emuso

Ear training #1

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Jerry

Introduction

Ear training is really important so you can associate the music you hear (in your mind’s ear, or in a song, or in a jam) with chord and scale and interval shapes, and reproduce these on your instrument. The most common intervals used in Western music are the octave, the perfect fifth (5), the major third (3), and the minor third (b3). As a reminder, the octave is 12 semitones, the perfect fifth is 7 semitones, the major third is 4 semitones, and the minor third is 3 semitones. The 3 and the b3 are very important for determining if a chord has a basic major or minor.

What you will learn

Today, you will start to learn to recognise the sound of the of major third (3) and the minor third (b3) and the see if you can recognise if a simple chord is is a basic major or minor. Chance are that you will have initial problems, but really deeply listen to sound you hear, and when it comes to the chords, you can use another emuso feature where you can listen to the chord, and then listen to a single note in the chord (like the 3 or b3). This primes your brain for what to listen out for. Then listen to the chord again, and you’ll almost certainly hear it clearly. Building ear training skills takes time, patience, and effort … but it is so worth it … after all, music is ultimately about musical sounds.

Learning the sound of the major 3rd and minor 3rd

Now split the screen (select ” instr and lesson fullscreen” from the dropdown currently showing “instrument full screen”)

  1. Click “Toolkit” to enter the toolkit.
  2. From the “emuso menu (top left of emuso), select”Ear trainer…”
  3. Drag the vertical border between the quick start and the ear trainer to the left, so you can see all of the ear trainer
  4. Drag the ear trainer by its top left, down below the guitar.
  5. Click on the ear trainer “Setup…” button at the its left hand side
  6. Ctrl-left click at fret 3, 5th string to set the anchor there. Notice th “Datum pitch” changes to C3 (underneath the Set Highest button). You will setting up intervals with this note, in a moment
  7. Click “Set Highest”, and left click (NOT Ctrl-left), at the 1st fret on the 2nd string (C4). The highest note that the ear trainer might generate is this note.
  8. Click “Back” and the setup screen goes away.
  9. Click the buttons labelled “1”, “b3”, “3” and “5” at the bottom left of the ear trainer. Notice the “Current Interval Set” above the buttons shows “1, b3, 3, 5”.
  10. Click “Interval choice completed” at the bottom right of the ear trainer.
  11. Click “Play datum” couple of times, and listen closely. You’ll be using you ears to determine the interval each sound you hear makes with this datum sound.
  12. When you’re ready, click “Start” . You’ll see the note (in all possible places) on guitar, showing its interval.
  13. Click “Repeat” to hear it again. Sing the datum note (use “Play datum” to hear it again).
  14. “Answer” by clicking on the interval button with the same label at the bottom left of the ear trainer.
  15. The score (at the right of the ear trainer) shows a correct answer in the corresponding column
  16. Click “Next” and so on.
  17. You’ll quickly start to get it right without looking at the visual feedback on the guitar.
  18. (If you get one wrong, click “Tell Me” followed by “Hear Mine” to compare)
  19. Click “Setup” and click on “include tonal centre”. This will add the datum with whatever note is being generated.
  20. Click “Next” and so on.
  21. If you feel confident, use “Setup” and click on “Auto-next on correct answer”.
  22. Exit the Toolkit

 

First go at chords

You’ll start to learn about chords in the next lesson. But you don’t need theory for your ears to start to recognise different sound flavours. You’ve been doing this all your life! Here are examples of the “major” and “minor” chords.

To start with, you’re going to listen deeply to the sound of the “major third” found in the “major triad” chord below. Then you’ll do the same with the “minor third” in the “minor triad” chord below. Then you’ll flip between them, and try and notice the two chords have different sound flavours. Then you’ll try using the ear trainer for this.

major triad

fretboard diagram showing a 'B' major triad using string set 12345, root on the 5th string

minor triad

fretboard diagram showing a 'B' minor triad using string set 12345, root on the 5th string

  1. Make sure you exited the Toolkit at the end of the previous ear training. Click on the “major triad” chord above
  2. Make sure the Play style control has “harmonic” selected. Drag it near to the guitar.
  3. Hold down the ALT key, and hover over the note labelled “3” and listen.
  4. Immediately press and hold the “harmonic” button, and listen for what you heard at step 3.
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 a few times. Try singing the sound of that note.
  6. Could you pick out the sound if the “3” (the “major 3rd”) in the chord?
  1. Click on the “minor” chord above
  2. Make sure the Play style control has “harmonic” selected. Drag it near to the guitar.
  3. Hold down the ALT key, and hover over the note labelled “b3” and listen.
  4. Immediately press and hold the “harmonic” button, and listen for what you heard at step 3.
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 a few times. Try singing the sound of that note.
  6. Could you pick out the sound if the “b3” (the “minor 3rd”) in the chord?

Now repeatedly click on images for the “major triad”, followed by the “minor triad”, and listen. Are you starting to hear the difference in sound flavour? Imagine recognising these by ear. As you progress, you’ll learn various shapes for these, so you could associate these shapes with the sound. You won’t know where to play these initially … that’s experimentation. But as you learn about the relationship between chords and scales, this narrows down the possibilities.

 

Now let's try some ear training on these chords

  1. Click “Toolkit” to enter the toolkit.
  2. From the “emuso menu (top left of emuso), select”Ear trainer…”
  3. Drag the vertical border between the quick start and the ear trainer to the left, so you can see all of the ear trainer
  4. Drag the ear trainer by its top left, down below the guitar.
  5. Click the “Harmony” button, top-left of the ear trainer.
  6. Click “Chord” in the toolkit and select “Maj Triad” from the menu.
  7. Click “add chord”. This loads this chord into the ear trainer. Notice the clicked “add chord” button now has the label “maj”. Notice the “add chord” button next to it enables.
  8. Click “Chord” in the toolkit and select “Min Triad” from the menu
  9. Click “add chord” to load it. Notice the clicked “add chord” button now has the label “-“
  10. Click “Chord setup completed”, bottom right of teh ear trainer.
  11. Click on the ear trainer “Setup…” button at the its left hand side
  12. Click “Same chord root”. Click “Back” (bottom right of the Setup area).
  13. Click “Start”. One of the two loaded chords is played to you. The chord appears at all possible places on the guitar.
  14. Click “Repeat” to hear it again. Sing the datum note (use “Play datum” to hear it again). Try and pick this out
  15. “Answer” by clicking the chord button that you think corresponds to the sound (“maj” or “-” button). You can also hover over any of the notes on the guitar, with the ALT key held down, to hear them individually.
  16. (If you get one wrong, click “Tell Me” followed by “Hear Mine” to compare)
  17. The score (at the right of the ear trainer) shows an (in)correct answer in the corresponding column. For example, if the chord played out is a minor, and you clicked major, then the colour for “incorrect” appears in the column for minor.
  18. Click “Next” and so on.
  19. If you feel confident, use “Setup” and click on “Auto-next on correct answer”.
  20. If you are mostly correct, the use “Setup” and click “Same chord root” to turn it off. Things are about to get harder :-). Good luck!!

 

What you have learned

You have learned how to use some of the ear trainer. You have had an initial go at recognising the “major third” and “minor third” interval, in isolation, using the “Melody” feature, and at recognising the “major” and “minor” chords using the “Harmony” feature. Don’t be disappointed if you start having difficulties. We all do initially. Spend around 15 minutes total. Have a break, and come back to this in a few hours time (or next day). Try this lesson as a warm-up every day for the next week or so. Always make sure you have a break and come back to it.

Next

You will look at using major triads, one of the two fundamental chords used in Western music.