When you have played the scale up to the last note - say B in the C major scale - the feeling, a felt tendency, *evokes an interior image of the tonic* that you can hum, sing or play.
Same, that was the huge take away feeling, that terrible cliffhanging feeling of the note right before the tonic. (Pretty confusing since, it seems like he is saying that is the feeling on the tonic.)
As a music teacher, I always like to keep watching content from other teachers, to see if I can come up with new approaches. I've never seen this approach to ear training, and it makes so much sense. I will surely use it in my future lectures
This makes me think of the episode of The Office where Andy starts singing a song about the other businesses in a building and Pam cuts him off before he can finish singing on the tonic…so he begs her to let him resolve the melody 😂
As a singer, I’ve always felt insecure about my note / Interval / chord recognition abilities, but after being able to recognize the tonic note in all the exercises in the video, this renewed my confidence and made me want to make music moving forward. THANK YOU 🙌🙌 Also, OMG man, you have the most transfixing eyes 👁️👁️ I have ever seen
Wow! I've been watching lots of ear training videos recently, because I'm working on my own approach to teaching it. But I've been mostly a bit disappointed by how robotic and rote everything is. In the first seconds of your video I immediately knew you were going to go deeper. I love the way you are explaining all this! Thank you! Cheers to good communication and learning! 🥂
When it comes to feeling, I have benefited in an immense way from studying Indian classical music. Look up Navtej Singh who teaches masterly. I have learned from him in 4 months what would have taken 10 years. Hard to explain but you will thank me a billions. Navtej Singh also plays amazing harmonium you will most definitely enjoy if you are music lover.
This is why I think most people who play lots of instruments started out on drums. It speeds up the feeling process necessary to make learning scales and chords less stressful and easier to apply to your music. You can't force precision, it's a slow crawling into more fluid movement. Just like with correcting your bodies movements....no amount of adjustments, massage, nor pushing through it, or over-working will 100% fix anything, since you have to train the mind/body connection to function as one to allow free flow. The mind and body already know natural movement, it's just lost at a very early age. Music is no different of a sense to the brain. Rhythm literally opens the body up without conscious effort.
You make some good points there! Do you really think most multi-instrumentalists started on drums? I don't think that's been my experience with people I've met, though I haven't considered it deeply...
@@maxkonyiI play drums as well as keyboard/piano and I’m learning guitar right now. I think the main thing about learning percussion that lends itself to learning multiple instruments is that drums are literally multiple instruments. Like I had to learn how to play marimba, which is very different from a snare drum, which is very different than a timpani, which is very different than a drumset. You essentially learn how to learn if your first instrument is drums. But I know plenty of multi-instrumentalists that have never played drums, like my girlfriend who plays guitar, bass, piano, and clarinet (I showed her drums and she was better at them her first time than anyone else I’ve seen). I definitely think ear training adds to this though, because it’s really easy for me to learn guitar because I know the order I can play notes in based on piano and I can just figure out how to do that on guitar. I don’t feel like I did a good job explaining that, but hopefully it made at least a little bit of sense.
A nice tool analyzing music in your head is the fact that about 95 - 99 % of all melodies in Western music (classic, jazz, pop, rock, anything), end on the tonic. Check it out (without touching an instrument if you are trained).
Thanks for revealing the secret of ear training, feeling is the main ingredient that most of the music teacher never mention, thanks for guiding us in the right track as always.
Thank you for this insightful video! I live with a very musical caique parrot and he can listen to any song and I will hear him sing that note that pulls it all together, as you say! I never knew how to describe it, but let me tell you, this feathered friend of mine sure has a natural feel for it. Thank you! Much appreciated.
Who knows what the future brings! I'm personally more interested in 432Hz music myself. Still researching that and wanting to learn to play guitar tuned like that. One day it will all come together, I'm sure. 😉🎶 Thank you for your response!
oh! I've been doing this unknowingly since I was a kid. I liked to try to guess what note would come next in a song, or I'd make up little tunes to hum and try to find notes that made the most sense together. I've never had any musical training so it's great to finally have a word for this.
