Thursday, December 17, 2015

What Exactly is Ear Training?

One element of Let's Play Music class that definitely stands out is our inclusion of activities and games that focus on ear training. So today I've asked Christopher Sutton at www.easyeartraining.com to explain it to us!
Ear training is:
  • Not an overnight magic trick.
  • Not an antidote for deafness.
It can help you make the most of the hearing you still have, but training won't repair hearing loss.
  • Not part of music theory.
Think of ear training, music theory and instrument learning as the 'musical trifecta'. All three complement each other, and interrelate. You need all three to be a truly great musician.  That's why Let's Play Music is a good example of a course for the complete musician.
  • Not for experts only.
Whatever stage you've reached in learning music-from absolute beginner to seasoned pro- ear training can bring significant benefits and should be part of your practice routine.

Ear training is about:
  • Hearing more, and hearing more clearly
...which helps you become a more sophisticated musician.
  • Understanding more in what you hear
...so you can play freely, compose, improvise and play by ear.
  • Connecting what you hear with what you play
... closing the gap between ear, mind, and instrument.

Ear Training is:   

Anything somebody does 
to improve their ear for music.
In fact, in spite of its name, ear training is not really about improving the ear itself! The majority of 'ear training' exercises are actually exercises for the brain.

We are teaching our brains to reliably pick apart what the ear is physically hearing and turn it into the concepts that are meaningful to us.

As we train we become able to hear more complex concepts and with much greater reliability.  You might start off just hearing that a series of notes are piano notes, but after training you could report that it was "an ascending harmonic minor scale with first inversion i-iv-v-i chords underneath!" You've probably heard great musicians or audio pros do this kind of thing- and you can learn it, too.
   
The Slow Way or the Active Way?
Anybody who sings, plays an instrument, or works in a job where they pay a lot of attention to sound will be doing this already!  However, while their ears will inevitably be getting better as they practice and hone their art, this is a very passive process – and so a very slow process. Ear training is about taking active steps to improve the same skills, so that progress can be much quicker.

For example, humans naturally learn to distinguish male from female voices as we grow up. We are surrounded by them and have the ‘right answer’ given to us most of the time by seeing the person who’s speaking. But if you’re an English-speaker learning Spanish, and want to be able to distinguish regional accents from around Spain, it takes a much more active effort to make progress. You’ll have to find examples and techniques which help you, and the quickest way to make progress will be by focused effort on learning ways to tell the accents apart. Otherwise, it will be years before these skills develop on their own!

The speech examples above illustrate the main kind of ear training – learning to reliably classify what you’re hearing, and then knowing what label to put on it. 

1. Learn the different classes 
(e.g. different instruments, different notes, different types of chords)
2. Learn what to call each class
(e.g. oboe, flute, clarinet...C,D,E,F,G....major, minor, diminished) 


Sometimes the first part is easy- for example, most people will easily hear the difference between a major and minor chord without practice. Once they've been told that the 'happy sounding' chord is called 'major' and the 'gloomy, sad' one is 'minor', they have the second part, too.


You might think that only the first step matters- after all, if you can always hear what 'class' something fits into, why does it matter what label you put on it? Well, there are two good reasons for learning the labels: 

1.Using common terms helps you work and play better together with other musicians, and learn from them.

2. Having clear, defined labels for the types of things you hear greatly speeds up learning to reliably classify them by giving the brain a framework. One reason Let's Play Music uses solfeg is to give this type of framework.  

Hear More at Once

Not all ear training is about identifying sounds.  For example, another important type of training is teaching your brain to process more information in parallel.  coming back to our voice analogy: A young child may be able to tell if a voice is male or female, but still really struggle to understand speech in a room full of people talking! A few years later this will pose no problem, and he'll be able to easily tune into one person or another amid the noise of the room.

Ear training lets you do the same thing with music; when listening to music, ear training can let you:  
  • Hear the individual notes in chords and harmonies
  • Identify how different instruments co-exist to create the overall sound
  • Follow multiple instruments' parts at once rather than just the melody
 The music comes to life, as what used to be a noisy mess becomes clear and richly rewarding.    

Why do ear training:

The skills we improve through ear training are the skills we use all the time as musicians, music parents, or music fans.  They lie beneath everything we do with sound ad music and yet  most people never spend any time on these skills! Sadly, most people assume that these are things you 'just get better at' automatically as you practice your instrument.

By choosing to actively improve your skills through ear training, or enrolling in a program, like Let's Play Music, that incorporates such activities, you will make much faster progress and unlock talents you never thought you'd have.

  • If you're a musician, ear training is the number one thing you can do to improve your musicianship an bring life to your music. 
  • If you're a music fan, ear training will let you hear things you've never heard before, even in music you already knew.  You'll have a much deeper understanding of the music you love and your tastes will be broadened as you begin to hear what's so great about music you never thought much of before.
  • If you're a music parent, ear training will help you help your child- because you'll understand exactly what you're hearing when something sounds wrong.  

