I've always struggled with my ear and I have to say, jusy a few minutes every day with this method for the last week and already I can hit any note and sing fifths, fourths, and thirds all the way through the cycle. Just gotta work in the other intervals!
@@lambdaman3228 Rick is the kind of person who _deserves_ to have a bit of an ego and yet he remains open minded and aware. It was similar to a "faith in humanity restored" moment where you tear up a little rather than full on bawling.
It all takes time. If I can dispel one thing for you, it would be this: You've heard these things all of your life; but now you're assigning a *name* to what you've already heard. Now you're analyzing what you sing/play. Once you've gotten the concept down, you will be that much more powerful in not only knowledge, but you will be able to build on that foundation. I am talking from almost 60 years on this planet, and it really does take time. And just like physical training, you are training your ear. Keep at it -- you'll do just fine!
In addition to the helpful comments above, I'd add: this is *ear training* 101, not music theory 101. 55 years on planet and I'd like to emphasise the comments above: true genius and talent is exceptionally rare; for the rest of us poor schmucks practice is the only path to greatness, or even moderate competence. Keep at it! Build up to an hour a day and keep it there until you stop progressing.
This is one of THE MOST important lesson of my modest musical life. Had I learned this early on, I can only imagine where I'd be today. Thanks. I know incorporate this DAILY!
"Fifths are tricky for people especially descending fifths. I'm not sure why, probably from not practicing." OKAY OKAY I'LL PRACTICE MORE *runs away sobbing*
They're easy for me because I grew up in a place where polka is popular. That polka bass line is always alternating fifths. Same with most rockabilly, old school country, etc.
Cool In addition I'd play random tones from different octaves and then sing them in the same octave. For example, C2 (~65Hz) and D5 (~587Hz) to -> C3 (~131Hz) and D3 (~147Hz) Squeezing the tones as close as possible.
As a performance major at CCM, this ear training and method of practice is so much better than what my school offers. Thanks for your insightful approach, I will put this to the practice room, and I can't wait to show it off in class on Tuesday!
I'm a junior undergrad theory major. The ear training was kicking my butt! This has unlocked something in my brain and things are clicking finally. Thanks!
Great method. There's a simple brilliance in the practicing of basic intervals, M2's/M3's/etc. by having an above and below note, and moving in whole notes. You're learning basic intervals, from both sides, while also exposing your ear to the more "dissonant," exotic, and advanced sounds of the whole tone scale, diminished chords, augmented chords, quartal and quintal stacks, clusters, etc.
Thanks, Rick! But about those songs -- I'm old so they might help me! ;-) A really cool idea might be to call on your many followers to make suggestions and put together a list. There might be dozens of examples for every interval -- sometimes old ones, sometimes new ones, some from jazz standards or Broadway, some from Blues standards, some from classic rock, some from '80s new-wave pop or grunge rock or metal. That way students can look at the list and pick out the ones they know.
I seem to have hit a brick wall at harmonic thirds. I thought I was making progress, then make several mistakes. I did well with 2nds. I came here for help and will try this while continuing with the Beato ear training. Practice, practice practice.
Learning these from a guitar POV right now, and this was amazing! Take a step back and think about them from a piano perspective and attack the ascending/descending simultaneously. Thank you!!!
for those who don't know augmented chords , half diminished and full diminished chords: augmented chords is simply an angry plunk on piano sounding big chord. a full diminished is a train sounding toddler on piano like cluster chord. half diminished is only present when at least a 4 note chord... pretty sure.
thank you for this advice. i am in my first year at university and this part of theory class always gets me. i have a hard time distinguishing the 4’s and 6’s. i will try to train with this method and practice more.
A little trick that will help is to find song snippets that contain the intervals. For example: P4 asc: "Here Comes" the Bride, Min7 asc: Have you driven "a Ford" lately, etc...
Domoarogato Mr. Beato... I never thought of this before. I struggled for years with ear training, only got marginally better... I think this idea of using symmetrical chords to train 3rds is genius.. I'm going to start trying to train my ears again.
This. Is. Fantastic. I love the idea of practicing based around a symmetrically made chord, and I love the idea of learning the melodic and harmonic sounds together his way. It's like a twofer. Thanks as always, Rick.
This is amazing Rick! In my experience the fifth and the fourth are the easiest for people, and they struggle with the thirds. Also the octave gets the student confused a lot, I don't know why!
Wow, I like this method as you are using the augmented triad to find both the upper and lower of the same interval-genius and because we know our triads we can check ourselves for correctness. Thank you!
I definitely know what you mean about developing a weakness on the descending side. When I hear a descending interval, I often have to reverse it in order to determine the interval. I hope this exercise helps with that.