Same here. Had a organ growing up and played that same game until it came naturally. What's weird was when I was older and picked up a guitar, found I could play the tune by ear also.
After my retirement I started learning the piano. Moi? The piano? I lived my whole life joking that I was born with two left ears. I went through 6 years of choir class where the teachers told me to move my lips and not make a noise. And now, I'm looking at videos like this. BTW this was one of the most surprising ear training videos I've seen. And you started by descending the scale. So the leading tone is leading us away on a journey, and not leading us back home. I've asked two piano professors what would happen if someone taught students scales by descending to start with. Would that alter their musical creativity?
Great to hear! Regarding your last question there - I don't know! Despite scales generally being taught in ascending form, humans have a great propensity towards descending melodies...
Great comment! My piano teachers always had me ascend-descend in things like scales, arpeggios, etc. I had thought about why from a mechanical sense, but I hadn’t really thought about the ear training aspect of it.
I consider myself to have a “bad ear” when it comes to pitch. So, I was cynical whether a video like this would be helpful. But, man! You crushed it. The idea of stopping music, finding that “feeling”, then attempting to sing that tonic note. This is gold! You earned a subscriber and I hope many more follow my subscription. You deserve it!
As a teacher (comp sci, not music), congratulations for your skills in breaking down the hard stuff in its simple parts and communicating it beautifuly in simple language.
thoroughly enjoyed this presentation. I think I would really enjoy a sequel to this, where you go into more advanced territory. If you mastered recognizing the Tonic, where do you go from there? How do other Notes FEEL in relation to the tonic? I know there's plenty of material out there already, but if you feel like making a series out of this, it would be much appreciated!
I learned how to play by ear and music theory from a very young age and i can say hands down it is the most important thing you can learn as a musician that will separate you from others
Thats an awesome class! I'm a music teacher myself and I just feel you nailed it on explaining the basics of ear training in such little time. I loved how you bring the concept of "feelings that we label". In my personal view, everything in music theory is exactly this - names we give to specific feelings caused by specific techniques of phenomena. Congratulations, and thank you for this lesson!
i think this concept exists in language learning too. in our native tongue, we won't always be able to say exactly how we know something is gibberish, or why someone's accent doesn't sound native - we just know that it sounds 'off'. (maybe two words that should rhyme don't, or a word is unusual for a certain context, etc.) spelling as well - if it looks off we keep trying different things until it's resolved/familiar. this intuition is built somewhat passively over time as a child, but can still be achieved as an adult, especially with active learning. all to say, listening is super important to build a strong foundation! thanks for sharing ♥
Ah! This is an interesting approach - I remember studying this with my piano teacher when we went through a (terrifying) book on harmony in music. The theory of it made me stress out to such an extreme point that we eventually ended up with me ditching the book and he taught me to learn by “feeling”. Seeing a visual element added to that is fascinating! Took me back to when I was in school. Good video :)
Amazing video. I'm a private piano/music teacher of many years and I was NOT taught this logic as a student. I love finding resources like this online and sharing them with my students. I will definitely be sharing this with them, along with your course.
OMG I thought I’m the only one who does this… Thanks for sharing! I use this method to quickly recognize the locrian mode since the next note it gives me is automatically the tonic
Is that why I get shivers on certain notes , Or I get excited when listening to _For eg: HansZimmer-Man of Steel tracks_ And this is how Films are scored right??? I never understood how to explain to people the Way I listen to Music and Sounds.... but this is what it is... And i think most people just put on headphones and blast something..... But i truly get immersed into it..... its actually incredible to have that ability. To feel.
While getting shivers and becoming emotionally moved by the feelings of a song is definitely related to the tonic (tonality in general), there are many more factors at play. Also, beyond all the theory, some people are just more sensitive and attuned to music in general!
In the end I could recognise the tonic! When i started learning the theory it seemed so frustrating these scales and I don't know how the notes sound but here i understood how to find it with my inner voice or by singing aloud. Thank you a lot!!! Will practice.
