If you think that “an elephant stepped on your ear” and you will never be able to perceive the sounds around you the way people who are gifted with an ear for music from birth perceive them, then you are deeply mistaken. develop ear for music not as difficult as you think. And today we will give you some tips to help you do it.
First, let's look at the types of hearing. To develop an ear for music, we need to hone:
- Rhythmic hearing. That is, learn to hear and feel the rhythm.
- Melodic ear - the ability to understand the movement and structure of music and hear its subtleties.
- Relative - hearing, which allows you to understand the magnitude of musical intervals and pitch.
- Inner hearing - that is, hearing that allows you to clearly represent music and individual sounds in your thoughts.
- Intonation ear, which allows you to understand the nature and tone of music.
Of course, there are many more types of hearing, but we will focus on these five, as there are enough of them to gain an ear for music.
So, what do we need to do to train these types of hearing.
1. Musical instrument
The ideal way to “pump” all kinds of hearing is to start learning how to play an instrument. In this way, you will remember how each note should sound, train your sense of rhythm and, in general, begin to understand music better. But since you probably don't have time to learn how to play musical instruments, let's move on.
2. Singing
If you don't have a piano at home, find online version on the Internet and every day several times play scales on it and sing them along with the piano. Once you're comfortable with scales, move on to intervals, chords, and simple melodies. The main thing is not to be shy. If you are afraid that someone will hear you, try to train at a time when you are alone at home. But really, there is nothing to be ashamed of! Remember only karaoke bars, where people, to put it mildly, without a voice and hearing, sing so loudly that they can be heard outside the bar.
3. Meditation
We named this item so because the exercise that we are going to tell you about is very similar to meditation practices for beginners. It will help you develop mindfulness for sounds.
Walk on the street without headphones, trying to catch snippets of conversations, the noise of trees, the sound of cars, the sound of heels on the pavement; the way a dog shuffles its paw on the ground; the way someone shakes out a blanket on the balcony .... you will notice that you are surrounded by so many sounds that it's hard to believe. At home, spend five minutes a day listening to the buzzing of the refrigerator from the kitchen, the sound of water in the pipes, the conversations of neighbors, the noise from the street.
4. Voices
When talking to a person, try to remember his voice. You can also watch movies, memorizing the actors' voices, and then listen to certain parts of the movie and try to name the character based only on his voice.
Try to notice the manner of conversation of your interlocutor, the timbre of his voice; remembering a conversation with someone, try to pronounce the phrases of the interlocutor in his own voice in his head.
5. Learn to hear the music
Of course, it's very nice to listen to music and not think about anything. But if your goal is to develop an ear for music, then try to delve into the music you listen to. Learn to separate one musical instrument from another; study how the guitar sounds under different “bells and whistles” so as not to confuse it with other instruments; also learn to distinguish different modes of the synthesizer from other musical instruments; listen to how real drums and electronic drums sound.
This practice will help you not only develop an ear for music, but also teach you to hear music more subtly, which in turn will give you even more pleasure from listening to it. There is one side effect in this practice - most likely later you will not want to listen to what you are listening to now, you will want something more complex and voluminous. And this is great, because isn't this the main indicator of your progress?
6. Rhythm
There is such a cool thing called a “metronome”. You can purchase it for yourself or find an online version on the Internet. Practice every day with the metronome by tapping with your finger (hand, foot, whatever) the rhythm it gives you.
When you feel comfortable with the metronome, move on to recognizing the rhythm in the music. Start with the music in which there are drums, it is easier to determine the rhythm from them. And then move on to work with music that does not contain noise instruments, allowing you to easily determine the rhythm ( classical music, for example).
Another fun way to improve your sense of rhythm is dancing. Sign up for dance studio or dance at home to your heart's content.
