying this ear training method. Fortunately I have never met a person who didn't eventually get this ear training if they worked on it patiently, and didn't get upset if they weren't improving as quickly as they wanted.

I think first you need to understand that your perception and identification of sound is probably distorted, possibly from a lifetime of neglect or misperception. This may sound like an incurable situation but it isn't. Really all you need is the will to change it, the mechanisms to re-learn are still inside you. It may require a lot of work on your part but the rewards are immense.

In order to change your perception of sound you are going to have to set up a regimen of practicing which will allow you to keep the sounds of pitches in your short term memory as much as possible. Your practicing to and from work is a good start. Learning this type of ear training is a lot like how your learned words when you were a small child. After you were born, your parents would say a word over and over to you over many weeks or months until by the time you were two or so, you were ready to start really talking. This is the type of learning process you need to use with this ear training. We need to keep the sound of these pitches in your short term memory as much as possible so it can sooner or later enter you permanent memory. It sounds complicated but really it's just about you doing this ear training as much as possible through out the day even if it's for 2 or 3 minutes. Remember you're not really using the "intellectual" side of the your brain with this-- you are really trying to develop a natural response to something you have heard so much that you just remember it. So don't spend too much time trying to find the hidden sound of each note that will allow you to identify it-- just try to be positive and welcome each note as an interesting sound that you will memorize over time.

There is two sides to the ear training process. The listening, that you do with the CD that you have, and the sight singing which is done with the book Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training. Your progress will be greatly enhanced if you can work with both listening and singing everyday. For instance one of your current problems is that a lot of the notes sound the same to you. This is because you have weak "key retention." By doing the singing assignments in the Fanatic's Guide you will begin to build your key retention which in turn will help you to hear the difference between each note. I recommend you get the Fanatic's Guide and follow the assignments in the book or that are posted in the "member's area" of the muse-eek.com website. You have free access to this area because you own a muse-eek book so take advantage of this resource. You will also find a few ear training documents in the member's area which are important for you to read.

Usually it takes a few months of work before you will start to notice that your recognition skills have improved. Don't try to rush the process. Usually by trying to improve too quickly students come up with little tricks and gimmicks to help them identify notes. This will only hold you back in the future. Try to approach this as a process of memorization of sound which will take time and concentration but most importantly approach it with a positive frame of mind. Don't chastise yourself if you get something wrong. Be positive and realize that these sounds will become familiar to you over time.

Also please keep in touch and let me know your progress. You are attempting something that is very difficult and needs a lot of guidance. Feel free to contact me as you work to make sure you are doing everything correctly.

Good luck and thanks for contacting me.
 
Q Since last typing at you I've been taking some musicianship, piano, compostition, and harmony classes at a local college and I'm loving the challenges...and the learning. I also recently puchased two of your one-note ear-training books. I believe I understand the basic approach; that is, this information needs to be automatic, like the vocabulary and grammar of any laguage one hopes to speak; and, the best way to make this information automatic is through repetitive drills, at (eventually) a fast pace.

Does that sound right? Now for my questions: If I can eventually hear and immediately identify all the twelve notes in various octaves agaist a c major tonic background, what happens when I'm not in c-major? Will I still know the notes by their actual pitches or will I hear only their relation to that new key? In the latter case, shouldn't I be learning them as 1-12 instead of c-b? And of course many pieces purposely modulate through several keys. How will I deal with this? My hope is that I'll know all the notes regardless of key, maybe I'll just need to hear the c to orient before starting out. Probably there's no easy answer to all this but time and persistence (if those could be called easy). If when you get some time you could offer some wisdom on this subject it would be greatly appreciated.
A You are right about the correct approach to the ear training books. Of course it's difficult to tell a student all the different problems that one may run into when trying to perfect this type of ear training, but here are a couple of things to keep in mind.

1. You are trying to develop the right response method in your mind. This means that you should listen to the I IV V cadence, hear the note and immediately give a response even if you are just guessing. Over time you will guess less and less because you will remember the sound.

2. Never use the resolution tendency of a note to identify it. Students commonly will hear the following:

a. 7th moving to the root.
b. 4th moving to the 3rd.
c. flat 6th moving to the 5th
d. flat 2nd moving to the root

I believe most people have these tendencies and they are fine to have just don't use them to identify notes because in reality any of those notes could move anywhere. Also, it takes too much time, and you want to eventually KNOW what the note is, not its nearest neighbor.

3. I strongly recommend practicing this ear training in short periods many times throughout the day, as opposed to one or two long sessions This is best for both the singing and the listening. I find five 15 minute sessions to be a good amount. But even listening to two examples 20 times a day is excellent. Basically you want to keep these sounds in your short term memory until they move to your permanant memory.

4. Never ever sing the tonic of the key or the note you are trying to identify, you may think you are "grounding" yourself but like my caution regarding resolution tendencies, this will just slow you down and its a bad habit to get into.

These are some of the things to watch out for. I think you can see that you just have to memorize the sound over time and then speed up the response.

For your question about using this ear training in other keys. All keys have the same structure. Therefore if you heard E as the 3rd in C major when you are in the key of F# major you will hear A# as the 3rd. Some students prefer to give their response as degrees of a key rather than note names. I believe you should be able to do both. Obviously this will require you to learn your music theory quite well. But, on the other hand doing this ear training method over time will highly refine your music theory too. As far as your question goes you could learn the notes as degrees rather than note names but really you should be able to do both in any key. If you are a guitarist I would recommend working through the Music Theory Workbooks for Guitar Volume One and Two to develop your ability to think notes and degrees in any key.

To answer another question that comes up often. You don't need to do this ear training in all keys but you do need to get your music theory to a point where if you are in the key of A major and you hear the flat 6th you will know that is F. Also if you were playing in a band and you played an F and it sounded like the flat 6th you would instantly realize you where in the key of A. The book "Key Note Recognition" gives you exercises to further develop this skill.

As far as modulation goes that is covered in two note ear training. When you feel you are up to 80 to 90% on the one note advanced level, pick up the 1st volume of the two note method and that will explain the process. However, I highly recommend you work through "Key Note Recognition as a primer for the two note ear training series.
 
Q I just bought your "One Note Beginning Level"book from Barnes and Noble. I understand the idea of relative pitch and I totally agree with your approach of staight memorization. However, I play trumpet and hadn't really thought about the fact that the book might not have a portion in Bb (spoiled by the Aebersold stuff I guess). This presents a real problem for me personally because I tried to teach myself trumet with a chromatic tuner and ended up learning (sort of) the fingerings in C and have finally purged most of that and relaced it with the Bb info. I'm afraid that using the CD as is might bring back old habits. I'm also afraid that transposing the answer key and looking it up each time wouldn't give me the immediate feedback I need. I was wondering if you had any suggestions. Also, is there a Bb version available/in the works/can I get one???

thanks for the excellent resource!
A I understand your dilemma, and I have a couple of concerns.

First if let's say there was a Bb version. You would hear the a cadence in C then let's say the 5th or G concert was played. You would like the answer to be A or the 6th. So then when you played A on the trumpet you would be playing a G concert. I'm wondering about the wisdom of learning ear training/music theory in this manner. Basically if you hear the 5th of a key sounded you think the sixth (or basically always thinking with transposition.) You would basically have to do this for all music theory and ear training knowledge you possess. I guess that is OK but from the trumpet players and woodwind players that I talked to they believe you should be able to do the ear training method both concert and transposed. I'm also wondering how you will deal with always transposing when you are reading nontransposed parts which happen quite a bit in the real world.

On the other hand I understand your need for instant ear to finger connection. One possible solution would be to listen to the Ear Training CD and pretend the cadence is in Bb; then when you hear to answer it will be transposed.

Another possibility would be to use your trumpet when you listen to the CD. You would hear the I IV V cadence and the when note in question would sound you would then play on the trumpet what note you think is correct. This way you wouldn't even have to listen to the answer because you would know if your trumpet note matches the sound on the CD.

A really no-nonsense answer to your quandary would be to say you should learn the ear-training "in concert" as originally intended, just to be an all around good musician, then go BACK over the exercises with your trumpet, until you are instantaneous in your responses. Tough to do, but that's another route.
 