What a convoluted approach. Just find songs you know well that feature each interval, and associate them with the interval. A couple examples: Major 5th up: Twinkle, Twinkle. Major 3rd down: Beethoven’s 5th. … and so on Much, much, much easier.
The thing is that playing the chord beforehand makes it quite effortless to know which notes to sing.. Does it still enables us to "know" them at some point without having to play the chord ?
I am in the process of finally training my ear after many years of playing guitar, maybe I'm alone in this but I personally find b2 and 7 to be the easiest intervals to hear, its usually 3's and 6's I struggle with the most.
i was having a hard time with m6 m7 M6 M7 but after doing this exercise daily for a week i can hear the difference 90 percent of the time. Of course I do a lot of other ear training but seemed to take me over a speed up. and the super charge one but not as often as i used to. thanks man for the knowledge
@@diegopalominoss hey sorry for the late response I wasn't notified. I do interval test or quizzes. do interval test. dude I started off hearing every note almost the same. i do this video's regime but a full session on my keyboard or for warm up too. When I practice interval training as warm up I can hit notes a lot better. It's weird man I don't know how to tap into it. But there have been a couple times that things just came out so effortlessly like fluidity. And I also noticed my adhd medication really helps too I can hear the distance between notes much more clearly
I like the method of assigning a song to a particular interval. One of the trickier ones is a sharp 4 (or flat 5) -- so from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, sing "Maria! I've just met a girl named Maria!" where the syllables "Mah" and "ree" are the #4/b5 interval going up. For the descending perfect 4 (P4), sing the 1960s song "Born Free." There are so many other songs that will fit into whatever interval you're looking for. Another one that pops into my head: Again from West Side Story: "There's a place for us," where the first two words constitute a minor 7th ascending.
Great video lesson, i think this method is similar to the David Lucas Burge relative pitch. I gonna try for a year and see my results. You are great Rick thank you! I’m learning music from you, but also i’m learning english too. Saludos desde Mexico.
Hi Rick, I have a question, Will you make a video in the future about use of melodic minor scale, in classical way (ascending, descending) as well as only using ascending? I cannot find any good video on yt about it and your videos are always very clear and useful.
Great exercise! But I think you have to sing the middle note too, otherwise maybe your ear Will Focus on the Interval formed by the two notes you only sing,
i guess that's why you have to play the middle note before you sing. By hearing it first you can relate to the interval between the one you sing and the one you've heard
I'm pretty good with: m2-M2-m3-p5-M6-p8. I almost never miss them. I have a pretty hard time distinguishing: tt-m7-M7-m6. And I have a hard time distinguishing M3-P4
Hello Rick. I'm so glad I found your channel a week ago. your videos are well made and the content is great. Are there any videos for learning music theory basics, like from the really beginning? Keep up the great work :)
Hey Rick! Thanks for the great lesson. Do you suggest working with one interval at a time, until one can nail it 100% or do you suggest working on a couple of intervals at the same time? Thanks for your answer :)
One thing I want to try is to sit at a piano, and just play a Middle C in quarter notes. Over and over. And over. And over. This is akin to Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi starting out each year of a football season by holding up a football and saying, "This is a football." Did it every year. In music, telling yourself "This is a Middle C (or "This is a C")" is to establish a center. Then play a second key, either above or below it. Hopefully you know the names of the intervals by now, but for the sake of training your ear without assigning a name to the interval, you're OK for the moment. Back to my illustration: Just as an example, play a Middle C and the adjacent Db (next black key to the C). Play them simultaneously. Over and over. And over. And over. Play them as quarter notes (one beat at a moderate tempo). Play them once and hold the keys down for a long time. Then play them alternately: C,Db,C,Db,C,Db, etc. Tell yourself, "This is a minor 2nd" over and over again. I also recommend as a reinforcement playing C and the adjacent B, 1/2 step below the Middle C, because this, too, is a m2 (distinguished from a major 2, with a capital in the M2 nomenclature). Listen to the clashing. And listen again. And again, using some of the ideas described above as to how to play them. You can then branch out into starting on another note, say, an F#, then play the keys adjacent to it. And so on. From there, you can branch out into other notes, and other intervals: M2, P5, whatever. I really, really like Rick's approach to listening for the intervals, and how to achieve them when singing. With instruments, it is in many ways easier to catch intervals, as a certain fretboard/fingerboard pattern (true of all string instruments), or a combination of keys (woodwinds) or valves (brass, including a trombone, minus the valves, but holding the slide in a certain position) will always yield a certain interval. Back to the voice: I have no problem sliding from one note to another to listen for the proper interval, PROVIDED that you don't "whiskey-slide" from one note to another -- make it musical, such as a portamento or a controlled, slower slide (down or up). When my son was in soccer, they referred to it as "touches." You have "good touches" and "bad touches." Both are valuable, so that you can reinforce the good ones, and learn from your bad ones. I hope this helps.