7. Sound source
If you have an assistant for this task, great! Close your eyes and ask someone to walk around you in and out of the room and make sounds (voice, clap, ringing a bell, etc.). And every time your assistant makes a sound, you should try to understand from which direction it comes. Pretty easy task if you're in the same room with a helper, but once he starts walking around the apartment, you'll notice that it's harder to tell where the sound is coming from.
If you do not have a person who can help you with this, then you can do the following. Go outside, sit somewhere on a bench and listen to the sounds around you, as in the third exercise. Only this time you will also need to understand from which side this sound is coming.
Programs and Applications
Of course, there are many programs for developing an ear for music, and we have collected the best of them.
1. Earteach
An excellent application containing exercises for scales, chords and intervals. Perfect for those who already have a more developed ear for music. You can also download the PC version.
The principle is very simple - you need to play the melody that you just heard. The app can also be downloaded for Android and iOS.
A simple game that will help you memorize notes. Also on the right you can find many more games for the development of musical ear.
Everyone loves music, but not every person is musical from birth. Sometimes, there comes a moment when, in an emotional outburst, you want to perform a couple of lines from a fresh hit by Miley Cyrus. However, after the performance, one has to catch sympathetic looks and listen to disapproving comments. To prevent this, you need to figure out what an ear for music is and what to do if you don’t have it.
to someone absolute pitch Dan by nature, someone raised him
with time
Musical ear is a fairly broad concept, embracing whole list abilities that allow you to fully perceive music and adequately assess its advantages and disadvantages. A well-developed ear for music is a vital ability for musicians, producers, and sound engineers. It is given to someone by nature, someone brought it up over time. Anyone creative person, even unrelated to music, it does not hurt to add this one to your piggy bank of skills. Recently, experts have proven that ear for music even helps to learn foreign languages.
It has been scientifically established that there is a certain area in the brain responsible for musical hearing. This bundle is located in the auditory zone: the larger it is and the more nerve fibers it contains, the better a person’s hearing is. So how do you know if you have hearing and how are your neurons in that very area of the brain? To do this, it is not necessary to go and do a magnetic tomography, it is enough to try to accurately repeat the melody heard, for example, from the chorus of the Arcade Fire song Reflektor, while trying to keep the rhythm. If it doesn't work the first time, don't worry. You probably have impaired coordination in the work of hearing or voice aids, and you need to exercise more.
It seems to me that professionals will help to determine exactly whether you have a hearing or not. But, in any case, there is no point in despairing, because all this can be developed. The main thing is to have a desire.
There are several varieties
musical ear:
Perfect Pitch
This is the ability to accurately determine the pitch ( musical note) of any sound without comparing it with any standard. It is believed that this talent is innate and is present in 1 in 10,000, and even most of them. the greatest musicians in the world do not have absolute pitch.
Relative (or interval)
Hearing, capable of determining and reproducing musical intervals in melodies, chords, etc. In this case, the pitch is determined by comparing it with the standard.
inner ear
The ability for a clear mental representation (most often - according to music notation or from memory) of individual sounds, melodic constructions.
intonation hearing
A type of perception of music that allows you to understand its character, expression.
fret hearing
The ability to hear, separate and identify differences in chords, consonances and sections of a melody, for example, their stability and instability.
Rhythmic hearing
The ability to move through music, to feel the emotional expressiveness of musical rhythm.
Also, vocal masters and musicologists distinguish harmonic, polyphonic, rhythmic, textural, timbre and architectonic hearing.
Set yourself a big challenge- by all means train your ears, of course, you need to contact a specialist and find a teacher in solfeggio (there is such special discipline designed to develop hearing and musical memory).
It is best to go to an experienced private teacher and it would be good to start learning musical notation along with the desired instrument. You will be taught to distinguish between notes and intervals, and then whole chords, keys and how to deal with all this. I went to solfeggio when my interest arose. Every lesson swells the brain from new information and begins to treat her painfully. The most useful thing in solfeggio for a musician is practical exercises, when you are trained by ear to determine notes and their relationships - intervals, chords, etc.