Q What is your recommendation for combining the Ear Training and Fanatic's aural exercises? Do you alternate lessons from each book daily or do you have another method that will maximize results? Thanks for your time and I am looking forward to hearing better.
A Thanks for contacting me. I'm glad you have both the Fanatic's Guide and an Ear Training One Note book (I assume it's a one note book.) Working on both singing and listening is very important to fast progress. One of the key ingredients to improving at the fastest pace with this method is to practice several times throughout the day, as opposed to one long session. 15-20 twenty minute intervals would be ideal. During this practice time you should work in both books by listening to the CD for the One Note Book and then doing some of the singing exercises out of the Fanatic's Guide. Make sure you always use the Fanatic's Guide CD with any exercise you sing. It is important to always hear your voice in relation to a key center. Another main ingredient is your understanding of what you are trying to do inside your head with this ear training and how you deal with your own preconceptions and old habits. These questions are usually dealt with by me in a private lesson over a period of time. In this case we don't have that luxury. To deal with this problem I have written a 10 page article that is free for you because you own a muse-eek book. You can find this article in the "member's area" of the muse-eek.com website. This article will give you much more information on how to approach each book and the how's and why's of organizing your practice time. I think you would greatly benefit from reading this information before you start into this ear training method. It may also create some more specific questions relating to your take on the process. Remember you are trying to reprogram the way you hear music. If you start to think about that it's a pretty massive task. Luckily this method will do this for you BUT you need to be fully involved in monitoring and analyzing your practice habits and your perception of sound. It is important that you read the FAQs under all the ear training books on the muse-eek.com website. In theory this ear training method is simple, yet once your mind starts to process sound and you are in the middle of practicing you'd be surprised how many different right and wrong perceptions students have of what is the "right thing to do." Let me know if you have any more questions and I wish you good luck with your progress.
 
Q I understand that you feel the traditional interval-based ear training to be impractical. I've never done any extensive ear training before. After trying your method for about a month, I noticed that it actually worked, but in a very specific, limited way. When I listen to a piece of music, first I need to hear the key. Naturally, I don't need to identify what key it is, but I need to get a sense of the key, whatever it is. Based on your ear training, until I get a sense of the key, I cannot identify anything. The problem with this is that much of the modern music (pop, jazz, dance, electronic, rap, etc..) has very vague use of key. Even with very straight forward pop songs, many of them would not establish any key until the chorus section. Some songs don't at all for the entire song. Some songs are modal and get very confusing as to how to interpret the key. The keys for many pieces of music are a matter of interpretation. When I cannot establish a key in my mind, I find that I can't use what I've learned in your ear training. It only works with old classical music like Bach, or very elementary pop music like Britney Spears.
A Thanks for contacting me and asking such excellent questions. FIrst let me say that your progress is great for only working with one of the Ear Training One Note books for a month. It's great to see you applying your ear training to "real" music. First let me discuss some general topics so you can understand my overall beliefs concerning ear training.

I don't believe there is such a thing as "Atonal" music. All sound has a pitch and as sound groups together it forms a key. If your ears are good enough you will be able to distinguish this key center. Of course you will need a reference pitch which people usually get from the instrument they are playing. I should point out that many times in supposed "atanal" music the key centers are changing very quickly. These quickly changing keys require you to learn how to modulate which is what the Ear Training: Two Note Series starts to teach you. Anton Webern one of the fathers of this supposed "atonal" music explains in the book THE PATH TO THE NEW MUSIC, PUBLISHER (Bryn Mawr, Pa., T. Presser Co. [c1975]) that he doesn't believe that there is such a thing as "atonal" music. His reasoning falls along the same lines as mine. Arnold Schoenberg has also been quoted as believing that no music is "atonal" and hated the reference of "atonal" to his music and others. Both these composers felt that you could hear the key centers moving in highly chromatic music or even music created using 12 tone rows. I should interject at this point that getting to point where you hear for example Schoenberg's Funf Klavierstucke (Five Piano Pieces Opus 23) in a key or quickly moving keys will not happen in a month of ear training. It will happen though, after years of working with this method.

Your statement "The problem with this (the ear training method) is that much of the modern music (pop, jazz, dance, electronic, rap, etc..) has very vague use of key." I do agree that many styles of contemporary music have a vague sense of key when you compare it with Mozart. But, you will find that this ear training method over time will help you develop better skills in hearing keys in this type of music. Let's examine how you should proceed to reach this ability

There are two sides to practicing this ear training method. One is listening to the CDs the other is doing singing exercises. For the listening you should progress through the books in the following sequence:

1. Ear Training: Beginning to Intermediate to Advanced
2. Key Note Recognition
3. The Two Note Series.

Note: After the two notes series you need to move to 3, 4, 5 notes at a time. At this writing I haven't finished books for these levels though they are in the works (02/01/01)

For Singing I recommend starting with "The Fanatic's Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing" You would then continue with:

1. Lines: Sight Singing and Sight Reading Exercises
2. At this point I would recommend specific studies out of other books, like "Single String Studies Volumes One and Two"
3. Singing along with chord progression and melodies from modern repertory pieces like jazz standards, pop, jazz, dance, electronic, rap, etc..)

This should give you a general idea of the progression through this ear training method. Obviously you will need to interact with me so that I can lead you through all of this. But, in general I would follow the path I set out for you above. Of course if you have any questions please contact me. The worst thing you can do is work on any of this ear training the wrong way. I feel I have explained it pretty well in the books but if you're not sure please check with me first.

I should also mention that you could use your method of just transcribing melodies using only the interval relationship, but my abjections to this method are as follows.

1. This method obviously divorces you from what key these pitches are functioning in. It's a bit like "follow the dots." You may end up with an outline that looks like something, but there will not be any sense of the underlying form that holds it all together and gives it shape. When I store melodies in my memory, I store them as they relate to the key, not as how the individual notes relate to each other.

2. After working with intervals, most students have extreme difficulty developing the proper technique when doing the Ear Training Two Note (+) method.

3. In the improvisational/interactive setting of a band, if someone is playing constant sixteenth notes at quarter note equals 80. You are far better off knowing the key that these notes are functioning in than knowing the actual pitches. If you can hear the key you can interact in a creative way with the other musicians.

4. As you develop through the ear training method presented in my books you will find that your ability to transcribe anything will improve exponentially. Give it a chance and you will see.

Hope this helps you understand the method better.
 
Q I'm working with your ear training method. It's a very fun book to work with 'cause I had the cd always in the car and practice every day for about 20 minutes. I nearly get right about 80% of the notes but I'm not sure if I am doing this right or not.Sometimes I hear the note from the key chord but other times I know that I recognice the note by memory(a particular note relates to a particular tune for example). How do I know when I'm doing it the right way? (I started the book a week ago)
A I'm glad you have been working on the books. As far as the ear training goes, what you are aiming for is the ability to just hear a note and instantly recognize its sound. It's like when you see a person with a blue shirt on. You just instantly know it's blue you don't have to compare it to the sky to make sure. It is the same with the ear training.

You also mention that you recognize the note based on another common melody you know. I don't recommend that because if you have to take the time to relate the note you are hearing to a tune it just takes too much time. Remember you are trying to get to the point where you can do this ear training in real time as music is being played. In real time situations you won't have time to think of anything but what the note is.
 
Q I understand your approach to ear training and I believe it will work in my case. For example, I could never figure out how to superimpose the sound of a minor 3rd when trying to sing from a 3rd degree to a 5th degree in a key. I just knew the sound of the 5th degree and sang it regardless of what note I was coming from. Of course I always thought this approach must be wrong (i.e. not using the sound of the interval) and tried to resist it. Now that you've given me the okay to do it this way, my sight-singing has DRASTICALLY improved (in only a few short weeks).

Anyway, my question is at what point in this process will I begin to hear and understand (immediately) short melodies. After all, that is what the music is all about and what I'm ultimately trying to reproduce (either by singing or playing my instrument)?
A The ability to apply this ear training method in "real life" varies for each person. For me it took about 6 months before I first started to hear a few notes here and there. These were usually over a drone and at a very slow tempo. Of course this all depends on how quickly you develop with this ear training. I was very slow but then again, I've had many students get "one note" ear training in 2 weeks--then they start to apply it right away-- much quicker than my 6 months. To get a more drastic perspective, other students with a real weakness can take 4 years to just get "one note" ear training. Of course to some people that seems like "forever." But, I can tell you that all these students experience a profound difference in their musicianship after they start to hear correctly. They not only can hear what notes are played but they play so much more musically, that there is no comparison.

I've also noticed that some students can get "one note" ear training on the CDs OK but it takes them much longer to apply this to real life playing situations. I believe a lot of this depends on whether a person tries to apply it, or whether they compartmentalize the exercises into an isolated academic study. Again, for some musicians it takes time for them to integrate this new ear training technique into their everyday interaction with music.

From your description of how your are singing the notes it sounds like you are on the right track. I hope you are working with both a "one note" book and the Fanatic's Guide. By doing both singing and listening exercises you will improve at the fastest rate.
 
Q I'm interested in starting your ear training courses, but have problem deciding which book(s) to buy. Could you please help me sort out the following questions?

(1) What's the difference in the One/Two-Note series and the "Fanatic's Guide"?

(2) Is the material in "Lines Volume One: Sight Reading and Sight Singing Exercises" included in the "Fanatic's Guide"?

(3) If I obtain the complete One Note + Key Note Recognition + Two Note series, do I still need the Fanatic's Guide (or vice versa)?

(4) Do you have a combined book for all six volumes of the Two Note series (like the One-Note-Complete Level)? If not, are there discount for buying all six volumes?
A We recommend the following books for the ear training course:

Start with:

Ear Training One Note Complete
Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training

After you have completed Ear Training One Note Complete you will move on to:

Key Note Recognition

After you have completed this book you will move on to:

Ear Training Two Note Series (6 books currently in series. We don't have a combined version).

