r/eartraining

I was using the functional ear training app for basic ear training practice and it seems to emphasize and default to using the solfege method vs intervals or scale degrees, which I have also seen recommended as a valid approach in general outside of the app as well. However, at least in that app, it just focuses on major and minor as basically the two options to frame the do re mi, etc. with.

My question is for anyone who vouches for the solfege system and/or functional ear training app: how does that system translate to different modes? E.g. do you have to learn what a “re” sounds like separately for major, mixolydian, lydian, etc. or do you just hear the “re” in terms of major vs minor separately from the mode? Something like just hearing a re in G mixolydian as the re you already trained in D major without doing much explicit practice of G mixolydian specifically.

Just wondering since it is quite an effort just to get this stuff down in a single context like the standard major. Having to do it all over again for each mode seems pretty tedious and also makes it unclear why the functional ear trainer app just has major/minor since it otherwise seems pretty well made and thorough. Not sure if I’m overcomplicating things or if it really is that tedious. Focusing on scale degrees doesn’t seem like it would be any less tedious, but it does seem like interval training at least wouldn’t have this issue.

The tonic doesn't feel like a resolution in a minor scale. So say the A in an A minor song. It still feels like it resolves on a C..... Why?

Okay so my primary instrument for the last 10 years has been the guitar. and when i say primary i mean it’s pretty much the only instrument I spend any significant amount of time playing. Recently I decided I want to play keyboard too but I was wondering how much it benefits my guitar playing when I do ear training exercises on the keyboard (99% of the time this will be melodic dictation, not even writing anything down just listening and copying).

It feels like kind of a stupid question because any ear training is obviously going to transfer over to other instruments. But I was thinking if I can do melodic dictation on a keyboard it would help me become familiar with the layout of the keys compared to a fretboard and help my hands become accustomed playing keys too, but if it will help out my ability to play melodies in my head on the guitar as well while improvising that would be a huge added benefit. The only problem is, navigating a fretboard while improvising is very different to keys so I thought maybe my ear training on a keyboard would not be as effective for guitar as it would be, well, on a guitar.

I think my end goal here is that I want to be able to improvise on both these instruments and I still want to maintain my shredding skills on guitar but I’m not as bothered about shredding on keyboard. I don’t know how easy it will be to improve my technique on keyboard actually given that I spent so much time doing that on guitar so if anyone has experience with this please let me know too.

Anyway sorry for the long post and thanks for reading if you made it this far

I've been trying to build a daily ear training habit and tried a bunch of apps — Perfect Ear, EarMaster, Tenuto, a few others. Some are great for intervals, some are better for chords.

Curious what this community actually uses and recommends. What's helped you the most? And what do you wish these apps did better?

So I understand everything should be relatable to the tonic. I got hung up on an app tho. Got nowhere. Then I started playing a drone over the song.

So I'm just wondering how I hear the tonic better without the drone? The drone definitely sticks if I turn the drone off after a bit.

But when the song switches and the drone isn't there to reinforce the tonic. I can find the tonic sure. But I don't hear it constantly.....

Here’s yet another AI-slop app nobody asked for.

The twist: I’m not selling anything. I just made it for myself because I wanted to practise jazz ear training on holiday without a piano, and I thought it would be fun.

I used the Weimar Jazz Database, manually picked around 250 of the phrases I found most interesting, and turned them into a little game where you work them out by ear and transpose them.

When I could find the original recording on YouTube, I also synced the exact excerpt so you can hear the phrase in context.

It also works with a MIDI keyboard.

Have fun.

Are there any ear training apps where you can select a number of chords and have it play back in a randomised order? I haven't been able to find one so would consider any other approaches. I'd like to have a suite of chords including secondary dominants and have them playback in a random order to really test my ear.

Ive been making music for 30 years and I started just playing by ear. I'd just play what I wanted to hear on the keyboard. Prob 20 years in I started picking up theory that let me formalize what I was hearing and making. So Id say I have a pretty practical ear; I can parse out the melody and harmony of a middle of the road jazz tune.

So to me the whole ear training app deal kind of doesnt make sense to do because it doesnt train your ear how to hear and use intervals in a practical musical way. To me intervals in music are contextual and geometric..... which is kind of the opposite of how interval apps train. In music youre getting intervals layered on top of each other coming at you multiple times a second. So being able to tell the difference between a major and minor 6th in isolation wont help.