@@snickpickle Thank you for offering this way to visualize the process and centre it. I like the idea of speaking to the intervals to strengthen the relationship to it. I’ve been playing music for a while, but theory can be confusing. Sometimes things just click, and I think I may have had one of those moments. Is the descending interval spacing from the root an inversion? Let’s say, going from C to D is a Major 2nd. Is going from C to B flat an inverted Major 2nd?
@@kyleolin3566 I would use the words "ascending" and "descending." "Inverted" and "inversion" are used when switching chords around. So a C Major root chord is C-E-G; 1st inversion is E-G-C; 2nd inversion is G-C-E. Diminished chords can have a third inversion, as can 7th chords, and so on. But an ascending m2 would be C-Db, whereas a descending m2 would be C-B, as an example. As mentioned in my original reply, you will want to do this with all other intervals, and then branch out to different starting pitches, in order to train your brain to recognize that all intervals are consistent in "distance," no matter which pitch is your starting pitch. But to me, learning both ascending and descending intervals is vital to both learning the distance between the notes, but in the case of vocals, it also makes you a better singer, because you know exactly where you're going in raising and lowering your pitch. One of my instruments (my principal brass instrument, even though I consider myself more of a string player) is [french] horn, where one *must* have knowledge of intervals, as it is so easy to overshoot or undershoot notes, due to the overtone series and a small mouthpiece! And not only learn the intervals on a keyboard, but if you are a guitar player (or any kind of string player), learn the intervals on the fretboard/fingerboard: For example, on a violin, a minor 6th is obtained by using your first finger to play the C on the A string (3rd fret on a mandolin), and place your second finger close to the first (4th fret on a mandolin), and voila, a minor 6th! (C-Ab)! Same finger pattern starting on any note gets you a minor 6! Handy to know. For an instrument that utilized P4s for tuning (bass, most guitar intervals other than open G and B -- a M3), just remember to make your adjustments accordingly: C-Ab = 3rd fret A and 6th fret Ab on D string. (Bonus for vocals: While I normally only go up to an octave in normal applications, if you want to start working into 9ths, all the way through 14ths -- and you'd better have a good vocal range to accomplish this! -- go for it! Vocally, it's hard to do!) Also, read another comment I wrote about assigning a song portion for the interval: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for an octave (first two notes); "Born Free" for descending 4th; "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" for an ascending M6; the line "There's a place for us" (from West Side Story's "Somewhere") (again, all first two notes of the phrase)...
Would you say that Major and Minor seconds would take care of 9ths and b9's (4ths for 11ths etc)? In other words, do I have to play the interval on the next register in order to train my ear with extensions? Or does it suffice to play the interval in first register?
The key here is how to put this in a routine? Do I practice each interval going up & down by a tone and semitone on each day for 2 weeks & repeat? OR Do I practice all the 12 intervals at once in a day and go up & down every day in 2 weeks & repeat? If none of the above, then how should I segregate this?
After you hit the chords on augments and diminished; do you hit the middle note and go up then hit the middle and go lower or do you play the chord and let it ring and play the upper and lower. This is revolutionary to me.
For adults learning intervals, chord recognition and ear training THEN, instead of being gifted with it in the first months of life----a better method in my view and with singing them is to relate the intervals to well known tunes. For me, intervals less than a fifth are very necessary, and then the 6ths, 7ths, octaves, and compounds you get simply from transposing all of the ones less than a fifth. Chromatic 2nds ARE hard even though you get used to them with ear training phone apps or such, but major 2nds would just be "Satin Doll", minor 3rds (think the blues scale), major thirds (use of the major 2nds to sing or a major triad), perfect fourths ("Here comes the bride"), tritone (either The Simpsons Theme or Rush's YYZ), perfect 5th ("7 Steps to Heaven"), major 6th ("My Bonny lies over the Ocean"), minor 7th (bass line intro of Sting's "Driven to Tears"), and so forth using whatever well known tunes that fit your personality. One can also use the smaller intervals to sing/add to form the larger ones, or realize that the larger ones within the octave are just mirrors of the smaller and really the same thing (minor 2nd vs. major 7th, major 3rd vs. minor 6th, major 2nd vs. minor 7th, etc.). "Functional Ear Trainer" is a computer app that's been around awhile and is free also, but in my mind is better and more realistic in that it relates all your note guesses to cadences in minor or major tonalities (the vast amount of music out there anyway). But, notes and intervals, chords, whatever have you in context of tunes and tonalities are just more realistic anyway vs. in the context of no key reference or atonality---so atonal and 12 tonal pieces would be an exception to this, and what you need to transcribe along with slowing the pieces or solos in question, to be able to decipher all that. But, it's mostly 1% inspiration which can be a very difficult thing to get to these days or even getting motivated, and 99% perspiration with doing actual transcriptions of significant pieces.