-Christopher Sutton
Easy Ear Training, Ltd.
Read more about this here.

You can learn this skill!

As a parent of a Let's Play Music student, you've been exposed to the ear-training, music theory, and musicianship taught in class.  We want to know:

How has being a Let's Play Music parent expanded YOUR musical ambitions

Write your answer as a comment below. Thanks for sharing! 


If you are serious about improving musicianship as an adult, you might consider joining Musical U.  At Musical U, you will train your ear through well-planned training modules, AND have the support of a community of learners and musicians coaching you along the way.  Musical U will help you become more musical as you learn to:
  • play notes and chords by ear, easily and instinctively
  • improvise powerful solos, reliably and confidently
  • truly understand what you hear, and create amazing music yourself 

So, tell us what YOU would do with your new musical skills, we love hearing how musical you are becoming through Let's Play Music.


Or, if you're not yet part of our family, but you're ready to jump in and get some ear training, find a teacher near you now!




 

24 comments:

  1. My LPM teacher is Justine Turcotte! I have wanted to be musical my whole life—and struggled with all kinds of music lessons, but never learned some basic stuff until I put my child in White Horses. It's been two years, and we're hooked! I am sad this wasn’t around when I was a kid! Finally understanding some of the “gentle theory” behind what I am hearing has made music come alive--I even listen to the CDs when my little guy isn’t there! (I bet other drivers think it's really weird when they see me enthusiastically doing solfeg in my car . . . .)I won't be flogging my youngest through his piano lessons like I had to do with my other kids--he just loves sitting at the keyboard, having fun. I've started to pull out my old books and have fun with him! So--free ear training? Bring it on! I might pick up the piano again--but this time, I'll love it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing your story. You didn't win the lifetime membership, but we have some AWESOME ear-training memberships as prizes coming up during our March Spirit week on Facebook. So pay attention to our FB page: www.facebook.com/lets.play.music.classes

      Delete
  2. I never thought I would be able to read music, but after Let’s Play Music I can! I have always wanted to play the piano, and now that I can read music I am much closer to fulfilling that dream. Jody Nelson is our teacher. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing your story. You didn't win the lifetime membership, but we have some AWESOME ear-training memberships as prizes coming up during our March Spirit week on Facebook. So pay attention to our FB page: www.facebook.com/lets.play.music.classes

      Delete
  3. Hi, our LPM teacher is Rachel France and this year we started our 3rd child to go through the program. I have always wanted to play the piano and after to coming to class with three different students, I am finally feeling brave enough to sign up for classes for myself! This would be such an awesome tool to help me succeed on my own musical journey!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing your story. And for getting 3 kids through the program! Love that dedication.

      You didn't win the lifetime membership, but we have some AWESOME ear-training memberships as prizes coming up during our March Spirit week on Facebook. So pay attention to our FB page: www.facebook.com/lets.play.music.classes

      Delete
  4. I was in a singing group as a child, but never had formal music lessons and don't know much about theory. I was asked to teach music to children in church and decided to read up on how children learn music. I discovered how incredible our brains are and as I read, I realized how much of these principles were used in LPM. So, I started paying more attention to what was taught and have been able to bring the concepts from LPM into teaching songs at church. We move our bodies with the beat, try to capture the essence of the song, pretend to paint with the colors that we see in the music, clap the rhythms, and play bells to isolate the melody. LPM has helped me give these children an experience with the songs, even without me being formally trained. Brianna Shaffer is our teacher.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing your story. And for volunteering to teach kids to sing! We love that you put your LPM knowledge to good use in the world.

      You didn't win the lifetime membership, but we have some AWESOME ear-training memberships as prizes coming up during our March Spirit week on Facebook. So pay attention to our FB page: www.facebook.com/lets.play.music.classes

      Delete
  5. Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing your story. You didn't win the lifetime membership, but we have some AWESOME ear-training memberships as prizes coming up during our March Spirit week on Facebook. So pay attention to our FB page: www.facebook.com/lets.play.music.classes

      Delete
  6. Our LPM teacher is Ann Cue. I am inspired to start taking piano lessons again. I gave up on learning an instrument and singing when I was 11 with much regret. Ear training would explode my world! I may become some sort of musician after all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing your story. It's never too late to start music lessons again! Don't give up :)

      You didn't win the lifetime membership, but we have some AWESOME ear-training memberships as prizes coming up during our March Spirit week on Facebook. So pay attention to our FB page: www.facebook.com/lets.play.music.classes