The most elementary exercise is probably just to sing the scale (do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si) in unison under the piano. I would also advise you to listen to melodies from your favorite tracks on the instrument until you get one to one. It is doubly useful to study under a metronome and devote some time to exercises for a sense of rhythm.
After practicing for a while, you begin to hear the structure of the compositions on a much more subtle level. You just listen to music and get into everything like hell! You mark cool moves or, conversely, simple, elementary ones. In general, you perceive everything more insightfully.
7 programs and applications
If there is no time for a teacher, you can try to train your ear for music with the help of special web services, programs and applications, which recent times mass appeared. We have selected some of them.
To train your hearing and learn to distinguish and identify intervals, chords, timbres, rhythms and other basic elements music requires a lot of practice. For such practical exercises you just need to have an accompanist partner who would play the same intervals and chords on the instrument for guessing. The Ear Teach service allows you to train on your own, clearly tracking your progress. The program exists both in the web version and as a separate program (however, so far only for Windows).
Theta Music Trainer- a resource that includes dozens of flash games for hearing development, most of which are intuitive. Some games can be played for free without any registration, to access others you will have to enter your data. To fully complete the entire course and access all the materials of the site, you need to create a paid account (for $7.95 per month or $49 per year).
EarMaster 6 is latest version training program for Danish developers. In it you will find 2000 lessons and exercises for both beginners and experienced musicians. By connecting a microphone to your computer, you can hum along to the notes displayed on the screen. The program, in turn, will evaluate your hearing, giving a detailed report on hits in tones. Cost: €47.95
Auralia 4 is a serious program that contains 41 topics covering the basics of solfeggio: intervals and scales, chords and their sequences, rhythms, harmonies and melodies. Auralia allows you to arrange melodic dictations for yourself, connect a MIDI keyboard and a microphone. $99.00
Pitch Improver
A simple collection of basic exercises that offer to play melodies by ear. Press the Play button and try to repeat what you heard on the virtual keys. The first note is marked with a letter, and the rest are highlighted in green. To pass on next level, you need to accurately play all the notes. Pitch Improver can be tried in the online version, as well as downloaded to your smartphone
It is safe to say that a good ear is the only ability that allows you to become a musician.
Without this, there can be nothing.
Of course it is possible to teach to play musical instrument a person without an ear for music, but his game, most likely, will resemble the actions of a robot that performs a programmed program and is unable to deviate from it.
When talking about musicality, they always mean a well-developed musical ear, even if this idea is not voiced.
I think there are many questions related to musical ear, but the most important ones are the following:
- What is meant by good musical ear?
- What are the criteria for its determination?
- How to develop an ear for music?
Let's start by defining how musical hearing differs from ordinary hearing.
Ear for music- a set of abilities necessary for composing, performing and actively perceiving music. The musical ear, first of all, relies on knowledge and on the assimilated system of symbols. For example, everyone can sing the melody of the song “A Christmas tree was born in the forest”, but not everyone can name the intervals and notes of which it consists.
On the other hand, if your head has stable connection between the first intonation of this song and the fact that this is the interval of a major sixth, then when you hear this in any piece of music. You know that this is a major sixth interval and you can play it on the instrument.
The work of hearing in this case is to memorize certain musical structures and endowing them with semantic load.
As you can see, the development of hearing is the application of certain knowledge in practice, combined with the development of auditory memory.
Lack of understanding of how to relate auditory experiences to hearing development can lead people to believe that they are deaf.
However, there are practically no people without hearing. Most of the problems are related to poor quality teaching of the basics in music schools and other educational institutions.
There are many categories of musical ear. The most important are:
Perfect Pitch- the ability to determine the absolute height of musical sounds without comparing them with the standard. This implies that when you hear any note, you can name it.
It is divided into passive (a small percentage of note definition, limited use) and active.