Hey Rick nice and helpful video! at 8:27 you said people have a harder time hearing a descending fifth, but for me it's easier because in my ear it's an obvious perfect cadence and helps to hear a nice resolution. Conversely the same with an ascending fourth sounding like a perfect cadence as well. Is this a bad way to train my ear though?
Great lesson, I should practise this stuff more. One thing that is never mentioned here though: how do I reliably recognise the interval within the context of a tonality? I can usually tell the basic intervals when isolated but when it's not the major/minor tonic my ears seem to get fooled, even into mistaking major chords for minor in some cases. But I guess I should really work on getting all of this right on its own before I have any chances of using it in a more complex scenario.
This is going to help me a lot. So would you suggest we practice all of the intervals in one sitting or start with one or two and add more as we become comfortable?
Lee Jay Bird Music do a couple every day for a couple days. if you can't guarantee your singing the right intervals away from your instrument then I wouldn't move on. do close intervals. or the major minor of the same. starting major minor 3rd is really good. i did a slightly different method a couple years ago. the one thing I would add to this video's method would be to play the chord and sing all of the notes. of standard chords to listen inside of the chords. Rick talks about this in another video.
Major 3rd - 1:03
Minor 3rd - 2:45
Major 2nd - 3:55
Minor 2nd - 5:40
Perfect 5ths - 6:55
Perfect 4ths - 8:35
Major 6ths - 10:00
Minor 6ths - 11:50
Major 7ths - 14:15
Minor 7ths - 15:15
Tritone - 16:15
you mixed up major and minor 6ths
You have no idea how much I love your channel.
I've always struggled with my ear and I have to say, jusy a few minutes every day with this method for the last week and already I can hit any note and sing fifths, fourths, and thirds all the way through the cycle. Just gotta work in the other intervals!
Well this is encouraging!!!
I started crying when I realized how balanced your ego is for someone of your mastery.
You make the world a little less cynical
he is a professor
He's a gentleman genius :)
He's Rick Beato
You literally cried? Because someone was balanced? That's bizarre.
@@lambdaman3228 Rick is the kind of person who _deserves_ to have a bit of an ego and yet he remains open minded and aware.
It was similar to a "faith in humanity restored" moment where you tear up a little rather than full on bawling.
The clearest intervals class EVER.
Thank you so much for all your videos, Rick.
You are beyond awesome!
If this is 101, I need a 001 course.
It all takes time. If I can dispel one thing for you, it would be this: You've heard these things all of your life; but now you're assigning a *name* to what you've already heard. Now you're analyzing what you sing/play. Once you've gotten the concept down, you will be that much more powerful in not only knowledge, but you will be able to build on that foundation. I am talking from almost 60 years on this planet, and it really does take time. And just like physical training, you are training your ear. Keep at it -- you'll do just fine!
@@snickpickle Thanks!
@@snickpickle Great insight
feels
In addition to the helpful comments above, I'd add: this is *ear training* 101, not music theory 101. 55 years on planet and I'd like to emphasise the comments above: true genius and talent is exceptionally rare; for the rest of us poor schmucks practice is the only path to greatness, or even moderate competence. Keep at it! Build up to an hour a day and keep it there until you stop progressing.
This is one of THE MOST important lesson of my modest musical life. Had I learned this early on, I can only imagine where I'd be today. Thanks. I know incorporate this DAILY!
how did it help you since this video?
This was the best method I've ever seen! I will put in practice right now!
"Fifths are tricky for people especially descending fifths. I'm not sure why, probably from not practicing."
OKAY OKAY I'LL PRACTICE MORE *runs away sobbing*
Anna Katrina ironically, fifths are the only intervals i can recognise with precision.
hehe same, i was surprised when he said they were trickier cos its all the others i cant do :p
They're easy for me because I grew up in a place where polka is popular. That polka bass line is always alternating fifths. Same with most rockabilly, old school country, etc.
I always mix up the fourth and fifth
@@LeviChangsMusic same.
This lesson is priceless.
So glad I chose Rick Beato as my guide in music.
Gotta enroll to Beato's ear training program for sure.
Whenever I hear a minor second, I just think Für Elise or the Jaws Theme immediately and that works
yeah, "Eyes Wide Shut" too for great film buffs...
that’s what i’ve always thought too, the pink panther theme works too
Tristan und Isolde theme here, to a fifth and minor second.