LOVE this video!!! I'm a live musician that pursued DJing. I highly recommend this to any DJs out there. I use it to fine tune my students ears. I myself watch it frequently to keep my ears sharp. thank you for making such an awesome tutorial!!!
This is an extremely important skill many fail to learn, even with years of experience. It's also good to watch out thay you don't confuse the tonal center, with the tonic function, as they are not the same. Many confuse tonicization for modulation due to that.
This is great. I'm an artist relatively new to making music, and I use the same approach in color mixing. Instinctively note the feeling the color produces, and then mix till that feeling is matched. With the music I've been singing to harmonize with notes or chords, and find that this feeling and expectancy for notes is slowly developing.
In addition to the importance of your presentation, I really liked the depth/fullness of the piano or keyboard you were playing. Please tell us the make, model, etc. - thank you.
I believe I was using a plugin called Keyscape for this. An amazing sounding piano. I'm playing on a MIDI controller, not a digital piano. The controller is a NI S61 mk2
Thank you so much for making this. What a wonderful gift to young people learning to understand and create music. I wish my music teacher had approached teaching like this. I wasted 8 years on empty technique, learning nothing of musicality itself.
Great video. Had a teacher tell me that an easy way to find the tonic is to find a note that you can hum throughout the entire piece that makes sense at any point in the song.
Amazing my brain automatically do that, especially when the radio stopped in the car and I will finish the note or the sound ... So cool and I have no idea... 😊 Thanks
Hi Max, greetings from Hungary! I really appreciate your video - I just came to this one after watching the replay of the livestream on feeling the major scale. I have struggled with ear training for all my years playing guitar. It's only been the last couple of years that I've felt like I've made some progress. I look forward to putting your techniques/exercises to use because I get a strong feeling that you've really landed on something super important. So thank you!
I’ve never checked this out before, because I didn’t know it existed. I just know I’ve been doing it now that I’ve seen this video. The first example was easy for me… not sure of the second example… but it was a great experience.
My grandfather tried to explain this to me when i was a teenager trying to emulate his guitar playing but he wasnt great at explaining stuff, this is helpful for me. He was self taught and just played by feel on several instruments with real skill and natural instinct. But he couldn't say why the tones should change, for him it was just obvious and natural where to go with the melody and progression, i wish i could do that myself. He gave me his song book but it was just lyrics because he didnt need to know the chords lol 😂
This is so true for technique, writing etc. art is so intellectualized because of the educational complex where people are just trying to make a living while “explaining” music, but so much of it is…. Not at the core of actually learning it. Videos that describe the truth are few and far between. Thank you.
Hey thanks for the info, I would also recommend that after you watch this video watch it again with your eyes closed and just feel the difference with your hands on your laptop feel the difference with your eyes open then closed......
I have never left a comment on youtube (almost lying), but here I have to say I fell in love with the sound of the intro. So holy deep... (deep... deep...) (still vibing)...
Ha! Glad you enjoyed it. The intro chord is tuned in what's called "just intonation", which is essentially nature's tuning. Perhaps that's why it feels as it does! This particular chord uses what's known as a harmonic seventh interval, which is potentially my favourite musical sound!
@@maxkonyi hey, super thanks for that feedback. Unique and powerful sound. I have had that kind of natural sound experience when playing some tunes with glass cups and random water levels... I would call it, "the magic tuning". Haha thanks again, brohug!
Lately Ive been trying to rework the way I think about music, using functional harmony and some Barry Harris techniques. I think this is one of the main concepts to grasp, being able to feel and identify the direction of music and how each part 'relates' to its counterparts. Really cool video man!
I guess the years of playing guitar and singing allows me to recognize tonics easily. I never learned a lot of music theory so I’m now going through from the start to try and up my skills.