After you have completed Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training you will move on to:

LINES

We would also recommend you develop your rhythm along with your ear training skills. For this we recommend:

Rhythm Primer
Rhythms Volume One
Rhythms Volume Two
Rhythms Volume Three
Odd Meters
Contemporary Rhythms Volume One
Contemporary Rhythms Volume Two

If you order through the muse-eek.com website you will not have to pay for shipping on these books if you live in the USA.
 
Q I plan to start practicing with your Ear Training One Note CD. I think it looks to be a really good method and I am excited to begin. However, I have a couple of questions that I hope you can answer for me first.

1) You state that one is supposed to just listen for what a note is against a particular key rather than listen for the interval between two random notes that happen to be played. This seems to me to be a good method, but wouldn't one also benefit from practicing identifying random intervals as well. For example, if you know what key the music is being played in and you hear two notes played consecutively, by your method you will know what those two notes are, but you won't know what the interval is between them? Of course, you will be able to figure out what that interval is very easily because you know both notes, but it adds an extra step, and as you pointed out in your text, you need to know these things immediately. Or am I completely wrong here? If you can hear two notes against a key is the interval between them really obvious? Do you believe there's any additional benefit to practicing hearing just the interval between two notes independent of a key?

2) I am confused how your concept of identifying notes against a key center relates to the fact that a note has a different interval to another note depending on whether it is higher or lower than that note. For example, D would be a major 2nd above C but also a minor 7th below C. So which interval should one pick when listening to your cd? Or should I be listening for both? Or neither, and instead just listening for the sound that D, a note that is both a minor 7th and a major 2nd in the key of C, has in the key of C?

3) How should I go about beginning my practicing with the cd? Should I begin by only practicing with a couple of notes or even just one note and then gradually introduce others? Should I just start listening to C, to see how C sounds in the key of C, and once I have that should I bring in say, G and listen to them both, and then maybe bring in F? This question troubles me because I feel that if I just jump right in listening to the whole cd, all 12 notes in various octaves, I won't be able to remember individual notes enough to really learn their sound. So what do you recommend as the best method?
A Answer for question One:

If you knew what key you were in and had the ability to hear the interval between two notes that were sounded you still would not know what these notes were. Let's say the two notes were a 5th. There are 12 possible 5ths so you would have to go through all 12 to figure out which 5th was being played. You could possibly add in the step of hearing the 5th focusing in on one of the notes and then relating this to the tonic note of the key. Unfortunately this takes too long and presents a problem for many people when the key center root is not being sounded amongst other issues.

Answer for question Two:

Quite confused by your question. You are not listening for an interval relationship with this type of ear training so where a note is placed in relationship to the the tonic of the key center has no relevance. Remember all 2nd degrees of a key sound the same no matter what octave they are in.

Answer for question three:

It's OK to concentrate on a few notes at a time but also make sure to listen to the CD with all notes everyday too. You should also be working out of Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training this will particularly help you to memorize the sound of each note through singing exercises.
 
Q If I hear a piece played on the piano, can I trascribe it to the guitar after working through your ear-training series?

If I were to begin with your series, I guess I should go with the following books:

Ear Training: One Note-Complete Level
A Fanatic's Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing

But I notice that you have lots of other ear-training books on your site. Could you give me a breadown on each book to help me decide whether I should get the book or not.

The other books are:

Key Note Recognition
Ear Training: Two Note-Volume 1
Ear Training: Two Note-Volume 2
Ear Training: Two Note-Volume 3
Ear Training: Two Note-Volume 4
Ear Training: Two Note-Volume 5
Ear Training: Two Note-Volume 6
Lines Volume One: Sight Reading and Sight Singing
Exercises

If I just use the Fanatic's Guide and the Ear Training Complete, would I be able to transcribe music from one instrument to the next?
A This ear training method will help you understand and express your inner music and help you transcribe and understand the music you hear from external sources.

To answer your question about being able to transcribe piano music and play it on guitar. You certainly will know what notes the piano player is playing. You will definitely need some music theory knowledge to make the music playable on guitar. You will notice that I have a couple of Music Theory Books for Guitar that will help you understand this process.

You are correct to start the ear training with:

Ear Training: One Note-Complete Level
A Fanatic's Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing

You shouldn't at this time buy any more of my ear training books. You will need to spend at least 6 months to a year - maybe more - on the two previously mentioned books, so I would wait till your ready with the others.

You asked "would I be able to transcribe music from one instrument to the next?" using my ear training method. I think it is important for you to understand that all Western Music is based around 12 notes. All instruments play these 12 notes so it doesn't matter which instrument is playing the notes you will be able to transcribe any notes you hear. But you need to have a good knowledge of music theory in case you need to rearrange chord voicings or octave ranges so these notes fit on other instruments. The Music Theory book I previously recommend will help you start this process.

Hope this helps you understand music and ear training.
 
Q I recently bought one of your books about ear training entitled "Ear Training - One Note Complete Method" and I'm a bit confused about certain aspects of the method you talk about in the book.

You suggest learning what each of the 12 tones in the octave sounds like instead of "just" learning to recognize intervals because it would allow me to indentify the actual pitches (scale degrees in this sense) that someone is playing based on the establised key center. You empasize this to be a major advantage over the traditional methods of pure interval training.

At first read I felt totally convinced about this method and its obvious advantages, but then I started really thinking and discussing. Imagine, a person had learned to recognize and sing all intervals found in our modern Western octave subdivision. Let's aplly this fact to the scenario you describe in your book. The band is playing the tonic, in this case the C-major chord (broken up into the bass playing the C, guitar playing the chord voicing, etc.) and now another instrumentalist is playing two notes in a row, E and G. The person obviously would recognise the minor 3rd interval between the two notes as you described in the book. But my point is, wouldn't he recognise the intervallic relation with the root tone C, too? And therefore, know that the instrumentalist played a major 3rd from the root and a then a minor 3rd from the E.

To make this clear a little more, imagine the instrumentalist just plays the tone E. In this case the person would hear a major 3rd up from the root C, wouldn't he? In my opionion you can always relate any tone to the tonic if you whish to, but that's just one method. For example, you could also relate it to a chord tone or to a previously played tone. Am I wrong?

To clear it up: with interval training I don't think of associating song beginings or something like that to the sound of the interval. I think of learning and internalizing the sound of each interval. It seems, that there isn't a real difference between my understanding of interval training and your method because you teach to actually internalize the sound of each pitch against a root tone which, I think, is the same thing as how the distance (interval) sounds between the tones (i.e. root -> 5th). It's just another way of describing the same thing, isn't it?

Let's further apply your method to an improvisational scenario. The ability to recognize the pitches another instrumentalist is playing is obviously a good thing, but is it useful at all if you don't know how to play what you've just heard on your own instrument. I think it's also essential to exercise the connection between your musical and your physical mind (actual finger movements). Steve Vai explained a method he used to achieve this in one of his Guitar World columns. He suggested singing along with what you play on the guitar as a way of getting used to the sound your fingers are creating in certain positions. The next logical step then, is to try the opposite and sing a note and then try to replay this note on the guitar. This exercise really trains the connection between your head and your fingers. Of course, in the beginning you would start out within the range of on octave and within a range you could sing erfortlessly.

Well, I could continue this for some more hours. Regardless, I really want to thank you for the opportunity to get in touch with you so easily.
A There are a few problems with your ideas but I'm glad you are thinking this through. First let's look at the idea of checking one interval and relate that interval to the key center. Let's say for argument sake that you know what key you are in.

1. Basically you have to do three calculations. What the interval is of the two notes, Pick one of those notes and then relate it by an interval to the tonic. This process will work but the amount of time it takes to do this makes it impractical because music is going by in real time.

2. The next problem is if you are an improvising musician and you want to improvise over this C E G you are going to then have to analyze this in your mind to figure out which scale degrees are being played and then relate this to a scale or melody to then play over the structure. Not too hard when it's C E G, but what about Gb G Db in the key of Gb.

3. Let's get a little more complicated. This is certainly a situation that applies to almost any piece of music. Suppose the tonic isn't being played and you hear a G played by the bass player and a E and G played by another instrument. Let's say for argument sake that you know the key is C major but remember if you didn't know your interval method isn't going to help you decide what key your in. Only the type of relative pitch training I suggest will do this. So now you hear your E and G, you know it's a minor third and you pick the bottom note to relate it to.... Well there's a problem do you relate it to the C or to the G. What if it's a walking bass line changing every beat. You've got a major problem.

Let's say you didn't know what the key was and you heard the same example. Because interval relationships don't tell you the key center only the note relationship, let's say you decide that G is the key. You could still use your system of intervals based on the arbitrary choice of G as the key but is that the key your are hearing or is it C major? How about E minor? If you can't hear what relationship notes have to a key center you are going to have your mind racing around trying to figure out intervals, pick keys relationships based on music theory rather than the musical situation, then try to improvise something meaningful? I think you can see this is not only impractical, it's not the way great improvising musicians hear sound. I know this from teaching and I know this from playing with some of the greatest improvisers in the world. They hear by relating notes to the key not by interval relationships.

