EXCERPT 1

The American College dictionary defines a fanatic as "a person with an extreme and unreasoning enthusiasm or zeal." In all the great musicians I know or have met I have found this enthusiasm and zeal for music. I also find this quality in my best students. Their thirst for knowledge and their willingness to work seems boundless. From my experience a great musician is made up of 10% talent and 90% fanatical hard work. If you have this sort of spirit and drive, then this book is for you.

One of the hardest things to do is to change one's aural perception of music, and it takes a large commitment on the part of the student. Like a foreign language, one must immerse oneself in sound until it make sense to one's " inner" ear. Let's talk a about what you can expect from working on the sight singing and ear training presented in this book. First you will gain the ability to hear a sound, and know its relationship to a key. For example, if you hear "Mary Had a Little Lamb" you will know that it starts on the 3rd of the key, then moves to the second, then to the tonic. You might not be able to identify which specific key this melody is in but you will know what notes to play in whatever key you choose to play it. Second, if you hear a melody in your head you will be able to tell what degrees of the key you are hearing. This helps tremendously when composing music; you won't have to fish around on your instrument to find that melody only to lose most of it in the process. Third, you will find that you will be more musically confident which will show up in your ability to perform and interact with other musicians. I'm sure to most musicians this sounds great but it's not an easy process and it's even harder when you are using a book and CDs and don't have an experienced teacher there to help you through the rough parts. I will try throughout this book to point out problems and mistakes students commonly make so that hopefully you will not make the same mistakes. The publisher has also created a FAQ section on their website where you can ask questions as you work through this book. See the book section of www.muse-eek.com for details.

Developing a "good ear" requires a two pronged approach. You need to listen to sounds from an external source and try to identify them and you need to create sound through singing which helps to focus your mind on the sounds you are trying to learn. The combination of these two processes will ensure positive results. This book presents the singing aspect of ear training but you should work at the same time with the listening. The listening ear training method I recommend using with this book is a series of Book/CD called EAR TRAINING: ONE NOTE. There are three levels of this series: Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced. The ISBN numbers are as follows. 1890944122, 1890944130, 1890944149. This series of Book/CDs will reinforce your singing by having to identify the sound of each pitch against a key. There is a complete listing of these in the back of this book.

Before we get started on how to use this book, lets discuss some of the other approaches to ear training and their shortcomings so you can understand how this method differs. Much of the following text is also found in the aforementioned EAR TRAINING: ONE NOTE. The concepts presented are very relevant to this book and to the ear training method in general. If you are already working with these Book/CDs you can now skip to page 6 for further instruction.

There are many different approaches to developing pitch. Some of these methods are successful, some are not. First you must decide what kind of ear training will fit your needs. If you are a classical musician playing 20th century pieces that require you to play what may seem like random pitches with very few reference pitches to help you with intonation, you may find that developing perfect pitch is the most important goal for you. If you are a contemporary rock or jazz player.