Good stuff! I can identify the tonic on all of those. I also know a lot of theory, scales/modes, extended chords, harmonic analysis. I also have what I can only call tonal memory, don;t know if there is a term. I just heard a song from the Police from whatever album, I can't remember, and having heard the album in order years or decades ago I knew/felt next song in the album was Message In a Bottle. I remembered the starting note, and checked it on the piano and I looked for the recording and it was correct (C#). Now, I don't know what relation (or interval) it had to the previous song, but I just remembered the note. I can hear songs and in one or two notes can "Name that tune", but it's also using the instrumentation, timbre of voices, etc. Anyway, I haven't found a way to use those abilities to follow in my head what the progression or just the bass note of the chords are. I could do it if it's just I - IV - V, but I can't do it on more complicated songs. I can identify and sing the bass note in the chord progression, but don't feel the interval between notes if it's more than stepwise motion. I can identify intervals if presented melodically and given time, but not follow the movement up and down. Perhaps I haven't worked at it enough or not had the training and method needed. I will check out your other videos.
Great! Yeah, I address things like this in some other ear training videos. It's about the feeling of each scale degree and/or chord position as opposed to melodic interval distances between them.
This was awesome. Just bought the ear training course since it’s on sale! I’ve got tons of theory resources but the method of ear training you show in this video really clicked with me in ways other content hasn’t before.
Stumbled across this vid today and I felt compelled to say that your delivery is fantastic! These demo tracks sound amazing too, definitely going to deep diving your discog! +1 Sub
Thanks for this great video, Max. Music = Emotion. That's why it transcends all languages and effects us as at a very organic level. Someone once asked me at a songwriting workshop, "How do you know if a song is good?" I replied, "If it doesn't make you feel something, it's not."
i was so excited that i screamed "YAAAS!!" when i resolved the last example perfectly! the E minor one, i resolved a octave lower than you played and it was bit off maybe but the G was exactly the same tone and pitch that you sang! this affirms me so much in that i am not too late, i can really do this! i think how i learned to find the tonic is because when i watch movies and there's some movie music i've never heard before, i always guess where the music goes next! it has trained my ear without me doing actually anything ear training related ever!! i can't believe that i just have this accurate ear, it must be because of this! well, i am an high functioning autist so maybe that has something to do with it too! bit context for interested, i was always a musical child, could sing well before my voice change but stopped singing in 7th grade. tried to learn a bit of guitar and bass as a kid and played a bit of drums in highschool, actually performed one song in our schools spring fest. after school i only listened music, didn't sing or play anything really. in 2020 i was exhausted, i burned out in my job. i dropped to welfare to cure my depression that had lasted for years. i started to dabble with guitar when i met the first person i ever knew who can play a solo on a guitar. i wanted to do that, but in my experience the learning curve was so deep i thought it's mere impossible to try and learn instrument at age 26. but i tried and actually did learn some, but got discouraged for some reason after less than a year of playing. one reason was i didn't like my instrument, a cheap strat knock-off, not even a squier. i was disappointed in myself and got even more depressed. two months ago i found my dream guitar, the exact one i knew i maybe could be able to afford on social security. Epiphone Les Paul, in black, even the colour was right! it must've been the universe looking out for me because i just happened to have the money for it since it was payday that day, i was looking to get strings to that shitty strat because i wanted some guitar to play. it was godsend. i bought the strings, left the store, turned back after hundred meters and bought the damn guitar, i said to myself this is something i cannot pass, let me atleast try it if it feels good to play. went to store, tested it briefly (ppl came in an i hadn't played in two years or more, sucked so much i was so embarrassed) and thought fuck it, i'll be hungry af this month but i have to get the guitar. and so i got it. have played every day for almost two and a half months now and i got all i lost back very quickly with so much more. i'm so glad i did buy it. friend says i could have what it takes to be great because of how fast i learn. he bugged me to take a teacher for myself, i thought i would never dare bcos of my shyness. but i sent a message to his old teacher, a superb musician of 30 years. left him a long message introducing myself and evem though he doesn't really teach that much anymore, he was intrigued and accepted!! i start next month with a purpose to get in a music school here in finland in next 5 years. i am so excited and this video did actually affirm me that i do have musical proclivity, or even little bit of talent. now i apply hard work and see where all this goes. wish me luck all, and thank you Max for these great ear training vids! most helpful stuff on ear training i have come across if you read all the way down here, thanks and cheers from 🇫🇮!!