I use the jaws theme too!
Für elise is not a minor second its a minor 3rd
Cool
In addition I'd play random tones from different octaves and then sing them in the same octave.
For example, C2 (~65Hz) and D5 (~587Hz) to -> C3 (~131Hz) and D3 (~147Hz)
Squeezing the tones as close as possible.
As a performance major at CCM, this ear training and method of practice is so much better than what my school offers. Thanks for your insightful approach, I will put this to the practice room, and I can't wait to show it off in class on Tuesday!
I'm a junior undergrad theory major. The ear training was kicking my butt! This has unlocked something in my brain and things are clicking finally. Thanks!
Thanks for posting, you explained not only intervals but also the logic behing "Aug" and "Dim" chords.
great info. I've never heard anyone explain it like that. you're the man!
7:07 lmao almost fell off my chair
SAME
Hilarious😂😂😂
Thanks so much for this Rick! I’m a pro musician but have never dedicated enough time to ear training. Your videos have inspired me to get to work!
Great method. There's a simple brilliance in the practicing of basic intervals, M2's/M3's/etc. by having an above and below note, and moving in whole notes. You're learning basic intervals, from both sides, while also exposing your ear to the more "dissonant," exotic, and advanced sounds of the whole tone scale, diminished chords, augmented chords, quartal and quintal stacks, clusters, etc.
This is great lesson to excercise your hearing especially when you do productions but you stopped singing for many years.Thank you Rick.
Thanks, Rick! But about those songs -- I'm old so they might help me! ;-) A really cool idea might be to call on your many followers to make suggestions and put together a list. There might be dozens of examples for every interval -- sometimes old ones, sometimes new ones, some from jazz standards or Broadway, some from Blues standards, some from classic rock, some from '80s new-wave pop or grunge rock or metal. That way students can look at the list and pick out the ones they know.
Amazing interval training, seen no where else. Keep up the college level education ffreaken free of charge people an I'll forsure buy a Beato book
It's been a year. Rick is keeping it up. Bought the book like you said you would?
How’s the book?
I seem to have hit a brick wall at harmonic thirds. I thought I was making progress, then make several mistakes. I did well with 2nds. I came here for help and will try this while continuing with the Beato ear training. Practice, practice practice.
Learning these from a guitar POV right now, and this was amazing! Take a step back and think about them from a piano perspective and attack the ascending/descending simultaneously. Thank you!!!
for those who don't know augmented chords , half diminished and full diminished chords:
augmented chords is simply an angry plunk on piano sounding big chord. a full diminished is a train sounding toddler on piano like cluster chord.
half diminished is only present when at least a 4 note chord... pretty sure.
Least helpful comment of all time
thank you for this advice. i am in my first year at university and this part of theory class always gets me. i have a hard time distinguishing the 4’s and 6’s. i will try to train with this method and practice more.
first two minutes are already better than what I've been struggling with for a couple of hours now thanks again Rick!
A little trick that will help is to find song snippets that contain the intervals. For example: P4 asc: "Here Comes" the Bride, Min7 asc: Have you driven "a Ford" lately, etc...
This is an excellent lesson. Thank you. I am going upstairs to work on intervals now.
Rick!.........your films really are the best on youtube that deal with ear training, keep up the great work!
this has been REALLY helpful. thank you so much, please keep doing whatever you're doing. it's helping us so much!
Domoarogato Mr. Beato... I never thought of this before. I struggled for years with ear training, only got marginally better... I think this idea of using symmetrical chords to train 3rds is genius.. I'm going to start trying to train my ears again.
This. Is. Fantastic. I love the idea of practicing based around a symmetrically made chord, and I love the idea of learning the melodic and harmonic sounds together his way. It's like a twofer. Thanks as always, Rick.
This is amazing Rick! In my experience the fifth and the fourth are the easiest for people, and they struggle with the thirds. Also the octave gets the student confused a lot, I don't know why!
Rick out All you Ear training videos this the best one because I can see and hear and I can understand thank you God Bless
Thanks for this. This is where I'm at with my musical journey and I've been finding it challenging. This is very helpful!
Wow, I like this method as you are using the augmented triad to find both the upper and lower of the same interval-genius and because we know our triads we can check ourselves for correctness.
Thank you!
Great new approach for me Rick! I will be trying this for sure ... Thank you so much! 🙏
I definitely know what you mean about developing a weakness on the descending side. When I hear a descending interval, I often have to reverse it in order to determine the interval. I hope this exercise helps with that.
Great advice, Rick. You just make all this seem so straightforward. We just have to add the labor. :-)
Thank you so much, this helps tremendously!