Relative hearing- the most important for any musician - is defined as the ability to determine and reproduce pitch relationships in melody, chords, intervals, etc.;
inner ear- the ability to have a clear mental representation (for example, from musical notation or from memory) of individual sounds, melodic and harmonious constructions, whole musical plays; very important in learning.
Harmonic hearing- the ability to hear harmonic consonances - chord combinations of sounds and their sequences and reproduce them with a voice in an unfolded form or on a musical instrument. In practice, this can be expressed, for example, in the selection of an accompaniment to a melody by ear, even without knowing the notes, or singing in a polyphonic choir.
polyphonic hearing- the ability to listen to all the voices in a polyphonic work.
polyrhythmic hearing- the ability to hear rhythmic figures sounding in different sizes and the ability to reproduce these rhythms.
There are several main ways to develop hearing:
Solfegging
Solfegging (that is, practice) involves singing intervals, chords, scales, modes, melodies. This practice strengthens the connection between the ear and the written note, and solfegging also forms a certain auditory system.
For example, singing major scale You assimilate its structure, sound, and gradually it becomes natural and familiar to you, and you will perceive any deviation as an inconvenience. Thus, on the one hand, your hearing develops, on the other hand, until you master something else, it will be inaccessible to your perception. Such a problem may, for example, arise when listening to atonal music.
2. Musical dictation
The process is somewhat opposite to solfegging. Here you, relying on the knowledge already acquired, write down the melody played by the teacher on notes. For this, various techniques are used (finding stable tonality levels in the melody, recognizing intervals, determining cadences, etc.).
Also musical dictation contributes to the development of musical memory.
3. Transcription (from English transcribing rewriting) or eat- selection by ear or on an instrument and recording on 
notes of a piece.
This can be as much as removing your instrument, as well as other instruments, and even writing an entire score.
There are various tricks used by transcribers to speed up the transfer process. sounding music on paper (slow down recording, tables, analysis, etc.).
4. Auditory analysis- identifying intervals, chords, chord sequences, rhythmic figures, etc. by ear.
Also, for the development of hearing, you can use various specialized programs (for example, Ear Trainer).
Thus, the criterion of good hearing is the ability to hear and reproduce various elementary structural elements, the ability to record the heard melody with notes, the ability to anticipate a certain sound, the ability to hear music with the eyes, etc.
Many people, especially beginners who want to learn to sing, ask questions: “Is it worth it for me to start learning to sing if I don’t have an ear for music, if a bear stepped on my ear and I, for the life of me, don’t hit the notes !?”
Let me ask a counter question: And how did you determine that you do not fall into the notes? Isn't it by ear?? Exactly.
And this already suggests that you have a hearing! After all, not a single beginner without a hearing will claim that he hits the notes perfectly, because he hears this “miss” when singing.
So what's the reason? Why do we, beginners, take notes out of tune, since we have an ear?? And it's all about lack of coordination between hearing and voice. And this coordination must be developed in the same way as a baby develops coordination of movement: he learns to walk, run, etc.
The first thing to do is to realize that an ear for music can be developed. And the fact that on this moment you do not have a hearing, is not yet a sentence for you.
Here I have collected actionable advice and exercises that will help develop a beginner's ear for music. For some exercises you will need a piano or midi keyboard.
If you don't have a piano, you can use online piano - Pianoplays.com. For those who do not know the names and locations of notes on the piano - here is a picture:
1. Singing scales
Play the piano one octave from C:
Do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do.
Now sing this scale, each note separately. You can sing along the names of the notes, or you can use any convenient vowel. Do not think about how the voice sounds beautiful - our task at this stage is to make the voice hit the notes.
Now sing everything in reverse order, at the same time, of course, with the piano (or guitar):
do-si-la-sol-fa-mi-re-Do.
Try to sing notes relying on your breath (see the lesson "How to put your own voice?").
