... so, how good are your EARS?

Dave Muscato · #1 08-30-2006, 02:29 AM

Simple interval quiz... I did 100, you can do more or less if you'd like... Just wondering how I compare to you folks. I got 91 right and 9 wrong, although admittedly I screwed up from not paying attention a few times (thought an octave was a perfect 5th at one point!)

I seem to have a lot of trouble distinguishing major 6 and minor 7, strange, huh? I missed 5 of them.

http://www.musictheory.net/trainers/html/id90_en.html

P.S. Turn on your speakers. If you'd like, press the button that shows 2 whole notes to change from simply playing one note followed by the second note, to 1) one note 2) second note 3) both played together. It seems to be a lot easier (for me) if I can hear the invterval played simultaneously.

P.P.S. go with your gut answer! I guarantee that if you second-guess, you'll miss it.

Dave Muscato · #2 08-30-2006, 02:42 AM

Just out of curiousity, I did another 100, and got 95 right (5 wrong) this time around. Again, the major 6th vs minor 7th got me. This time, though, I got 4 more correct by simply doing the following: if I didn't have a gut feeling because I had no idea, I picked minor 7th. I got 4 more correct than last time just by doing that! I need more practice...

**bassybill** · #3 08-30-2006, 03:24 AM

That looks a useful link, thanks - haven't time to try the whole test now, will report back later.

DougP · #4 08-30-2006, 05:34 AM

i scored 83%. i always have troubles with 4ths for some reason.

Jon Simonoff · #5 08-30-2006, 05:48 AM

is there a way to do decending intervals? I have more trouble with those. I got 86 on the test but if they had decending too, I'd probably get in to 60s.

Edit - It'd help to at the bar with all the options, stupid Jon. I figured it out.

McHack · #6 08-30-2006, 06:55 AM

I ran thru about 50 samples, & got a 65%. I found myself frustrated w/ the same ones, because I dont know *** tritone means. That, and arent major & minor 2nd's the same darn thing? I also botched 4ths a number of times, which is amazing to me, since basses are tuned in forths. You'd think we'd have that down by now.!

**Eric Perry** · #7 08-30-2006, 07:02 AM

Damn. I now bow my head in shame.

Dave Muscato · #8 08-30-2006, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McHack

I ran thru about 50 samples, & got a 65%. I found myself frustrated w/ the same ones, because I dont know *** tritone means. That, and arent major & minor 2nd's the same darn thing? I also botched 4ths a number of times, which is amazing to me, since basses are tuned in forths. You'd think we'd have that down by now.!

Intervals are simply the distance, in half-steps (aka semitones, aka 1 fret) between notes.

For example, just going up the E string:

Open E to Open E - distance, zero semitones = unison
Open E to 1st fret F - one semitone = minor second
Open E to 2nd fret F# - two semitones (aka one tone) = major second
Open E to 3rd fret G - three semitones = minor third
Open E to 4th fret G# - four semitones = major third
Open E to 5th fret A - five semitones = perfect fourth
Open E to 6th fret A# - six semitones = tritone
Open E to 7th fret B - seven semitones = perfect fifth
Open E to 8th fret C - eight semitones = minor sixth
Open E to 9th fret C# - nine semitones = major sixth
Open E to 10th fret D - ten semitones = minor seventh
Open E to 11th fret D# - eleven semitones = major seventh
Open E to 12th fret E - twelve semitones = octave

That's all the "closed" intervals, that is, within the same octave. You can have open intervals, too...

Open E to 13th fret F - thirteen semitones = minor ninth, etc

A tritone is so called because it's 3 tones (6 semitones). It's very dissonant... the other very dissonant intervals are minor seconds and major sevenths. The most consonant intervals are unisons, octaves, perfect fifths, and perfect fourths, in that order.

It helps if you assign a "song" to go along with each interval, and sing it in your head when you hear the interval... for example,

Here Comes the Bride (Here = root, Comes etc = Perfect Fourth)

Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Some = root, Where = Octave)

The Theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey (first note = root, second note = perfect fifth)

Do you guys know any other good examples?
Thanks,

Dave

Dave Muscato · #9 08-30-2006, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougP

i scored 83%. i always have troubles with 4ths for some reason.

Doug, P4s are one of the easiest ones for me... try singing "Here Comes The Bride" in your head. If it matches, it's a P4.

Anybody have a song that fits a m7 of a M6? Those are the two I mix up the most.

Thanks,
Dave

Dave Muscato · #10 08-30-2006, 01:59 PM

I found a great link with songs that match all the intervals!

http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bhammel/t...recognize.html

chakah · #11 08-30-2006, 03:27 PM

damn - my ears suck

Alvaro Martín Gómez A. · #12 08-30-2006, 10:53 PM

I'm very used to this because I teach ear training at the university. Right now I have 371 correct answers and 3 mistakes. I got tired. BTW, absolute pitch has nothing to do with this. You may recognize the notes by sheer memory but if you don't know anything about intervals, you're dead. Relative pitch is what really counts here.

KeithBMI · #13 08-30-2006, 11:23 PM

I failed. I've never heard of a tritone.

Brad Maestas · #14 08-31-2006, 12:22 PM

I got 98% (out of 208). I missed a couple because I wasn't paying full attention. The minor 6th can be a tricky one! I was a comp/theory major so I used to drill these a lot. That was like seven years ago, though. Of course, our university's software never had that nice of a User Interface. Very nice!

One thing that helps me a lot is being able to use both the ascending AND descending scales to ID the interval. Many of my students think the only way to do this is to count up to the pitch. If the interval is greater than a P5, I tend to count down to it instead. For example, I find it a lot easier to count down to the m6 than up to it. I think of it as only three whole steps down to a m6 instead of counting up to six. Just math, I guess.

Very cool! Great tool. Definitely bookmarked. Also I dig the other link about pitch recognition from familiar songs. Kudos!

anonymous278347457 · #15 08-31-2006, 12:47 PM

I can never seem to be able to get 7ths or octaves

I seem to be able to get 50-51%

anyway, whats a tritone?

Brad Maestas · #16 08-31-2006, 01:29 PM

Tritone = diminished 5 or augmented 4 = b5 or #4
"The devil's chord."

Jumbotron · #17 08-31-2006, 01:47 PM

86% for me. It definitely helps to have done ear training in college, but I can really tell that I haven't worked on it for a while. Cool site.

McHack · #18 08-31-2006, 01:50 PM

AHA! If I get rid of those pesky minors, I'm into the 90's...

Except minor 2nd, I nail that one every time.

mjolnir · #19 08-31-2006, 02:07 PM

got around 76% out of about 75.

vindy500 · #20 08-31-2006, 02:19 PM

got like 21% actually suprised myself... i though unison and octaves wud be the only ones i wold get...