As far as Steve Vai's ear training method I agree that you should sing what you play with or without an instrument. But you should hear the notes you are singing not by the interval relationship of one note to another but by their relationship to the key you are in. There are many interpretations of good ear training exercises and methods. If you really need someone famous to back up my ear training check out the Guitar One Magazine's lesson with Steve Morse where he describes the exact same relative pitch training I recommend.

I hope this is enough for you to see the errors of your logic. I've been through these arguments a 1000 times in my head. I learned my intervals perfectly in college and I'm here to tell you it just doesn't work in real time. Yes it does work in a class room were you have the luxury of time to sit and figure this all out in your head. It could work it you only played simple nursery rhyme type songs with simplistic structures. Unfortunately or fortunately music exists in time and most of us including you I'm sure like things a little more complicated than "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Hope this helps you understand. Give it some thought and get back to me if you have more questions.
 
Q I still have one simple question. You say to listen to the CD with all of the notes. So, should I just put the cd in and listen from the beginning straight through for fifteen minutes or so? It sounds like you recommend this mostly, but I still believe that it might overwhelm me, that I won't have any way that my mind can start to really distinguish the different intervals. So, is this the way that you designed the course to be practiced, or is it also necessary to focus in on some particular intervals in the beginning?
A First remember your not thinking intervals you are listening for the unique sound of each note within the key. Interval denotes a distance. You are not trying to hear the distance of one note to another or the distance of the notes from the tonic. Second you can make special tapes or CDs of certain notes you can also put your CD into a computer CD drive or a high end CD player and program which tracks the CD player will play. You should also just listen to the CD in shuffle play each day so you hear all notes. Remember at the beginning and I mean the first couple of months you shouldn't worry about how many notes you get correct as you listen, you should just listen and try to remember sound. This will happen naturally if you listen to the CD 4 to 5 times a day for 10 minutes. Also remember not to miss a day. At the beginning in is extremely important to listen every day.

Hopefully you are also working out of the Fanatic's Guide which will greatly improve your progress with this method
 
Q I recently purchased your "Ear Training: One Note Complete" with all three cd's. I have read some of the beginning and I am trying to take it all in slowly. Is it really necessary for me to have the "Fanatic's Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing"? Should I purchase "Fanatic's Guide" before going ahead with the ear training? Also, I know that you have addressed this several times, but I am still having trouble with how all of the ear training will apply to other keys if the book is written in the key of C. Should I buy the music theory books for guitarists that you have available on your site in order to apply the ear training to other keys?
A You need to work out of both the Ear Training One Note Complete and the Fanatic's Guide book in order to improve at your quickest rate. Since you already have the One Note Complete book I want you to listen to the Beginning CD 5 times a day for 10 minutes. Remember you are trying to memorize the sound of each note against a key center so concentrate on each note you hear and try to remember it's unique sound in the key center. At the beginning you probably won't hear this but over time and repetition you will start to remember. You can limit which notes you are testing yourself on if you think that might help but always listen to all notes at least a few times everyday. Also you need to remember that you are for example trying to memorize the sound of let's say the 3rd of the key. The 3rd of the key will always sound like the 3rd in any key. Therefore if you are in C major and hear an E it will sound like the 3rd. If you are in the key of Ab major and hear a C it will also sound like the 3rd. This is the reason why you don't need to do the One Note exercises in every key because all notes have the same relationship and therefore the same sound in every key.

The Fanatic's Guide will have you singing in every key. This is to make sure you don't memorize sound based on vocal tension or other crutches. Once you get the Fanatic's Guide book you should also work on this book about 5 times a day for 10 minutes. Start with the "One Note" exercises.
 
Q Can I use my guitar to help me when I transcribe? Secondly, based on what I have read in the One Note book, and to the best of my understanding, I will say that I am given the I IV V I cadence to give my ear a sense of key. When I hear the note, I am listening for what that particular note sounds like against the cadence, or the key, and I am ultimately trying to memorize its sound.
A You are correct that the cadence gives your ear a sense of key. Using your guitar isn't a bad idea but you will need to improve your note recognition on the instrument before it will be of much use. To help improve your note recognition on the guitar I would recommend the Music Theory Workbooks for Guitar and Single String Studies. I realize you have some Music Theory and Reading background but you need to transfer this information to the guitar fretboard and these books will do that for you.

Keep in mind that the ear training books exercises will take quite a bit of time before you are transcribing Chet Atkins chord solos. You will need to be very proficient in 2 note ear training before you will be able to start to transcribe in this sort of situation. I should mention that many of the chords that Chet uses can be found in the Chord Workbook for Guitar Volume Two. You should at least learn and apply these chords to the guitar so when your transcription ability improves you will have the physical technique to play these sort of chord melodies.
 
Q You state that ear-training is essential for a guitarist who wants to improve himself. Please explain how is this so.

Second question: If I work on my ear-training using all the books you have listed at your site, will I be able to play any song just after hearing it from some source, either on the radio, MP3, on TV, etc?
A Thanks for contacting me. To answer your ear training questions. Musicians hear music in their head and then transfer it to their instrument. You need to use ear training in order to interpret the notes you hear in your head so you can play them on your instrument. Ear Training is also used when you hear sound from an external source and want to identify the notes you hear. Keep in mind that when hearing songs from external sources your memory will also play a roll because after you identify a piece of a melody or chord you need to remember it's note combinations as well as it's place in the overall song. I recommend you start your ear training with Ear Training One Note Complete and Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training. If you practice out of these books a combination of 1 hour a day you should be able to apply your new learned ear training skills to transcribing songs within a year or two.
 
Q I just started working with your One-Note Complete ear training CD, and it's really helping me. But as a classical pianist, I'm wondering if I should develop perfect pitch instead of relative pitch. Does it matter? Should I work on both kinds of pitch?
A Hard question to answer. I would do both. By having great relative pitch your understanding and, therefore, your execution of classical music will be greatly expanded. If you want to start on perfect pitch find a two or three hundred page book and read it out loud saying the word to the pitch "C". You should find by the time you finish that you remember "C". Also keep in mind that you learn perfect pitch on one instrument at a time so the first one will be your voice.

One further clarification is that the sound that you are listening for with relative pitch is completely different from what you are listening for with perfect pitch.
 
Q I'm wondering how to apply your concepts of one note ear training to hearing chords? Are you training to hear the individual tones and then construct the chord in your mind? How does that work?
A Well this is all contained in the 2 note ear training books but a brief explanation: after much practice you will hear a chord identify which key you hear the chord in and then listen to each note of the chord to identify how those notes are functioning in a key.
 
Q I am making headway with the one note method, but one puzzling thing keeps occuring with pre-hearing a scale degree (tension signature) and singing it over a key drone.......it takes time to hear it! I wonder how much time should be allowed from cadence hearing to forming the inner pitch and reproducing this pre-heard tone vocally. I am afraid that a lot of time only encourages cheating (ie. relating the tone being practiced to a better known one - my favorite cheating device), but too little time denies the proper building and forming of a long-term memory. What is your experience with this and is there a set time inteval I should aim for to pre-hear notes?

I also took your advice and started "Key Note Recognition." I am sorry to say that while the major keys Have been learned fairly easily, the minor keys are a disaster. I simply do not have the immediate recognition I get with the majors. Is this common?

Also, I wonder if you could clarify what exactly you mean when you ntalk about the problem of using "vocal tension" when singing the same scale degrees in each key.
A While waiting too long to pre-hear a note does encourage improper behavior I think a better way to approach this is memory reinforcement of the pitch you are trying to memorize. For example if you are trying to hear F# against a C tonal center. First create the key of C through a cadence or vamp and then try to hear F# if you can't hear it play the F#. Now try again and see if you can hear the F# after you establish the key center again. You will find that students will be able to pre-hear the F# if you continue this for a number of repetitions.

Next try bouncing between a couple of notes. Work back and forth between let's say F# and G#. Always give the pitch if the student can't get it right away. Soon you will see they can remember two notes. Keep adding additional notes if possible. Usually a student's memory burns out after about 10 or 15 minutes of this, but if this can be done 2 to 3 times a day you will see that students will start to remember the notes and therefore be able to pre-hear them with no difficulty.

Hearing all 12 notes against a minor tonality will seem strange at the beginning. Overtime you will hear the distinctive characteristics of each note but this usually takes some time. An analogy to this would be if you have a red piece of paper with yellow lettering inside of it at first glance the yellow lettering can look like it's actually white. Only after close examination do you notice that the lettering is actually yellow. Contextualizing all 12 pitches against various types of tonalities is an important part of developing this ear training method. I think at the beginning it's best to stick to I IV V I or simple drones. After a student can do one note ear training with the simple method then it is time to introduce various vamps and cadences that create alternate tonal environments.