@@maxkonyi thank you so much! i'm so excited too. the hard thing for me is, to stick with it when the excitement inevitably lessens. actually improving and getting deeper understanding of music through these kind of super valuable lessons helps with that for sure. but inevitably it's up to me and only me; and it has helped to reach this conclusion. as i was younger i searched for motivation from outside sources, or rather just waited doing nothing, for the inspiration to come around. now if i feel uninspired i just still pick the guitar up and the inspiration usually comes, or it doesn't. there's always s next day and there's no point to beat yourself up for not being inspired 24/7. it's all a learning curve and it all helps with other areas in life aswell. music truly is a cure for depression for example.
This is very interesting! I'm not a music professional or something but I listen to music a lot. I actually have like a radio in my head. I think this helps a lot to remember the notes exactly like in the original song. Sometimes I need to listen to a song multiple times (if it has a complicated melody) but I finally end up "feeling" the entire song. The problem is that I can't name or produce the notes, just feel them.
Wow you are so underrated. I really needed this since many months ago that I started learning music. Please let us know how we should move forward from this.
Looks like this video is popping off now man. Awesome! I bet it feels weird since it's been 10 months lol But honestly about time. You did a GREAT job describing this and giving examples. Reqlly walked us through it. I pretty much copied your video and used this as a script to teach my own students the same thing!! Love it. The production level is also fantastic. Love it
What an amazing video. I have developed a quite finely tuned and discerning ear towards exotic scales, different textures and timbers of sound, individual to cultural styles and stylistic choices, and can count and produce odd time signatures with ease, while at the same time having the feeling like I have always been missing a fundament to my harmonic competency... This is like the central puzzle that I have been ignorant of for to long and which I am hoping to develop more now. You have a super empathic way of teaching! Looking forward to checking out more of your work. Thank you a lot!
You can find the follow-up video here:
ruclips.net/user/liveY6BPB3Cso00?si=4QjwNmEvwsiI17y9
Loop❤😂😅o😢😢p😢😢 po😢pl😅o😢😢ooo😅😢😅😅🎉p😅
When you have played the scale up to the last note - say B in the C major scale - the feeling, a felt tendency, *evokes an interior image of the tonic* that you can hum, sing or play.
Lol when the note doesn’t resolve I feel ANGER
💢💢💢
when the note doesn't resolve I usually feel excited, lmao
WHERE ARE WE GOING???
@@luckas221adats cool!! :3
Anger leads to suffering… 😂
When it resolves on the wrong note , it's JAZZ
I feel like some jazz players are trying to piss me off
Musical Edging
😂😂😂
Nahhhhh
precisely my brother
Wahahahaaah!😂😂😂😂
😂😂😂
1. Love the video. Wonderfully produced.
2. Thank you for actually playing the final note and not leaving me with that terrible “feeling” 😅
🙌😜🙌
True. A video on tension and release would be great
@@ELLIOT8209 Agreed!
Can ya drop what it actually is for us plebs
Same, that was the huge take away feeling, that terrible cliffhanging feeling of the note right before the tonic.
(Pretty confusing since, it seems like he is saying that is the feeling on the tonic.)
As a music teacher, I always like to keep watching content from other teachers, to see if I can come up with new approaches. I've never seen this approach to ear training, and it makes so much sense. I will surely use it in my future lectures
Great to hear!
This makes me think of the episode of The Office where Andy starts singing a song about the other businesses in a building and Pam cuts him off before he can finish singing on the tonic…so he begs her to let him resolve the melody 😂
lol
As a singer, I’ve always felt insecure about my note / Interval / chord recognition abilities, but after being able to recognize the tonic note in all the exercises in the video, this renewed my confidence and made me want to make music moving forward. THANK YOU 🙌🙌
Also, OMG man, you have the most transfixing eyes 👁️👁️ I have ever seen
That's great! So glad that this approach has been genuinely helpful for people. I appreciate the comment 🙌🏼
✨👀✨
Hey now
Musical Blue balls is crazy, love this
This was probably the best course I had on ear training. Thanks.
I side with you!
Easy to understand.
You got my rest!
