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Audio trainer to learn notes

Paladin54

Paladin54

Rockin' the root...
Feb 3, 2012
1,264
3,925
Michigan
#1
So hopefully this makes sense. I am looking for an audio resource that I can listen to in my car that helps me learn notes by sound. Something that I can use to train my ear so that when I hear a song I know what key the song is being played in.

Basically if I hear a C I'll know it's a C, when I hear a G I recognize it's a G.

Does this make sense? Does such a tool exist? I've tried some searching but my Google-fu has failed me.
 
#4
No, but you may have better luck with relative pitch training. What your talking about is perfect pitch, and the only one I'm familiar with, but this goes back to the 90's was called the perfect pitch ear training course. To use it effectively you needed someone to play notes on a keyboard or something starting out with just 2 notes and you try to identify what the note is. The next step you would add a note, then again until you were supposedly able to identify pitches by hearing them without thinking about it. Don't know if it works and if it did it would probably take patience and a lot of time. I was in a band with a guy going to Berkley who was about 19 and a great drummer as well as pretty much anything he touched. He had perfect pitch and could listen to a song and pretty much identify the chords to a song just listening, and he was usually right! Kind of frustrating to me who was in my 30's and struggling to learn songs off of cassettes or cd's! For the average person though IMHO you would be better served with the relative pitch training. Not sure if they have anything you can do while driving however!
 
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#5
1stnamebassist said:
No, but you may have better luck with relative pitch training......For the average person though IMHO you would be better served with the relative pitch training. Not sure if they have anything you can do while driving however!
Click to expand...

There are many ear training books out there. One suggestion is Jamey Abersold's "Jazz Ear Training". It can be ordered here:
Jamey Aebersold Jazz: Jamey Aebersold's Jazz Ear Training

Jamey Abersold has been playing and teaching jazz and music theory for many years. In fact his web site offers a wonderful catalog of play along recordings, fake books and other musical publications. The root site is Jamey Aebersold Jazz

There are others of course but the Aebersold book is a good investment.
 
#6
JEBassman said:
There are many ear training books out there. One suggestion is Jamey Abersold's "Jazz Ear Training". It can be ordered here:
Jamey Aebersold Jazz: Jamey Aebersold's Jazz Ear Training

Jamey Abersold has been playing and teaching jazz and music theory for many years. In fact his web site offers a wonderful catalog of play along recordings, fake books and other musical publications. The root site is Jamey Aebersold Jazz

There are others of course but the Aebersold book is a good investment.
Click to expand...

I found another thread on ear training while driving, on another forum. The discussion is here:
Invalid Link Removed

There seem to be some good ideas mentioned.
 
#15
joebar said:
what as worked for me over the past 30 years is simply actively listening to music.

I figure music out wherever I am and I am at the point where nothing surprises me.
I have perfect pitch as well
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Were you born with perfect pitch? Can you actually sing a note without a pitch pipe or instrument for reference and be right, or someone play a random note with no point of reference and identify the note? I'm so impressed with people who can do that. And do you think perfect pitch is as important or more important than relative pitch?
 
#16
1stnamebassist said:
Were you born with perfect pitch? Can you actually sing a note without a pitch pipe or instrument for reference and be right, or someone play a random note with no point of reference and identify the note? I'm so impressed with people who can do that. And do you think perfect pitch is as important or more important than relative pitch?
Click to expand...
I hear in colour-
I didn't know I had it for many years; I assumed all people could do it. if I hear a car horn I can tell you the note. if a band is tuned down a half step i can tell.

this wont be a popular thought, but in my case, it developed over time. I have read there are differing degrees of PP; not all are people who are just born with it. I never knew I had anything unique until I became a musician.
through active listening and intensely learning intervals etc, I am right all of the time. I put a lot of time in at listening to everything and figuring it out away from the instrument.

of course, relative pitch factors in heavily and is very useful. to me, there are no distinction to the two; one is relative distance but if you know the 'colour' as well, then even better.
 
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#17
That is kind of how the perfect pitch ear training works. Every note has a certain color or specific timbre and it trains you to hear that. One of the first notes they try to train you to hear is f# because it has a very distinct "color" from the rest and is the easiest to explain what your trying to hear. I have the course on cassette tape still, but to train effectively you need someone to play notes while you listen and try to identify. I think the average person who doesn't have perfect pitch which is most of the world, can develop relative pitch at least as far as hearing intervals between notes which can go a long way to learning songs without having to read music or tabs or chord charts. Congratulations you have been blessed with a wonderful gift! Maybe I'll go back to working on developing it within myself. That's probably the only area in my life that I feel jealous of someone who has that ability. Material things don't get me jealous, but perfect pitch does! Go figure!
 

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