Vocal tension is when a students uses the tension of their vocal cords to find a pitch. Very common with singers but also a habit that other students almost subconsciously develop. One common indicator is when a student sings slightly out of tune but of course this can also be caused by lack of air support or just guessing at the pitch.
 
Q I am a music theory professor in a small liberal arts college, and I am quite intrigued by your various methods of ear training. I have recently examined "One-Note Complete Method" and "Fanatic's Guide." Since this method is very unlike most methods used in colleges and universities, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how this method best works in a classroom setting.

How, for instance, do you evaluate student progress? My ear training classes are lab sections of my theory classes, so I have many students with a wide range of abilities. It seems that your CDs would work wonderfully for individuals, but I'm trying to figure out how to give quizzes and tests fairly and still push the more advanced students. Any thoughts?

Also, does it make sense to supplement your books with any of the more traditional graduated solfege books (Ottman, Benjamin, etc.)? Do you work on rhythm exercises? What about harmonic and melodic dictation? Is is best for instance to focus solely on the one-note method and the "Fanatics Guide" first before tackling melodic and harmonic dictation or solfege?

I appreciate your thoughts.
A Thanks for contacting me. As we both know it doesn't matter what ear training method you use; a class setting is always dicey. There's always that student who is slow and possibly hasn't even thought about trying to "hear" music and on the other end you have a student who progresses at amazing speed. This is complicated by the usual coupling of Ear Training Exercises within a music theory course environment. So once again you have some students who are great with music theory and have little ear training skill and visa versa.

Given the aforementioned parameters I would say that my "contextual" ear training would work as well as a pure interval approach. Many of the same exercises that most teachers use in "interval" based ear training can also be used; you just need to establish a key center first. For instance using "Ottman's" book for sight singing or melodic dictation would be fine as long as you give a key center before you play the example. I don't think I would start week one with Ottman's book. I'd give the students 3 or 4 weeks of listening and working within the class with listen/answer quizzes using the method on the "One Note" CDs first. You could also use the Ottman book for assigning singing examples in major keys. Just make sure that they sing these examples over the CD that accompanies the Fanatic's Guide book so they have the key sounding at all times.

For the "One Note" CDs I'd recommend to the students that they use Discman CD players and listen between classes. If they actually do that you should find most of your class will be around 50% accuracy with the note identification within 3 to 4 weeks. If they are like most students they won't do this religiously so you'll probably end up with 20 to 30% correct answers. Students progress will of course be helped immensely if you also have them working out of the Fanatic's Guide and have them doing the "one note" singing exercise from the Fanatic's Guide book at home. (Once again 4 to 5 times a day for 5 minutes).

For testing you can go around the class each meeting and have the students do the "One Note" Fanatic's exercise where they attempt to sing various pitches in various keys. If you have more advanced students you can have them sing harder notes like b6 or #4.

For evaluation of students I think the best method is always based on personal achievement rather than a set bar that everyone has to reach. This is not always possible in a school situation but I think any teacher would agree it's the correct way to judge progress. The best method of course would be if you have 3 sections of Music Theory/Ear Training and could divide them up based on music theory knowledge and ear training ability. Of course the way music departments are organized this isn't always possible.

Overall if both the students and you know that you are basing their grade on personal improvement everyone will immediately think that's fair and realize that they have to improve to get a good grade. There of course have to be guide lines and I would say a student should have one note ability after their first year of school. If not if should be made quite clear that they are falling behind and need to do summer school work at home or in a classroom to improve their skills.

I would quiz students the first week by playing them examples like the "One Note" CD and have the students write down what they think the note is. Do this every week or at least every other week. You could even have the students correct each other's quiz during class to save you the time of doing the corrections (Of course you would want to look at the quiz to see how each student is doing).

There are many other exercises you could do using the Fanatic's Guide book --or as students improve, use the LINES book or once again have them do dictation based on Ottman or other texts. The important thing is to get them to hear "contextually." You will find that once students begin to "get" this method not only will their note recognition improve but their musicality will change dramatically. Once a student can recognize a sound instantly by hearing it (not unlike just seeing a color and instantly knowing what it is) their mind's ability to memorize, categorize and basically understand music goes to a much deeper level. Every great musician I've ever played with has this ability.
 
Q For the past month and a half I've been working diligently with the singing and listening exercises. Recently I've been able to do about four or five 15 minute listening sessions and the three 10 minute singing sessions per day.

Although I notice a some progress, I'm still getting only 55-65% correct answers. I must admit that a few times a week I do a session where I get over 70% correct (top score is 77%), but I also do 50% on some sessions too. As I mentioned, I do feel that I'm starting to get it (i.e. recognize the notes), but very, very slowly. At times it gets very frustrating and I almost feel like giving up. The fact that some days I feel that I'm almost about to break through and get it, but then the next day I don't do hardly as well is extremely frustrating. Honestly, I feel I'm learning just as much about myself and will power as I am about ear training.

Any practical and moral assistance will be much appreciated at this point.
A Your situation is common and depending on how much you want to torture yourself there are a few solutions. If you just continue in the same manner as you describe you will push over the 77% mark sooner or later. On the other hand if you want to push through to the next level you can try increasing your practice time and concentration level until you see progress. For some people adding in an extra 30 minutes to an hour a day does the trick for others it can be a real marathon. For instance for myself (which by the way you are progressing much better than I did) I had to push the ear training two note exercises and singing up to 10 hours a day for 2 weeks before I finally broke through to the next level. This took great will power on my part but I had been doing two note ear training for 1 and 1/2 years with hardly any improvement so I had to do something drastic. I doubt you will have to be that drastic but you will have to find that level of practice time and concentration that allows notes to stick in your internal memory.

Hope this helps and for God's sake don't give up now you're almost there.
 
Q In your exercises all the work is done around a major tonality. How does your method apply to minor tonalities?
A Thanks for contacting me. There are many types of modes in music - major and minor being just two. All notes sound the same against any tonality. This is the reason why the CDs only use the major tonality. You will work with minor and other tonalities as you progress through this ear training series. For example, "Key Note Recognition" will work with both major and minor tonalities. For now I would concentrate on learning the sound of each note against the major key center and you will find that when you develop this ability you will be able to transfer it to other tonalities.
 
Q Hello. I am 14 years old and live in Japan. Now I am learning Chopin's Ballade No. 1. In Western music, the tonic has a special meaning. It makes a home base in music, and then the music is developed from this point. Pianists give a special touch to the tonic on piano. But sometimes, pianists give a special touch on the dominant. Could you eplain the reason for these differences?
A Thanks for contacting me. You are correct that musicians give special emphasis to various tonal centers that exist in music. You can not always tell the tonal center by looking at a piece of music or analyzing it with music theory. In some cases it will be clearly defined what the key center is and at other times it will be up to the individual performer's aural perception to tell them what the key center is. In order to develop your aural perception you first will have to understand each notes distinctive sound against a key center. I would recommend you purchase Ear Training One Note Complete and Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training in order to develop your skills in this area. Currently (3/28/03) we are not distributed in Japan. I would suggest you either use amazon.com or possibly the www.muse-eek.com to obtain these books.
 
Q I told you in a previous email that I did not know all the notes on my guitar fretboard. I can figure it out, but I don't know all the notes automatically. Anyway, I have been working with the ear training one note beginning cd, and guessing the tones and trying to relate them to the key. Now, my question is, even though I don't know all the notes on my fretboard (I am working on it though), since the name of the tone is called after it is played, I can still use this method to memorize the sounds of the tones against a key, right? My point being that it has nothing to do with my fretboard, I am merely trying to memorize the tones against the key, and if I hear the tones enough and know what the tone names are, I will memorize them and be able to recogonize them. Also, should I be listening to the cd from the beginning, or should I shuffle each track?
A You do not need your guitar or knowledge of the guitar fretboard to master this type of ear training. You will though need to develop good music theory theory skills so when you are in a real musical situation you can apply your ear training skills. The most important thing to learn is the relationship of all notes in every key. For instance if you hear a note and recognize it as the b6th in the key of E you will need to know instantly that this note is a "C." Therefore it is important that you start soon improving your music theory knowledge.

I would use shuffle play whenever possible. You can also fast forward into the CD to help combat the memorization of the 1st exercises on the CD.
 
Q I browsed your site and read about several of Bruce Arnold's books on amazon.com. I've been playing the guitar for a little over 2 years. I took lessons for about 8 months, but my teacher left the state and I've been floundering since then. Your books look interesting and get rave reviews, but I don't know which one to try.

I know lots of chords, can play a few barre chords--not well, but can play them, and I have a great memory for chords and little pieces I learned in lessons. I know nothing about theory, and can't figure out the strumming patterns of songs even when I know them like the back of my hand, can sing them, and have the tabs for them - I can play the chords, but that's it. I love music and playing is a joy, but I have found myself very unmotivated the past 6 months or so and hardly playing at all (even losing my calluses). So, to summarize: not a rank beginner, know lots of chords, great memory, no music theory, no "ear", no sense of figuring out strumming patterns, sad because I have lost direction and motivation.