👌
@@kestineniiquaye6110 same here. Amazing work! Thank you!!
This is definitely one of the best ear training tutorials I’ve seen. It almost feels like unlocking a new superpower after watching this.
🗝🔓👂🏼
Agreed
Wow! I've been watching lots of ear training videos recently, because I'm working on my own approach to teaching it. But I've been mostly a bit disappointed by how robotic and rote everything is. In the first seconds of your video I immediately knew you were going to go deeper. I love the way you are explaining all this! Thank you! Cheers to good communication and learning! 🥂
This is an excellent video on ear training! I love your teaching approach-clear, engaging, and easy to follow. Thanks for sharing!
Today I learned that I'm really good at tonic recognition. I do it all the time when I'm doing solos.
Nice! That's very fortunate
When it comes to feeling, I have benefited in an immense way from studying Indian classical music. Look up Navtej Singh who teaches masterly. I have learned from him in 4 months what would have taken 10 years. Hard to explain but you will thank me a billions. Navtej Singh also plays amazing harmonium you will most definitely enjoy if you are music lover.
Nice! Thanks for the recommendation. Will definitely check him out. I love Indian classical! That's where the method I teach originates...
Could you tell what videos of navtej singh are you referring to?
Never realised that I have always done this naturally and since learning music theory It's been making so much sense. Feeling really is key.
This is why I think most people who play lots of instruments started out on drums. It speeds up the feeling process necessary to make learning scales and chords less stressful and easier to apply to your music. You can't force precision, it's a slow crawling into more fluid movement. Just like with correcting your bodies movements....no amount of adjustments, massage, nor pushing through it, or over-working will 100% fix anything, since you have to train the mind/body connection to function as one to allow free flow. The mind and body already know natural movement, it's just lost at a very early age. Music is no different of a sense to the brain. Rhythm literally opens the body up without conscious effort.
You make some good points there! Do you really think most multi-instrumentalists started on drums? I don't think that's been my experience with people I've met, though I haven't considered it deeply...
@@maxkonyiI play drums as well as keyboard/piano and I’m learning guitar right now. I think the main thing about learning percussion that lends itself to learning multiple instruments is that drums are literally multiple instruments. Like I had to learn how to play marimba, which is very different from a snare drum, which is very different than a timpani, which is very different than a drumset. You essentially learn how to learn if your first instrument is drums. But I know plenty of multi-instrumentalists that have never played drums, like my girlfriend who plays guitar, bass, piano, and clarinet (I showed her drums and she was better at them her first time than anyone else I’ve seen). I definitely think ear training adds to this though, because it’s really easy for me to learn guitar because I know the order I can play notes in based on piano and I can just figure out how to do that on guitar. I don’t feel like I did a good job explaining that, but hopefully it made at least a little bit of sense.
The delay with you hitting the last note is so painful!
It’s damn near palpable
A nice tool analyzing music in your head is the fact that about 95 - 99 % of all melodies in Western music (classic, jazz, pop, rock, anything), end on the tonic.
Check it out (without touching an instrument if you are trained).
Indeed!
Thanks for revealing the secret of ear training, feeling is the main ingredient that most of the music teacher never mention, thanks for guiding us in the right track as always.
🙌🙌🙌
Thank you for this insightful video! I live with a very musical caique parrot and he can listen to any song and I will hear him sing that note that pulls it all together, as you say! I never knew how to describe it, but let me tell you, this feathered friend of mine sure has a natural feel for it. Thank you! Much appreciated.
Wow that sounds unbelievable! You could make a RUclips channel of just that...
Who knows what the future brings! I'm personally more interested in 432Hz music myself. Still researching that and wanting to learn to play guitar tuned like that. One day it will all come together, I'm sure. 😉🎶
Thank you for your response!
10:25 when I heard the note and you then started to sing it was eye-opening
oh! I've been doing this unknowingly since I was a kid. I liked to try to guess what note would come next in a song, or I'd make up little tunes to hum and try to find notes that made the most sense together. I've never had any musical training so it's great to finally have a word for this.
