How do I practice my ears?

[muthagoose]

For some time now I have been spending some of my practice time trying to improve my ears. I've been using the Interval Ear trainer at www.musictheory.net and I don't think that I'm doing that much progress. I've been sitting with my bass and playing different intervals in all keys (mainly 3rds and 4ths) trying to get my ear accustomed to the different intervals but I'm not really making any progress as far as I am concerned. So, now I am wondering if there is a correct way of practicing your ear, since this is getting quite frustrating. Any and all tips are welcome!
Thanks!

 

[Vorago]

Try to play along with everything you hear, even the Icecream man tune...

I've found http://www.earplane.com a great site to train your ear! Its much more then just intervals, go check it out!

 

[_j_]

Singing helps a lot. Practice singing intervals. Sing your scales as you play them. Take an ear training/sight singing class. Record a bunch of melodic and harmonic intervals, play the tape back and try to identify them. Record triads and try to identify the quality and inversion. That should keep you busy..

 

[muthagoose]

Thanks for your advice! I'm probably going to take the ear training class over at Link Removed in August, so hopefully that will help me to get my relative pitch up and running. But hopefully I will be able to get some good training under my belt before the class starts. I've began singing the intervals I'm playing a bit and started focusing on singing the major scale ascending and descending, which should be decent practice at least.

 

[romac]

Thanks for your advice! I'm probably going to take the ear training class over at Link Removed in August, so hopefully that will help me to get my relative pitch up and running. But hopefully I will be able to get some good training under my belt before the class starts. I've began singing the intervals I'm playing a bit and started focusing on singing the major scale ascending and descending, which should be decent practice at least.

Sounds like your on the right track (well the same one as me and I'm seeing some results). Also have another watch of that John Patitucci 2 video that you've got, there's some good things to do there.