What book would you recommend I buy?
A Thanks for contacting me. I would recommend you work in 3 different directions. My recommendations would be based on a 1 and 1/2 hour practice time per day. Hopefully a little more on the weekends. It would also be figuring that you have time to do ear training or music theory when commuting to work/school. This could also take in to account other small 5 to 10 minute time intervals throughout the day that you could do a little music practicing without the guitar.
First, I think 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist will be a good starting place for you. This book will show you the proper technique you need to use when playing the guitar but will also help you with your rhythm and chord changing problems.
Second I would recommend Music Theory Workbook for Guitar Volume One. A completely "not fun" book, but is a very valuable book to work through. This book will help you memorize all chords both in you head and your hands. This will be very useful information when you start to process and understand the music theory aspects of each scale or chord progression you might learn. This is a workbook where you fill in answers to music theory questions. It is an excellent book to work on when you have breaks throughout the day or when commuting etc.
Last, I would recommend Ear Training One Note Complete. This will improve your ear so you are more "connected" with music and will in the long run help you to learn music directly from CDs and to hear and understand what others are playing. Once again this book and CDs are excellent tools to practice when commuting or during any 5 to 10 minute down time throughout the day.
 
Q I have two sections of music and they must be in different keys with a modulating chord at the end of section 1 which fits both sections. Can you explain this to me please?
A In music you will find chords (usually dominant chords i.e. 1,3,5,b7) that will allow you to modulate to new keys. For instance starting in the key of C you could have the progression C to A7 to D- to A7 to D-. This progression will most likely make you modulate to the key of Dminor. This doesn't mean that all dominant chords make you modulate. For instance you could have a progression in the key of C. C to A7 to D- to G7 to C. If this progression is played at a moderate to fast tempo the A7 will not modulate to Dminor. If you play this progression extremely slow the A7 will make you modulate to Dminor and the G7 will make you modulate back to Cmajor. So you can see that you can't always tell if you modulate just by looking at the chords in a piece of music. Tempo is an important consideration when judging modulation but the bottom line is you need to use your ear to tell you whether you have modulated. In order to develop this kind of ability I suggest you work on your aural perception. Ear Training One Note Complete would be a good book to start with. Learning to hear modulations will take some time so don't expect to have this ability right away.
 
Q I have a quick question on the "Ear Training One Note Study." Since I am completely new to ear training when I listen to the cd I'm a bit overwhelmed, the only tone I can really recognize is the low E - probably because it's the first note I hear when I tune my guitar! So, if I were to make a selection of tones to start with, should I just select random notes from the scale or should I do them in a sequence of some kind? And should I listen to the smaller selection and get some kind of accuracy with that first or should I continue to listen to all the tones alternately with the smaller selection - say twice a day for the selection and once a day for all tones?

I also have the "Fanatics Guide," which I haven't even opened yet. I need a little direction I think. I have a guitar teacher who is great and would help me with this, but I try to devote that 1/2 hour per week with him to the "Berklee Method I" and my slowly growing repertoire!
A If you are being overwhelmed by using all 12 pitches on the CD I would recommend limiting you notes to C,D,E,F,G,A,B. You might want to limit the octave too. If that is still to much try just C,E and G. Whatever combination that you use make sure to listen to the full CD for at least 10 minutes a day. You don't want to get lopsided in your aural recognition skills. If you could do your limited set 2 to 3 times a day for 10 minutes that would be great.

With Fanatic's Guide I would start with the first One Note exercise and sing it in all keys starting with the root of each key. Try to do this exercises a couple times a day for 5 to 10 minutes. The singing will help you a lot. As you perfect the ability to sing any degree in any key you will see that your CD recognition will improve.
 
Q I purchased the "One Note Complete Method," and have been working with it for about a month by limiting the exercises to only the diatonic major scale. I have never seriously done ear training before, and have been pleased with my progress in note recognition in a relatively short time. The root, second and seventh in particular have characteristic sounds that I can detect, while the middle intervals are still a little hard to distinguish for me. I was considering also doing some interval training at the same time, particularly harmonic interval training; however, I am a little concerned about this, having read that you essentially had to unlearn interval training for the one-note method to take seed. How does interval training interfere with this method? Can it not simply be turned on and off? What about harmonic interval recognition? Is this what is addressed in the Two-Note and higher methods?
A I wouldn't recommend working on more than one ear training technique at once. It is my belief that once you are able to do my ear training technique you will not be in need of any other. If you are concerned about improving quickly I would recommend you work from the "Ear Training One Note Complete" and "Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training" 10 time a day for each book for 10 minutes.
 
Q I have purchased your ear training books. I have a few questions:

How do you work out chord progression via ear?

Do you have a daily training program?

Is it OK to use a CD player with ear jacks to listen to the CD?
A You will begin to learn how to hear and transcribe chord progressions when you begin to work on the 2 note ear training books. I would recommend you first work with Ear Training One Note Complete and Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training.

I would also suggest you read the FAQs associated with these book on the muse-eek.com website. You might also want to read the recommendation file found at:

http://www.muse-eek.com/books/books.html

There are some very good recommendations for a daily ear training program found at:

http://www.muse-eek.com/books/ET_1_note_complete/eartrngfaq.html

It is definitely recommended that you use a CD player with ear jacks to do your ear training. It's a great idea to carry a discman with you and do ear training in any situation where you have a few minutes time to concentrate.
 
Q I have purchased the One Note complete series. After a very short period of time (a few hours spread out over a day or two) I found I could get over 90% correct at the advanced level. However, I'm not sure I'm really "getting it" and I am wondering what you would suggest.

You see when I hear the note, somewhere in my brain I recognise it instantly. However that recognition is not communicated to me as a label but as what I'd call a "note signature." I think in a FAQ you referred to this as the way a note resolves to another note. But in my case upon hearing a note I immediately get a signature tune.

F: F-E-D-C

A: A-G-B-C

G#: G#-G-B-C, etc.

It's very quick - quick enough that I can figure out which note it is before hearing the answer... but I am just "figuring it out" and not really "knowing" the note like I do when I hear C (which is clear as a bell which I assume is what we're aiming for with the other notes).

The signatures of some notes are similar which is why I occasionally get the answer wrong. In fact the notes with the weakest signatures (G & E which I guess don't tend to resolve to anything but C) are the ones I get wrong the most. From reading your FAQ these seem to be the ones others get right first.

I suppose if I just keep listening to the CD the note signatures will eventually get dropped for real recognition.

My question is this: should I go back to the beginning CD at this stage or will sticking to the advanced be equally effective? I'm finding it quite hard to not hear the signature tunes and to simply take in the feel of the note... even at high speed. It seems I need to turn my brain off and don't know how! I'm at a loss so hopefully you've come across this problem before. If you can suggest any other exercises I'd appreciate it.
A The problem with hearing a note signature is notes don't always resolve the way that you are resolving them in your head so when a note sequence comes along that doesn't conform to your usual resolution you make a mistake.

You problem is common and usually what I have students do first is to work a lot out of the Fanatic's Guide and the book Key Note Recognition. When you are ready to work on both or either of these let me know and I'll recommend a couple of things.

The other thing you can try is to just concentrate on guessing the note before your mind has a chance to do it's "note signature" thing. Sounds like yours happens pretty quickly but give it a try and let me know if that helps.
 
Q I'm 42 and just picked up playing guitar again after a break of more than 25 years. I never had any ear training and don't have a natural sense of pitch - I even find tuning the instrument correctly to be a challenge - so I bought the Ear Training One Note Complete book to get started. I believe that getting a better 'ear' is critical for what I want to achieve musically. How do you suggest that I approach the training? As a working professional with kids, my time is somewhat limited and I can't do 5 brief sessions a day as it is suggested in the book. Any suggestions highly appreciated.
A Thanks for contacting me. To learn ear training effectively you need to apply yourself to the task. Really, ear training is just memory training and in order to effectively memorize anything you need to reinforce the information as often as possible. Most people find that they can do a 5 minute session in the morning, at lunch time, when they get home and before they go to bed. I would recommend you start with this. If you find that the Beginning CD of the Ear Training One Note method is too hard try using the intermediate. Even though this CD is faster, some students find it easier because there is less of a silent space between the chord progression and the note you are guessing. I realize that you have very little time but I should also point out that working with Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training will greatly increase you success with this method.
 
Q I just got your book and I believe it´s an interesting aproach. I just have one question: What about modal or minor scales? The harmonic minor maybe close to his major relative, but will the notes have the same feel? Will the G sound the same on A minor or C major ? And how will I peceive the G# in C major and melodic A minor?
A All notes, no matter what the key center type, will have the same sound. Therefore. a G in the key of C major, C minor, C mixolydian etc. will all sound like the 5th of the key. The note G does not sound the same in A minor as it does it C major. In the key of A minor a G will sound like the b7. In the key of C it will sound like the 5th. You will hear a G# in the key of C as the #5 and in the key of A minor a G# will sound like the 7th.
 