Same here. Had a organ growing up and played that same game until it came naturally.
What's weird was when I was older and picked up a guitar, found I could play the tune by ear also.
Finding the tonic is easy. Its finding out what note it is so I can play it
Gustav Mahler's Adagietto (Symphony #5) ... The most breathtaking resolve you'll ever hear ❤
Will check!
After my retirement I started learning the piano.
Moi? The piano?
I lived my whole life joking that I was born with two left ears.
I went through 6 years of choir class where the teachers told me to move my lips and not make a noise.
And now, I'm looking at videos like this. BTW this was one of the most surprising ear training videos I've seen. And you started by descending the scale. So the leading tone is leading us away on a journey, and not leading us back home. I've asked two piano professors what would happen if someone taught students scales by descending to start with. Would that alter their musical creativity?
Great to hear! Regarding your last question there - I don't know! Despite scales generally being taught in ascending form, humans have a great propensity towards descending melodies...
Great comment! My piano teachers always had me ascend-descend in things like scales, arpeggios, etc. I had thought about why from a mechanical sense, but I hadn’t really thought about the ear training aspect of it.
I consider myself to have a “bad ear” when it comes to pitch. So, I was cynical whether a video like this would be helpful.
But, man! You crushed it. The idea of stopping music, finding that “feeling”, then attempting to sing that tonic note. This is gold!
You earned a subscriber and I hope many more follow my subscription.
You deserve it!
Much appreciated! I also considered myself to have a bad ear when I was younger...really bad!
As a teacher (comp sci, not music), congratulations for your skills in breaking down the hard stuff in its simple parts and communicating it beautifuly in simple language.
Thanks! I'm glad it's coming across...
thoroughly enjoyed this presentation. I think I would really enjoy a sequel to this, where you go into more advanced territory. If you mastered recognizing the Tonic, where do you go from there? How do other Notes FEEL in relation to the tonic? I know there's plenty of material out there already, but if you feel like making a series out of this, it would be much appreciated!
Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. More videos in this series coming soon...
@@maxkonyi Can't wait for exercises beyond the tonic!
I learned so much and I'm glad I could resolve the parts ❤
Thanks for this clear explanation. Years of playing the guitar and years of vocal entonation issues. Finally I am getting there.
I learned how to play by ear and music theory from a very young age and i can say hands down it is the most important thing you can learn as a musician that will separate you from others
Wow! Golden!
Trust your feeling and then find the courage to improvise.
Resolve when you are lost by reaching the tonic.
Thank you.
Thats an awesome class! I'm a music teacher myself and I just feel you nailed it on explaining the basics of ear training in such little time. I loved how you bring the concept of "feelings that we label". In my personal view, everything in music theory is exactly this - names we give to specific feelings caused by specific techniques of phenomena. Congratulations, and thank you for this lesson!
Agreed! I'm glad it resonated with you as well
This is the key to being able to talk through your instrument
Subscribed after the intro. That tickled my brain in the perfect way
SUCCESS
I got chills
Same here, sinestesic ❤
i think this concept exists in language learning too. in our native tongue, we won't always be able to say exactly how we know something is gibberish, or why someone's accent doesn't sound native - we just know that it sounds 'off'. (maybe two words that should rhyme don't, or a word is unusual for a certain context, etc.) spelling as well - if it looks off we keep trying different things until it's resolved/familiar. this intuition is built somewhat passively over time as a child, but can still be achieved as an adult, especially with active learning.
all to say, listening is super important to build a strong foundation! thanks for sharing ♥
Thank you. My history is that of not being able to carry a tune, but I easily felt/heard the tonic note.
Ah! This is an interesting approach - I remember studying this with my piano teacher when we went through a (terrifying) book on harmony in music. The theory of it made me stress out to such an extreme point that we eventually ended up with me ditching the book and he taught me to learn by “feeling”. Seeing a visual element added to that is fascinating! Took me back to when I was in school. Good video :)
Amazing video. I'm a private piano/music teacher of many years and I was NOT taught this logic as a student. I love finding resources like this online and sharing them with my students. I will definitely be sharing this with them, along with your course.