And its kind of unnecessary given how contextual music is. Most songs are in some kind of major key signature which means 7 notes and possible intervals (in both directions). Typical harmony further whittles down what intervals youre prob going to hear during a certain chord or cadence. And a lot of interval patterns are common.... scalar movement, arpeggios, pentatonic patterns etc.

So if the goal is to be able to hear intervals in music I feel like the most straightforward path is by listening to and learning how to recognize intervals in music. Im bad at recognizing intervals in isolation but I can recognize them in actual music well enough to make and play it which seems to be the end goal IMO

What do you think?

This is my first Reddit post. Hi… 👋🏻

Over the past couple of days I have been trying to figure out if I have absolute pitch or just a really good musical memory.

The problem is that the main way to test this is based on the assumption that someone is familiar with notes, their names, and have that association. I do not.

I was in choir my entire childhood, and both choir and musical theatre in college. I was always a mezzo because I “blend well,” and we needed more voices in that section.

Looking at sheet music I can tell how long a note is supposed to be, what’s higher and lower, and the name of the notes using the “FACE” and “every good boy done fine” method, but I couldn’t find them on a piano or anything. And that’s the extent of my musical literacy, unfortunately.

So I Googled about it and it said to sing the first note of a song you know. Did that, and I was repeatedly right on point. I pick random notes in a song, also correct.

So at this point I’m trying to prove myself wrong because I’ll be damned to make a claim like having absolute pitch only to later be proven wrong and look like an *idiot*.

I just hear the song in my head, the vowel shape, the swells of notes, the tone and I match it. But I guess not everyone can do that.

* ****\*\*****\*\**
I’m also trying to determine my range.

In college I got to sing the top notes for the Queen of the Night. I wasn’t the lead, I stood side stage as the lead came over where I was behind the curtain. I would sing with her, hit those notes under the overhead mics, and return to being a dancing zebra.

I can still hit those notes and it’s been… *twenty years* almost. I’m pushing forty, for added context.

I can also sing low like Misty Mountains. I enjoy singing to Hozier, Sleep Token, Sara Bareilles, Aurora etc… No issues reaching any notes.

So… how to I determine this accurately? Are there other methods to try?

Ya girl can’t exactly afford a coach right now.

I'm no expert on Indian classical music but I'm starting to realize that Indians get a head start for ear training

We have our own version of solfege called SaReGaMa. It is so common that everyone knows it. So unless you are terribly tone deaf to the point of it being a musical disability, almost everyone can sing the major scale in some key

Most people will also be able to sing it in a particular key given the root note as reference after practicing for maybe like 1 day

Many pop songs sing SaReGaMa in the middle like a "singer solo" akin to a "guitar solo". So if you have been singing along to those pop songs, you get those parts etched into your memory.

This is how proper Indian classical music training also works. It has ragas which very loosely correspond to scales but are much more vast. Take everything with a grain of salt here. I have never formally learnt ICM theory. I only know western theory. When you learn a raga, you sing along with it and that's essentially drilled into every student.

I noticed that I've never really had problems with interval training. Whether it be those gamified apps or in songs. It has almost never occurred to me that people train for it. All my friends who are musicians or singers, even ones that barely practice (I might fall in that category), can all play whatever melody you play once. Not accurately on the first try but in the right key and then with a lil trial and error without needing a relisten as long as they can hum the tune.

I personally only struggle with chords. That too with a lil theory and this and that I can sus it out for pop songs at least. I have never tried jazz.

All this to say, I'm gonna try doing ear training by learning ICM. I'll let you know how it goes. Could be a good case study since I've been trying everything within the framework of western theory since I was 14 (I'm 32 now).

When you listen to a song and are “listening for the chords”, what specifically are you listening for? Is it a specific instrument? Something with the melody? Or something more general I haven’t found yet? Not sure if that makes any sense, but thanks!

EDIT: Should’ve been more clear on my skill set. Been playing guitar for 7 years, entirely self taught, so I have a YouTube level music theory knowledge but no proper technique.

Hello guys, Is the functional ear training app really worth it? I started using it some time ago and Im loving it so far. Is there anyone here that uses this app since long time and thus can give their feedback on it? I would be thankful.

Hi,

What are people using for chord progression learning? I like something gamefied as it helps drill the character of these chords at different scales and octaves. There is stuff like TonedEar but it doesn't let you dissect your mistakes by having play back.

There is chord crush but they want too much for it ($50 yearly sub lol with no monthly option, probably because people outgrow it quicker than that).