Q There's a free software called 'Functional Ear Trainer' and it is taught this way: Hear the chord progression and resolve the note to the tonic whether up or down. For the diatonic notes, the bottom 4 notes resolve downward and for the top 4, the notes resolve upward. After a period of time your mind is supposed to be able to eliminate these steps and hear the note instantaneously. The software even has a random key selection and works in all octaves. Is it possible to learn the notes in this order?
A I wouldn't recommend resolving notes to the tonic up or down even as a intial step. Hopefully you have my 'Ear Training One Note' and 'Fanatic's Guide' books so you can understand exactly what you are supposed to be doing and how. These books and the www.muse-eek.com website will also contain information on common problems and misunderstandings people have. Once you understand this information you could use the Functional Ear Trainer if it gives you similiar types of exercises. Since ear training is probably the single most important thing you can do as a musician, I suggest that you make sure you are investing your time and/or money with something that will be worth your time and effort. If you find an ear training program that just says "do this" with no indepth explanation I would be very wary that you are being directed in the proper way.
 
Q I have been working with your Ear Training One Note Beginner for about two months now and I believe it's working well. However, I would like to describe to you my practice regimen and see if you think its okay or if I should alter it in any way. Here it is: I have made a subset cd consisting of every C, E, and G in every octave. I try to listen to this two or three times a day for ten minutes at a time, but usually I only do it once. I also try to listen to the main cd with every note once a day for ten minutes, although often I don't get around to it. Then I also do the Fanatics singing cd for about twelve minutes a day (this I do every day). I'm being honest about the actual work that I've been doing because maybe it'll help you advise me. Hopefully I will be able to increase to what I know I should be doing soon. With the Fanatic's CD on track one I'll sing an E for about a minute and then go to track two where I'll either switch to G or sing another E just like I did on track one. In this way I'll alternate between E, and G for the whole cd which lasts about twelve minutes because I'm doing one minute on each track. In the beginning I was singing only C, but after I got that perfect I moved onto E, and then G and once I got each of those perfect I combined them. So that is where I am now. With both the Fanatics Guide CD and the One note subset CD that I made of just C, E, ang G I am now getting close to 100%. However when I listen to the full CD with all 12 notes I can only get C and thats only if its in the middle octaves.

My plan is to now make a subset that now includes D, in addition to C, E, and G and work on getting those all correct and then move onto include F and so on in the order that you recommend working through in the Fanatics Guide book. In terms of the Sight Singing work that I'm doing I plan on now trying to sing D.

So, a few questions:

1) Do you think this is a good practice plan? Should I be focusing this much on the subset CD that I made or should I be spending more time listening just to the main CD with all 12 notes?

2) How do you recommend I practice my Sight Singing? The thing that troubles me is that as I move onto singing a new note I feel I neglect the ones I already have practiced and learned and that I forget them. This is why I am now alternating between E, and G within the same practice time. But once I move onto more notes, I won't have time to be focusing on all of them. Should I just periodically review the previous notes?

3) Is it okay to be doing only one session of Sight Singing per day with three or four sessions of One Note listening or should I be doing an equal amount of each?
A Thanks for your detailed explanation of your practice regimen. My main question is about your work with the Fanatic's Guide CD. Just checking but you do realize that if you sing E with the first track you are listening for how a 3rd sounds against the key of C and when you switch to the second track which is in the key of F and you continue to sing an E you are now singing the 7th of the key and that is how you are hearing the E in the key of F. If this is not what you are doing then this is VERY wrong. Remember you are trying to hear what each note sounds like against a key center and when the key center changes each of the 12 notes will sound differently.

It is OK to make CD with fewer notes BUT make sure to always listen to the CD with all the notes each day. In some cases using a smaller group of notes can help people remember the sound of each note but in other cases people just get a false sense that they are memorizing sound. Remember it's sometimes hard for your brain to memorize something when it doesn't have the complete picture of all the components involved. This is why listening to all the notes is an important step each day.

Overall it sounds like your on the right track as far a your practice habits go. It is very important with this ear training that you do it every day and never miss a day.

I would get your response up to around 90% for each note before moving on to the next with the Fanatic's Guide. I usually have students work through the notes in the following sequence C,E,G,B,D,F,A,C#,Eb,G#,Bb,F#. The more practicing you can do out of both the One Note and Fanatic's Guide the better. You should at least spend 1/2 hour on both books each day. Of course you want to break this up in the short sessions. Remember you are dealing with your memory with these books so you need to reinforce the information often.
 
Q I'm trying to improve at jazz/blues piano and I'm currently using your One Note Complete Method. Even though I'm improving at the tests on the CD it still hasn't gotten any easier for me to recognize chords and modulations (which is what I really need). I need to develop my relative pitch skills more than my single tone recognition. Can I jump to your relative pitch book or is completing the one note method still an absolute pre-requisite?

Also, I'm finding it difficult to de-couple tones. The resolution tendencies are so stuck in my head that when I try to answer very quickly I can still feel my head working out the note (some notes more than others) via its resolution tendency. Is there any particular exercise or drill that I can use to train myself not to do this?
A Thanks for contacting me. To answer your question about jumping ahead in the ear training program you need to realize that if you can't hear one note against a key center how are you going to hear multiple notes? I know it is frustrating, but it takes time and concentration on your part to improve at your premium rate. One thing that you can do is also work out of the Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training. This book will seriously improve your rate of progress when used in combination with the One Note Complete Method.

In regards to the resolution tendency habit, you need to break it. Some things I recommend are guessing the note very quickly or doing singing exercises from the Fanatic's Guide, but all of this is in vain if you don't try as hard as you can to control your mind's impulse from using a method that will only cause you heartache later. Remember that doing ear training is like spending 10 years in psychotherapy. You need to learn how to control wrong impulses and amplify the right impulses within your brain. This will come with practice, patience and personal self-control. Think about how long it took you to develop this habit of note tendency. It probably will take you just as long to break this habit. I have found with students and with myself that if you have done other Interval and resolution based ear training prior to using this method it will take much longer to progress. This is because you have to unlearn all of your bad habits and then relearn the right ones.
 
Q When I do the exercises at random, I find that I try to derive the current note based on the previous example, regardless of the octaves involved. Is this the same as doing interval training and/or is it a bad thing?

Also, I made a new CD out of the provided 'Beginning Level' CD where I grouped the examples per note so that I could listen to all of the different octaves of a note together. So, on the CD, I have all the C note examples first, then the C sharp, then the D, etc... Is this advisable and is there any other technique that I can use to assist in this learning process?
A Yes that is a very bad thing to do and defeats the entire purpose of the exercise. Why don't you try to just listen to the creation of the key via the cadence, and when you hear the note, just say to yourself, "What does that note sound like?" If you have an idea, say it. If you listen to the CD in this way and do it for 10 minutes 5 to 10 times a day you will notice that you will start to remember the sounds. Another way to think of this is to image you are learning a foreign language rather than ear training. When you hear each note, think of it as a word that you are trying to memorize in another language. Obviously, the relationship of one word in one example and one word in another example has no meaning or relationship.

I don't think the octave CD is a very good idea either. I think that a better idea would be to get the Fanatic's Guide to Sight Singing and Ear Training to help you learn the sound of all 12 notes. You will find that a combination of both books will help you to understand this technique and improve at your fastest rate.

Overall, I think you are approaching this whole process with the wrong frame of mind. Don't gauge your progress on getting a note right or not. Think of it as a memorization process that will take time and know that it's OK if you don't remember the sounds right away. The important thing is to do it everyday.
 
Q I've been working diligently on the Intermediate One Note Ear Training CD and the 4 note exercises on page 26 of the Fanatic's book for the past 3 months. This is my last week (key of G) of the 4 note exercises. What will my next assignment be?

I've been doing 3 x 15' each day in the following manner: 4 note exercises up and down and then down and up, going down the page instead of across (Ri, Re, Di, Do down and up, Fi, Re, Di, Do, down and up etc...) and then C cycle 5 through all keys (one key a week).

I've improved a lot since starting the Fanatic's book and think the next 3-4 months should help consolidate my note recognition and singing. I've been listening 5-6 x 15' each day to the Intermediate CD and can now recognize the sound of the C and G notes. My correct answer average oscillates between 70- 90%. My progress is slow, but I'm getting better with note recognition and I'm getting more and more around 80% average. Hopefully I'll be able to recognize all 12 notes in the next 3-4 months.
A Sounds like your making good progress. I want you to continue on to the 5 note exercises, but now I want you to do it with a metronome. This will help you find the notes that you hesitate on and will point out which notes are weak. Start with the metronome very slow, like quarter equals 40, and make sure that you can sing up and down or down and up (start at the end of each measure and work your way backwards and then forwards). Slowly speed the metronome up as you go.

The two books that you are working on are sufficient for now. If you feel like you have an extra 10 to 20 minutes a day to add in a little more, the next book we are going to work out of is the Single String Studies for Guitar Volume One. May seem like a strange choice, but I use this book both for guitar players and for my ear training students. If you decide you want to start on that too, let me know when you get it and we will get started. Keep up the good work.
 