      Delete
  7. I am my kids' LPM teacher! I feel so blessed to have been able to bring this culture of music in our home. I've always loved playing instruments and singing. When I was a senior in high school I asked my teacher to teach me jazz. His answer was a giant fake book and chord flashcards. I had no idea what I was doing. Later, after listing to amazing soloist perform off the cuff, I asked how I could learn to play like that. Her answer, you're born with it. Can't be learned. :-( Then I found LPM. I learned how chords worked and how to break down a song. I have some tools for improvising but I need more colors! There are red blue and yellow (I, IV and V) but what are the green, purple, orange and chartreuse chords! I'm dying to learn! Please please please pick me!!!! :) P.S. I am totally willing to commit to using your resources and will tell all my friends. Just to prove it, I just picked up a 1890 short-hand book and am teaching myself. It's so much fun. I love to learn!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Love your story! Just a reminder, since you are a teacher, connect with me over on Facebook in the teachers-only group and I'll tell you what's in store for teachers! Look for my post by searching for #eartraining and post this comment to enter over there. Teal, chartreuse, and magenta await.

      Delete
  8. My three children's LPM teachers are Jasmine Zunic and Kira Fellars. I onlynwish LPM was around when I was young. I am a trained musician, but not a natural musician like my husband. Music has played a major role in my life. There has never been anything more moving to me than music. From the Disneyland Electrical parade, to Canon in D, to the soundtracks from Rent or Miss Saigon, and countless others... Those without fail will bring tears of joy to my eyes, and stir something amazing inside of me that nothing else can replicate. I would love to finally understand what it is that makes certain music stir my emotions so that I can learn to create my own. Ever since discovering LPM, it has become my dream to make music with my family, and my children are well on their way there. I walked in on their first jam session with my husband the other day, and realized that I have some catching up to do to be able to create!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Krista! Your family will not have to wait too long for you to catch up, because we chose YOU as the winner of a LIFETIME of ear-training lessons and support! We are happy that Let's Play Music encouraged you to get back up on the 'musical horse', so now there's nothing holding you back from becoming that 'natural musician' you always wanted to be. Hooray! We hope you spend millions of hours (or whatever you have) getting the most out of your membership. Email me (gina) and I'll help you get started. weibelfamily@gmail.com

      Delete
  9. My LPM teacher is Brandi Gray. I have tried all sorts of different musical things growing up and have not excelled at any. I absolutely love the LPM/SB programs and what they have taught my children (and me)!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing your story. I'm glad LPM finally broke through the barrier that those other musical endeavors could not!

      You didn't win the lifetime membership, but we have some AWESOME ear-training memberships as prizes coming up during our March Spirit week on Facebook. So pay attention to our FB page: www.facebook.com/lets.play.music.classes

      Delete
  10. I would love to learn ear training to be a better musician. I love to go Christmas caroling to bring joy to seniors every year. I am also learning how to play the recorder right now, and the way my mouth blows into the mouthpiece changes the sound. I would love to get better at singing and playing the recorder so I can join my two kids when they are playing piano!
    Our teacher is Ann Cue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing your story. And for sharing your voice in the community. We love how you use your music to enrich the lives of others through service!

      You didn't win the lifetime membership, but we have some AWESOME ear-training memberships as prizes coming up during our March Spirit week on Facebook. So pay attention to our FB page: www.facebook.com/lets.play.music.classes

      Delete
  11. As a child I yearned for piano and voice lessons. I was thrilled to find LPM and our teacher, Nicole Miller, when I started looking for music instruction for my 4 year old granddaughter. My son is an accomplished jazz musician and he often speaks a "language" I don't understand. I have long believed music should be taught as a discipline, as important as math, English or science. LPM is a joyful way to overcome my musical illiteracy! My granddaughter loves it, too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing your story. It's never too late to learn to speak that language...I'm glad you're not giving up.

      You didn't win the lifetime membership, but we have some AWESOME ear-training memberships as prizes coming up during our March Spirit week on Facebook. So pay attention to our FB page: www.facebook.com/lets.play.music.classes

      Delete
  12. I enrolled my toddler in the Sound beginnings -Silver Buttons class with Ms. Jasmine Zunic last year; carried along my newborn and we haven't missed a session ever since. Seeing my toddler coming out of shell after attending a few sessions and now participating, dancing, singing to the music and my baby being glued to the CD player, listening to the class material and dancing joyfully before her breakfast, every morning, truly warms up my heart. I have to say having had no background in music myself and now starting to getting it, equally excites me if not more. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing your story. We're so glad that LPM and SB are getting to your musical core just as much as for your child! We love to awaken that inside parents, too!

      You didn't win the lifetime membership, but we have some AWESOME ear-training memberships as prizes coming up during our March Spirit week on Facebook. So pay attention to our FB page: www.facebook.com/lets.play.music.classes

      Delete