Good morning Mr. Beato, perhaps you can enlighten us on George Russel's Lydian chromatic concept one day. Your channel is great!
What a convoluted approach. Just find songs you know well that feature each interval, and associate them with the interval. A couple examples:
Major 5th up: Twinkle, Twinkle.
Major 3rd down: Beethoven’s 5th.
… and so on
Much, much, much easier.
The thing is that playing the chord beforehand makes it quite effortless to know which notes to sing.. Does it still enables us to "know" them at some point without having to play the chord ?
Thanks Rick, these are great exercises. I can identify intervals by ear but I have trouble singing them from a given tone. This should help impove it!
the best music teacher in the world
@7:57 My brain: “Seasons of Love”
just what I needed right now, thank you very much ;)
great advice to reduce complexity by choosing AUG and DIM chords as a reference für 3rds.… an learning these chords accidentally btw :-)
Thank You so much Rick! You have so many great lessons. Thanks again for sharing them.
Excellent, straightforward and eminently practical. Many thanks!
Oooh just realized my problem is I only practice up, I need to work on descending intervals!
Excellent lesson and easy to remember the method for practicing.
7:08 that falsetto! haha Thanks for the lesson!
I happened to pause right when he hit the high D and thought about screenshotting
lol I chuckled when moved the pitch down instead of up on that one.
"- Actually, lemme go down (smiles)..." the Professor's a jewel really, top notch teaching with a very human posture...
Thanks Rick I feel that musical part of my soul long thought almost dead returning to life...at the very least I will have it back for me.
I am in the process of finally training my ear after many years of playing guitar, maybe I'm alone in this but I personally find b2 and 7 to be the easiest intervals to hear, its usually 3's and 6's I struggle with the most.
Thanks Rick!
Just took some notes. Looking forward to trying it out.
i was having a hard time with m6 m7 M6 M7 but after doing this exercise daily for a week i can hear the difference 90 percent of the time. Of course I do a lot of other ear training but seemed to take me over a speed up. and the super charge one but not as often as i used to. thanks man for the knowledge
What other exercises do you do?
@@diegopalominoss hey sorry for the late response I wasn't notified. I do interval test or quizzes. do interval test. dude I started off hearing every note almost the same. i do this video's regime but a full session on my keyboard or for warm up too. When I practice interval training as warm up I can hit notes a lot better. It's weird man I don't know how to tap into it. But there have been a couple times that things just came out so effortlessly like fluidity. And I also noticed my adhd medication really helps too I can hear the distance between notes much more clearly
I like the method of assigning a song to a particular interval. One of the trickier ones is a sharp 4 (or flat 5) -- so from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, sing "Maria! I've just met a girl named Maria!" where the syllables "Mah" and "ree" are the #4/b5 interval going up. For the descending perfect 4 (P4), sing the 1960s song "Born Free." There are so many other songs that will fit into whatever interval you're looking for. Another one that pops into my head: Again from West Side Story: "There's a place for us," where the first two words constitute a minor 7th ascending.
Can't wait to try these, I've been using the Tenuto app but I've been looking for something else to help supplement that for my ear training! Thanks.
Great video lesson, i think this method is similar to the David Lucas Burge relative pitch. I gonna try for a year and see my results. You are great Rick thank you! I’m learning music from you, but also i’m learning english too. Saludos desde Mexico.
Ótimo video!!! .. I need a good teacher like this one in Brazil !!!!
The symmetrical idea is smart. I should have thought of that.
u have no idea hove much I love your channel Kind Regards Henrik af Ugglas
Hi Rick, I have a question, Will you make a video in the future about use of melodic minor scale, in classical way (ascending, descending) as well as only using ascending? I cannot find any good video on yt about it and your videos are always very clear and useful.
Thanks man! These tricks definitely gonna help me to be a better musician!
You've a truly brilliant channel here, many thanks indeed :)))
I love these videos, I needed help with this a lot.... And you helped me with it he y much so. Thanks man!
Great exercise! But I think you have to sing the middle note too, otherwise maybe your ear Will Focus on the Interval formed by the two notes you only sing,
i guess that's why you have to play the middle note before you sing. By hearing it first you can relate to the interval between the one you sing and the one you've heard
I'm pretty good with: m2-M2-m3-p5-M6-p8. I almost never miss them.
I have a pretty hard time distinguishing: tt-m7-M7-m6. And I have a hard time distinguishing M3-P4
Finally, I am able to get over my M2/m2 handicap! Thanks!
Hello Rick. I'm so glad I found your channel a week ago. your videos are well made and the content is great.
Are there any videos for learning music theory basics, like from the really beginning?
Keep up the great work :)
Great lesson, as usual. I'm adding this to my regimen immediately! Like...NOW!!!! LOL!
