Listening critically to the music around us is the best way to become a better musician. Even if you’ve been a passionate music fan your whole life, ear training is a way to engage with your favorite songs in a brand new way and increase your skill level. It’s the secret weapon of a well-trained musician and School of Rock can help facilitate your quest for better ears.
Improve your hearing with these simple ear training exercises
Ear training is the formal practice of being able to identify what you’re listening to. Often referred to as aural skills, ear training is a universal musical skill. Whether it’s hearing melodies, genres, scales, or chord progressions – there are many ways to hone your ears. Ear training is easy to start and there are ways to train regardless of experience level. Whether you’re a parent who wants their child to start their musical journey or a seasoned shredder looking to make solos more tuneful, the path for ear training is similar. All you need is one of your favorite songs and a brief understanding of note direction.
Sing Along to Your Favorite Songs!
What’s more fun than singing along to your favorite songs? It’s something that all fans like to do and can be the foundation of your ear training. When we sing along to songs, we are singing melodies. Melodies are made up of a collection of pitches. Pitches are sounds that are either low, in the middle or high up. Think of a monster’s growl as low, an average talking voice as in the middle and your voice after inhaling helium from a balloon as high. With these three categories in mind, think about one of your favorite songs and when you have to sing low, in the middle or high up. Songs that we like to sing mostly contain pitches in the middle with brief stretches in lower and higher ranges to provide contrast. Once you’ve identified the parts of the song that are low, in the middle, or high up the next step is to repeat that process on a more micro level. Within one lyrical phrase are the pitches getting lower, getting higher or staying the same? Pitches (or notes) go in different directions throughout a song. This is noticing note direction and is the first and most important step in your ear training.
Note Direction in Popular Songs
When learning ear training we get to reconsider songs we’ve heard our whole life. Songs like Happy Birthday, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the Star Spangled Banner all have unique melodies that help us with ear training. Starting with Happy Birthday, key into the phrase towards the end of the song that goes “happy birthday dear (insert name here).” What you want to notice is the large jump in pitch from “Happy” to the first syllable of “Birthday.” It’s quite a jump! When you sing a song, see if you can notice the highest note you’re singing. You might surprise yourself at how high a given song will take you. Now, try singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Afterwards, give the Alphabet Song a try. Notice anything? They have the same exact tune! This is noticing melody using ear training. Nursery rhymes often have simplistic melodies that are repetitive and limited in range and are a great learning resource at the beginning of your ear training journey. Lastly, the Star Spangled Banner is a good example of a song with a large melodic range. There are low parts, parts in the middle, and parts that are high up. Noticing the range of pitches in songs like the Star Spangled Banner compared to Twinkle Twinkle is listening critically and actively. Keep your ears open for other popular songs and see if you notice anything different with the benefit of ear training.
Identifying Genre
A great way to organize your thoughts when it comes to music is to think about what you’re listening to. Understanding the differences of musical genres and having historical context for a particular composition will help you greatly while training your ears. British Heavy Metal from the 80s will have different tones and harmonies than early Chicago Blues. Knowing what to expect from the music you listen to is a great way to limit the playing field of possible sounds and help identify the different parts. Every subgenre has particular traits and sonic trademarks that you can listen for. Understanding these traits is an awesome way to open your ears and evolve your appreciation of music.
The School of Rock Method App
School of Rock has a comprehensive, state-of-the-art App that can facilitate ear training across instruments. When taking music lessons at one of many School of Rock locations, you are assigned specific exercises tailored to your skill level. You are also granted access to learning modules across all instruments. This is a great opportunity to keep your ears open! One of the best ways to train your ears is reading sheet music as you listen to a composition. Try opening up a learning module from the Voice Method Book 1 in the App regardless of your experience level reading music. The only knowledge you need to be aware of when beginning to read music is when the notes (the dots with stems) go up and when the notes go down. This movement corresponds with the differences of pitch you’ll hear. Note direction becomes quickly apparent with a visual accompaniment. Things you may have noticed about music before become much clearer when we follow along and give them labels. The School of Rock Method App is a great way to formalize your ear training and explore past your chosen instrument.
Record Yourself Singing!
A way to increase your sense of pitch is by recording yourself singing. This might be scary or a little embarrassing, but that’s OK! Everyone can sing and there are many ways to get started singing. Hearing yourself is a great way to make your understanding of pitch more tangible. Even if you think you have bad pitch, recording yourself singing is a great way to remedy that. When we sing, we either sing flat (too low), sharp (too high), or in the center of the pitch. We almost always want to sing notes right in their center. If we’re singing and we oscillate between flat and sharp, this can be described as “pitchy,” creating an overall effect that doesn’t sound quite right. Singing in the center of the pitch means making a note sound exactly like what’s in your head.
Understanding aural skills and why do they matter?
Why do aural skills matter if you’ve taken lessons your whole life and you’re getting by fine without them? Well, they matter because all musicians use them. Hearing music to understand it is something everyone does, and aural skills are simply enhancements of that understanding. Whether remembering familiar material or exposing ourselves to more adventurous concepts, ear training takes something we already do to the next level.
How instrumentalists can benefit from ear training
All musicians practice and benefit from ear training. A common misconception is that singers are the only musicians who need to practice pitch. Here are concrete ways that ear training will help musicians in their everyday playing:
- To be able to improvise your music. One of the best utilities of ear training is being the superstar of your next jam session. Having your ears open to a few tricks will improve your ability to fit-in during a jam or create more tuneful solos. Identifying key through ear training is the most useful tactic and requires an Intermediate to advanced understanding of ear training.
- To play what you like. Being able to play what you want without relying on a measly tab from the internet makes music much more accessible. Being able to grasp what your teacher is presenting you quickly makes music more engaging. Better ears means learning songs faster and getting to the fun rock star stuff sooner.
- To identify notes just by listening. Identifying key notes like C F and G will give a musician an anchor within the scale. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t identify each note of the chromatic scale by ear, few people can. But having examples of notes you’re confident about can be a great advantage.