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Hearing intervals.

#2
Better yet get a keyboard they are cheap these days and play and sing. Sing scales, patterns, intervals. Sing your bass lines singing and eartraining go hand in hand. Piano is best instrument to work on ear training with and best for learning theory too.
 
#4
I use the one Zac posted. For training to actually hear the interval though-i sit down at a keyboard [piano ideally] and sing the interval too. I use the musictheory.net as a way to quiz myself and gauge progress.
 
#7
I've been doing drills for hearing/identifying intervals. I can do up to an octave relatively easy (ascending and descending) except there is one that I often get caught up on: the Major 6th.

My question is: do you guys have any tricks to hearing Major 6ths? Any famous melodies that I can use to get that one in my head? I use other famous melodies to get some of the other intevals (YYZ for the tritone - who doesn't use that one?!:) ) and can't seem to come up with one that helps me for the Major 6th.
 
#8
Here's another good site to go with zac's:

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...and listen to the good Doc[Bop]'s advice as well!

Good one for M6 is "My Bonnie" as in 'lies over the ocean'.
 
#9
Smallmouth_Bass said:
I've been doing drills for hearing/identifying intervals. I can do up to an octave relatively easy (ascending and descending) except there is one that I often get caught up on: the Major 6th.

My question is: do you guys have any tricks to hearing Major 6ths? Any famous melodies that I can use to get that one in my head? I use other famous melodies to get some of the other intevals (YYZ for the tritone - who doesn't use that one?!:) ) and can't seem to come up with one that helps me for the Major 6th.
Click to expand...

I know the 6th from a lot of Jaco's riffs, or the second note in the Negro plantation song "Shortnin Bread". You know that tune right? "Mamma's little baby loves shortnin, shortnin....."
 
#10
Personally, I find that using mnemonics (Wagner's Bridal Chorus aka "Here Comes the Bride" for an ascending P4, for example) is a bad idea. It helps you if you're just starting out, but I find that it slows you down later on. This is similar to learning "All Cows Eat Grass" or "Good Boys Do Fine Always" instead of just memorizing the names. When you try to sight-read later, you'll slow yourself down with that extra step. Just learn what they sound like and keep practicing until you just hear it & know it without thinking.
 
#12
Dave Muscato said:
Personally, I find that using mnemonics (Wagner's Bridal Chorus aka "Here Comes the Bride" for an ascending P4, for example) is a bad idea. It helps you if you're just starting out, but I find that it slows you down later on. This is similar to learning "All Cows Eat Grass" or "Good Boys Do Fine Always" instead of just memorizing the names. When you try to sight-read later, you'll slow yourself down with that extra step. Just learn what they sound like and keep practicing until you just hear it & know it without thinking.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much what I do. Most of them I just hear now without the extra step. But with the Major 6th, it's like it's not a minor 6th or a minor 7th, so it must be a major 6th. I get it by default and it's a three step process!
 
#16
Well instead of the conventional way of sitting at a piano, you could try breaking down a catchy tune you like into ascending and descending intervals which make up the tune. Try not to fall into the trap of hearing the interval only within the tune though. The idea is to be able to recognise your intervals and how they relate to each other in a melody. =)
 
#17
Sometimes you guys are nuts.

Buy a keyboard? Listen as you play? Totally useless ideas.

I use Earope.

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Intervals. Scales. Chords. Inversions. Progressions. Rhythms.

It is fantastic. There may be a different program. There may be a better program. But there is not a better way.

There is not a better way than computer software training.

No better way than listening to sound you DID NOT create, and then judging what that sound is, and getting feedback if you are right or wrong.
 

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