Q I am wondering how your ear training/sight singing course would work with children and young teens. I teach piano from beginning to advanced levels, and it seems your concepts would greatly benefit students who have not yet formed "bad habits" of listening, such as those promoted by so many conservatory curricula and contemporary method books which emphasize interval recognition. Are you aware of teachers using your materials? Do you think children would respond well, and if so, how would you recommend delivering this course to them?
A I haven't really used the ear training with young folks. I was working on a book for young people about a year ago but other things took precedence and I don't think I'll be able to pick it up anytime soon. I think the concept would certainly work with younger students. They just have to understand that they are memorizing the sound of each note against a key center. That concept may be hard to convey. Many exercises could be worked out to help them onto this path.

I think the other thing that will arise as a difficulty is the fact that you need a fairly good sense of music theory in order to have this ear training work for a student in a practical way. For instance, if the student hears the 5th of Gb, he or she needs to know what the 5th of Gb is in order to give the correct answer. You could have them just do recognition based on degree. In other words they would answer the 5th rather than Db. That would temporarily get around the music theory problem, but, in order for them to play the Db on their instrument, they would need to know the music theory part. You could also just stick to C major for a very long time.

I'm willing to work on this with you if you want. I think it would do your students a world of good to get started on this ear training. I would advise first just doing the same exercises as you hear on the Ear Training One Note Complete CD, but play this for them on a piano or guitar and only later try to interest them in the CD. Give them an explanation that they are just trying to remember the sound of each note against the key center or maybe just play the key center and do the exercise. An explanation may confuse them because they might not understand what a key center is depending on their age. If you have some ideas on this let me know.
 
Q I am left-handed and a few years ago, I took guitar lessons from a teacher who told me to play right-handed. I found the going extremely difficult, either because I was playing right-handed or simply because I had no talent. Now I would like to try again, this time, playing left-handed. Would your book help? If not, could you please recommend some other book? Also any recommendations for a good left-handed guitar, or should I buy a right-handed guitar and reverse the strings?
A I do have some books that I think would be good for you. It's really a matter of whether you want to spend the time dealing with the fact that they are written for a right handed guitarist. For Instance, Music Theory Workbook for Guitar Volume One and Two are excellent for helping you build up your knowledge of Music Theory and the fretboard. All exercises could be filled in, it wouldn't matter if you were right or left-handed, but the answers in the back of the book would be shown for a right-handed guitarist. You could hold the back of each page up to your computer monitor and read through the back-side of the page to see the left hand answers. Most students only need the answers for the first couple of pages and then they understand the process and continue without constantly checking the answers so this book might work for you.

I think 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist would be good too. There are three important things you could gain from this book.

1. How to physically play correctly. There is a detailed explanation of how to use both hands with pictures and videos to help you understand. This information is crucial to developing proper technique, which will make all the difference in the world for your progress.

2. Chord progressions with rhythms written out for your strumming hand. This will help you develop basic strumming skills. For the chords you will have to once again look through the back of the page. For most chords I think it would be quite simple for you to figure them out quickly.

3. A detailed explanation of rhythm and reading rhythm. This will be important when you come across rhythms in music that you might need to read. It will also help you to gain a mental image of how music is organized rhythmically. Working through the strumming patterns will also help point out any rhythm problems you might have. This is very important to your rhythmic development and overall musicianship.

There is one more book I would get that is an ear training book and wouldn't be affected by your left hand approach. This book is Ear Training One Note Complete. I can't stress how important it is to also develop your ear as you develop musically. It will make all the difference in the long run to your overall ability.
 
Q I am working on your single string studies book. I am just about finished with studying the key of C on each string. I spent about a 15 min. per session for 7 days on each string. I review each string from time to time, especially ones that seemed more difficult like the D string.

By going slowly, and visualizing (in my imagination) the string being studied, I am getting pretty accurate but still make mistakes. Especially going up high on the string from down low. I guess the smaller size of the frets makes it harder and I never have used the frets above 15 on strings E - D before. What should I do next?

I am also doing LOTS of ear training in the single string study book. I have only three more keys to go on the first study. My only comment is very challenging at 100 bpm!!!
A So next you will go back and read all the strings but in the key of F. You just continue this through all keys. After that you do the All String Exercises.

For singing, once you feel comfortable with the first page using a C chord vamp I want you to make an F chord vamp and sing the 1st page again. So now you will have a #4. Once you finish that, you need to go through all of the keys, so next would be Bb which will give you a #1 and a #4. As you can see it will get more and more difficult as you get into keys which contain very few notes that are in C major.
 
Q About a year ago I made a commitment to myself to work on my ears everyday. I decided to start by learning intervals. I knew that some people were hearing intervals by association to the beginning of songs. Like you, I figured that it was not the best way to go at it. I then started to learn each interval like if I was learning a "colour," as you put it. I listened to each interval long enough that when I hear one, I just know what it is (no crutches, just plain recognition). When I got on your site, I was excited to read the way you approach music. I bought the Fanatic's Guide and the Complete One Note books. I read all the information in the books, and all the information from your website. I was excited to get to the CD exercises even if I knew it would take me years to master (because my ears are not well trained and because it took you one year and a half to get only one note). I was so surprised of my success that I am sure I am doing it wrong (I have done the first CD with about 85% of good answers within about ONE HOUR !!!).

OK...here is how I went about it: You say "listen to the progression and get a sense of the key" - Well, for me, a sense of the key means the root. So, when I listen to the progression I hear and hold the pitch C in my head. After the progression, you play a note... Well, for me it is just like when I was practicing my intervals with my ear training software, but now it is even easier because the first pitch of the interval is always C.

Am I thinking about it the wrong way ? If yes, why is it wrong...I mean... I get all the good answers after all.
A You're close in your assessment of the ear training, but I think it's important to make a couple of distinctions. After you hear the cadence in the key and hear a note, don't think about the key or hold the C in your head. You are already in a key, so trust yourself and just listen to the note that you need to guess. You don't want to think the key or the note C, but just allow your memory of the key or the note C to be the focus. The reason for this is the conscious retaining of the key or the note C adds an extra conscious mental step into the ear training process which will slow you down. Many times students find that it's easier if they hold on to the key center in their mind when doing the ear training. This is because they have weak Key Retention (the ability to retain a key center after the sound of the key has died away). By working on the singing exercises in the Fanatic's Guide your Key Retention will strengthen so just be patient. Just remember that when listening to the Ear Training One Note CD you just want to hear the note, guess what you think it is and trust that over time your internal sense of Key Retention will help you hear the unique quality of that note against the previously heard key center chord progression.
 
Q I have been working with your eartraining books (One Note Intermediate and Fanatic's) for some months now. I am noticing improvements in my hearing.

But anyway, my questions are these:

1. In the One Note Intermediate I now have about 90-95% accuracy, but when I do make mistakes, it is usually in confusing a b5 with a 5, or a b6 with a b2. Once in a while I will mix up a b5 and a 4 or a b7 and 7. My question is, is this happening because I am trying to use intervalic distance to get the notes right (meaning, I confuse the b5 and 4 because I am judging distance and am just missing the distance), or is it just because I don't completely know the sound of the note yet. It worried me because, the b5 and 4, or the b7 and 7,or the b6 and b2 sound very different, so I wasn't sure if I was judging the distance between notes.

2. With the ear training, I find that my recognition of notes is much better than my ability to hear the notes in my head and sing them. Are there any other exercises you would recommend other than the ones mentioned in Fanatic's Guide that I should also do to better develop the ability to pre-hear notes and to accurately sing them.
A You probably still have some distance judging going on but the fact that you are mixing up b2 and b6 shows that you are also getting to know each note for it's original sound.

The exercises in the Fanatic's Guide should help you a lot to get closer to these notes. It's important that you do the Fanatic's Guide many times a day to reinforce your memory, which will help your pre-hearing. This whole process can take some time so be patient and be consistent. Missing a day is like missing 2 weeks in your current state so stick with it.
 
Q I've just received my copy of Ear Training One Note and Fanatic's Guide. I have two questions, I'll start with the easy one: in the ear training CD I can't help listening to the fundamental at the end of the cadence: the last chord is in root position, so the fundamental sounds longer, which makes it even harder. Is there any trick to correct this problem?

Now for the twisted question: in the Fanatic's Guide you teach the solfeggio syllables Do, Di, Ra, etc. To my understanding, these syllables are used to identify a relative pitch rather than a specific note, so if I asked you to sing 1 #1 2 in the key of Ab, you would sing "Do Di Ra", which would actually be Ab, A, Bb. However, I happen to be French. We don't use the letters C, D, E, F, G, A, B for the notes. We actually call them Do, Ré, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si. Which gives me almost the same syllables both for fixed note names and floating relative pitches, and a lot of headaches in prospect. I don't think I could unlearn the french syllables (they are very instictive), so what I would be inclined to do is transpose the solfeggio syllables, thus 1 #1 2 in Ab would be "Lay La Tay." Have you ever had French-speaking students in