At first, the voice will not hit the notes, and this is normal. 'Cause we've only just begun develop an ear for music. Repeat this exercise so many times until you start to more or less hit the notes played on the piano.
After you feel that it starts to turn out, try to sing the whole scale on your own, without the help of the piano keys. Check the last sung note with the corresponding piano key - well, the sound is more or less the same - already better!
2. Sing in unison with your favorite singer
Turn on your favorite song and start singing it in unison with the performer. In unison - this means that the voice should, as it were, merge with the performer. Take, for example, the chorus of your favorite song, listen to it several times, and then sing this chorus along with your idol until your voice begins to "merge" with him.
3. "Drive up" to the note
Another way regarding the question "" is as follows. Play a note on the piano, for example, "Sol". And with your voice “drive up” to this note, for example, on the vowel A. Pull this vowel higher and higher, like a siren, until you hear that you have merged in unison with the note “Sol”.
Now try other notes, try also changing the vowel:
4. We play and sing intervals from "To"
We will not now go into the details of music theory (this will be separate section), just say that An interval in music is called the "gap between notes".
So, we will play and, accordingly, sing as follows (we play only on white keys, we will not consider black keys in this lesson, so as not to get confused).
We take the note "Do", next to "re" and return again to "Do".
"Do-re-do"
(Here we will always return to Do). They sang.
Now we play and sing:
"do-mi-do"
"Do-fa-do",
"Do-sol-do",
"Do-la-do",
"Do-si-do"
Accordingly, we sing these notes along with how we play.
If you can't get your voice to the notes being played, try using the approach method to the note (see point 4.). That is, you “drive up” to each individual note, remember how they should be sung, and perform the exercise again.
Conclusion
I hope I have enlightened you a little about how to develop an ear for music. Train and exercise. I always say in my lessons, and I will say it again: The most important thing in any business is practice, experience and, of course, an irresistible desire to learn what you love!
Let's move on to the next lesson, where you will learn a lot of interesting things, as well as some secrets that I will reveal only to you!
A trained person is essential for anyone involved in music.
What you hear is what you play and if you have trouble recognizing different types chords, rhythms or melodies, this greatly limits your options.
One day after class with my students, I decided to have a cup of coffee. On the way to the coffee shop, I heard the cry of a bird flying past. Nothing strange, you say. But there is one little thing: I recognized in this sound an interval of a major third. And now, I already have an idea for the next article!
I have been teaching guitar for a long time and I can say that most modern guitarists possess very well and too. A great way to test if you can play by ear is to have a friend play an easy phrase twice and then try it out yourself.
If you manage to play the phrase without mistakes the first time, you the right way. If you had to search for the right notes for a long time, it's time to start training your ear. Like playing technique, the ability to recognize and understand musical sounds requires constant practice and effort. Many of my students and comrades have no idea how to train their ears, so I have developed several ways to do this.
How to train your ear
It's a good idea to go to the nearest music school and find out if they offer courses in solfeggio and ear development. I myself did not realize the importance of hearing until I began to go to classes in hearing and training in College of Music. Among other things, they teach to recognize. You will also learn how to write down melodies on paper and distinguish between rhythms.
But what if you can already pick up melodies and you do not need to be an expert in rhythms and musical notation for this? Excellent! Now try to explain your musical idea band keyboardist! Remember: professionalism is not a matter of minutes! Your colleagues will appreciate your attention to detail anyway. Ultimately, most music courses are based on the same. Try to play and sing the major scale, trying to hit the notes.
To begin with, choose the key that you find easiest to sing in. Then you can play and sing the notes of the scale with gaps. For example, in the key of G major, you play and sing the note G, skip the note A and sing the note B. Practice until you feel it comes easily to you. Then try to sing that note without the guitar. Achieve maximum accuracy.
Sing the steps of the scale in the form of . The first stage is the tonic, then the second stage, etc. In addition, one can also practice singing, as well as other modes and