As always, solid advice, Rick :) Keep up the good work!
Hey Rick! Thanks for the great lesson. Do you suggest working with one interval at a time, until one can nail it 100% or do you suggest working on a couple of intervals at the same time? Thanks for your answer :)
One thing I want to try is to sit at a piano, and just play a Middle C in quarter notes. Over and over. And over. And over. This is akin to Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi starting out each year of a football season by holding up a football and saying, "This is a football." Did it every year. In music, telling yourself "This is a Middle C (or "This is a C")" is to establish a center. Then play a second key, either above or below it. Hopefully you know the names of the intervals by now, but for the sake of training your ear without assigning a name to the interval, you're OK for the moment.
Back to my illustration: Just as an example, play a Middle C and the adjacent Db (next black key to the C). Play them simultaneously. Over and over. And over. And over. Play them as quarter notes (one beat at a moderate tempo). Play them once and hold the keys down for a long time. Then play them alternately: C,Db,C,Db,C,Db, etc. Tell yourself, "This is a minor 2nd" over and over again. I also recommend as a reinforcement playing C and the adjacent B, 1/2 step below the Middle C, because this, too, is a m2 (distinguished from a major 2, with a capital in the M2 nomenclature). Listen to the clashing. And listen again. And again, using some of the ideas described above as to how to play them.
You can then branch out into starting on another note, say, an F#, then play the keys adjacent to it. And so on. From there, you can branch out into other notes, and other intervals: M2, P5, whatever. I really, really like Rick's approach to listening for the intervals, and how to achieve them when singing. With instruments, it is in many ways easier to catch intervals, as a certain fretboard/fingerboard pattern (true of all string instruments), or a combination of keys (woodwinds) or valves (brass, including a trombone, minus the valves, but holding the slide in a certain position) will always yield a certain interval.
Back to the voice: I have no problem sliding from one note to another to listen for the proper interval, PROVIDED that you don't "whiskey-slide" from one note to another -- make it musical, such as a portamento or a controlled, slower slide (down or up).
When my son was in soccer, they referred to it as "touches." You have "good touches" and "bad touches." Both are valuable, so that you can reinforce the good ones, and learn from your bad ones.
I hope this helps.
@@snickpickle Thank you for offering this way to visualize the process and centre it. I like the idea of speaking to the intervals to strengthen the relationship to it.
I’ve been playing music for a while, but theory can be confusing. Sometimes things just click, and I think I may have had one of those moments. Is the descending interval spacing from the root an inversion? Let’s say, going from C to D is a Major 2nd. Is going from C to B flat an inverted Major 2nd?
@@kyleolin3566 I would use the words "ascending" and "descending." "Inverted" and "inversion" are used when switching chords around. So a C Major root chord is C-E-G; 1st inversion is E-G-C; 2nd inversion is G-C-E. Diminished chords can have a third inversion, as can 7th chords, and so on.
But an ascending m2 would be C-Db, whereas a descending m2 would be C-B, as an example.
As mentioned in my original reply, you will want to do this with all other intervals, and then branch out to different starting pitches, in order to train your brain to recognize that all intervals are consistent in "distance," no matter which pitch is your starting pitch. But to me, learning both ascending and descending intervals is vital to both learning the distance between the notes, but in the case of vocals, it also makes you a better singer, because you know exactly where you're going in raising and lowering your pitch. One of my instruments (my principal brass instrument, even though I consider myself more of a string player) is [french] horn, where one *must* have knowledge of intervals, as it is so easy to overshoot or undershoot notes, due to the overtone series and a small mouthpiece!
And not only learn the intervals on a keyboard, but if you are a guitar player (or any kind of string player), learn the intervals on the fretboard/fingerboard: For example, on a violin, a minor 6th is obtained by using your first finger to play the C on the A string (3rd fret on a mandolin), and place your second finger close to the first (4th fret on a mandolin), and voila, a minor 6th! (C-Ab)! Same finger pattern starting on any note gets you a minor 6! Handy to know. For an instrument that utilized P4s for tuning (bass, most guitar intervals other than open G and B -- a M3), just remember to make your adjustments accordingly: C-Ab = 3rd fret A and 6th fret Ab on D string.
(Bonus for vocals: While I normally only go up to an octave in normal applications, if you want to start working into 9ths, all the way through 14ths -- and you'd better have a good vocal range to accomplish this! -- go for it! Vocally, it's hard to do!)
Also, read another comment I wrote about assigning a song portion for the interval: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for an octave (first two notes); "Born Free" for descending 4th; "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" for an ascending M6; the line "There's a place for us" (from West Side Story's "Somewhere") (again, all first two notes of the phrase)...
A gif of Rick looking into the camera doing the half step intervals would be amazing! With one of his modal compositions in the background!
haha!
Would you say that Major and Minor seconds would take care of 9ths and b9's (4ths for 11ths etc)? In other words, do I have to play the interval on the next register in order to train my ear with extensions? Or does it suffice to play the interval in first register?
This is fantastic.
Love the exercise, many thanks!
This is very helpful I have your ear training course and was getting frustrated not passing tests :(
Descending 5ths = super hard for me. Get them confused with Perfect 4ths
Excellent tips thanks Rick.
The key here is how to put this in a routine?
Do I practice each interval going up & down by a tone and semitone on each day for 2 weeks & repeat?
OR
Do I practice all the 12 intervals at once in a day and go up & down every day in 2 weeks & repeat?
If none of the above, then how should I segregate this?
1. Try the first routine for two weeks
2. Try the second routine for two weeks
3. ???
4. Profit
fantastic tutorial if i had 1% of your knowledge i'd be happy many thanks
Tremendous help, Rick
Thank you, I'm sure they work. It just makes perfect sense to me. Regards.
Excellent excercise, thanks!!
After you hit the chords on augments and diminished; do you hit the middle note and go up then hit the middle and go lower or do you play the chord and let it ring and play the upper and lower. This is revolutionary to me.
For adults learning intervals, chord recognition and ear training THEN, instead of being gifted with it in the first months of life----a better method in my view and with singing them is to relate the intervals to well known tunes. For me, intervals less than a fifth are very necessary, and then the 6ths, 7ths, octaves, and compounds you get simply from transposing all of the ones less than a fifth. Chromatic 2nds ARE hard even though you get used to them with ear training phone apps or such, but major 2nds would just be "Satin Doll", minor 3rds (think the blues scale), major thirds (use of the major 2nds to sing or a major triad), perfect fourths ("Here comes the bride"), tritone (either The Simpsons Theme or Rush's YYZ), perfect 5th ("7 Steps to Heaven"), major 6th ("My Bonny lies over the Ocean"), minor 7th (bass line intro of Sting's "Driven to Tears"), and so forth using whatever well known tunes that fit your personality. One can also use the smaller intervals to sing/add to form the larger ones, or realize that the larger ones within the octave are just mirrors of the smaller and really the same thing (minor 2nd vs. major 7th, major 3rd vs. minor 6th, major 2nd vs. minor 7th, etc.). "Functional Ear Trainer" is a computer app that's been around awhile and is free also, but in my mind is better and more realistic in that it relates all your note guesses to cadences in minor or major tonalities (the vast amount of music out there anyway). But, notes and intervals, chords, whatever have you in context of tunes and tonalities are just more realistic anyway vs. in the context of no key reference or atonality---so atonal and 12 tonal pieces would be an exception to this, and what you need to transcribe along with slowing the pieces or solos in question, to be able to decipher all that. But, it's mostly 1% inspiration which can be a very difficult thing to get to these days or even getting motivated, and 99% perspiration with doing actual transcriptions of significant pieces.
I can tell I've been listening to too much chuggy metal when the chromatic half step interval is the most recognisable interval for me haha
Awesome video. I'm understanding it!
Hey Rick nice and helpful video!
at 8:27 you said people have a harder time hearing a descending fifth, but for me it's easier because in my ear it's an obvious perfect cadence and helps to hear a nice resolution. Conversely the same with an ascending fourth sounding like a perfect cadence as well. Is this a bad way to train my ear though?
Great lesson, I should practise this stuff more. One thing that is never mentioned here though: how do I reliably recognise the interval within the context of a tonality? I can usually tell the basic intervals when isolated but when it's not the major/minor tonic my ears seem to get fooled, even into mistaking major chords for minor in some cases. But I guess I should really work on getting all of this right on its own before I have any chances of using it in a more complex scenario.
Hey rick, do you have a video on how we can practice this same thing on the guitar fretboard?
This is going to help me a lot. So would you suggest we practice all of the intervals in one sitting or start with one or two and add more as we become comfortable?
Lee Jay Bird Music do a couple every day for a couple days. if you can't guarantee your singing the right intervals away from your instrument then I wouldn't move on.
do close intervals. or the major minor of the same. starting major minor 3rd is really good.
i did a slightly different method a couple years ago. the one thing I would add to this video's method would be to play the chord and sing all of the notes. of standard chords to listen inside of the chords. Rick talks about this in another video.
As a guitarist, should i shift this training to guitar or is piano more suitable for pure ear training?
Great method, thank you!!
Thank you so much
Thanks Rick - really useful. I was loosing heart with the random up/down interval training method.
Thank you so so much. Really. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you! Great tip!