Nice! Thank you 🙏
OMG I thought I’m the only one who does this… Thanks for sharing! I use this method to quickly recognize the locrian mode since the next note it gives me is automatically the tonic
Is that why I get shivers on certain notes , Or I get excited when listening to _For eg: HansZimmer-Man of Steel tracks_
And this is how Films are scored right???
I never understood how to explain to people the Way I listen to Music and Sounds.... but this is what it is...
And i think most people just put on headphones and blast something.....
But i truly get immersed into it.....
its actually incredible to have that ability. To feel.
While getting shivers and becoming emotionally moved by the feelings of a song is definitely related to the tonic (tonality in general), there are many more factors at play. Also, beyond all the theory, some people are just more sensitive and attuned to music in general!
In the end I could recognise the tonic! When i started learning the theory it seemed so frustrating these scales and I don't know how the notes sound but here i understood how to find it with my inner voice or by singing aloud. Thank you a lot!!! Will practice.
Great to hear!
wow the animations with the music made the video much more enjoyable
Glad you like them! Trying new stuff...
LOVE this video!!! I'm a live musician that pursued DJing. I highly recommend this to any DJs out there. I use it to fine tune my students ears. I myself watch it frequently to keep my ears sharp. thank you for making such an awesome tutorial!!!
You're an excellent teacher. This is the first time that ear training has really made sense to me.
This is an extremely important skill many fail to learn, even with years of experience. It's also good to watch out thay you don't confuse the tonal center, with the tonic function, as they are not the same. Many confuse tonicization for modulation due to that.
An important distinction for sure. Both leverage the same mechanism but with varying degrees of strength and permanence.
"atonality doesn't exist" - @Whatismusic123
This is great. I'm an artist relatively new to making music, and I use the same approach in color mixing. Instinctively note the feeling the color produces, and then mix till that feeling is matched. With the music I've been singing to harmonize with notes or chords, and find that this feeling and expectancy for notes is slowly developing.
Yeah! Great to hear. It all comes in time...
In addition to the importance of your presentation, I really liked the depth/fullness of the piano or keyboard you were playing. Please tell us the make, model, etc. - thank you.
I believe I was using a plugin called Keyscape for this. An amazing sounding piano. I'm playing on a MIDI controller, not a digital piano. The controller is a NI S61 mk2
Ive never thought about music like a feel. Mind blown 😲
Much more palatable than most who try to explain music theory. Thank you
Thank you so much for making this. What a wonderful gift to young people learning to understand and create music.
I wish my music teacher had approached teaching like this. I wasted 8 years on empty technique, learning nothing of musicality itself.
Great video. Had a teacher tell me that an easy way to find the tonic is to find a note that you can hum throughout the entire piece that makes sense at any point in the song.
Not always true but not a bad starting place!
Amazing my brain automatically do that, especially when the radio stopped in the car and I will finish the note or the sound ... So cool and I have no idea... 😊 Thanks
I was so happy when I got the challenges at the end but on the last one I did one lower octave than the note highlighted in the song.
No need to worry about which octave. It's just the note/degree that matters!
Awesome videos. You are a great teacher. Keep it up. Love this stuff.
Thanks!
Love you! Amazing how easy the complicated stuff gets through you!
Hi Max, greetings from Hungary! I really appreciate your video - I just came to this one after watching the replay of the livestream on feeling the major scale. I have struggled with ear training for all my years playing guitar. It's only been the last couple of years that I've felt like I've made some progress.
I look forward to putting your techniques/exercises to use because I get a strong feeling that you've really landed on something super important. So thank you!
Great to hear! My last name is Hungarian 😎
yoooooooooooooooooooooo
thanks again for the help in discord, I honestly dont deserve to know all of this so quickyl tysm
My pleasure!
I’ve never checked this out before, because I didn’t know it existed. I just know I’ve been doing it now that I’ve seen this video. The first example was easy for me… not sure of the second example… but it was a great experience.
My grandfather tried to explain this to me when i was a teenager trying to emulate his guitar playing but he wasnt great at explaining stuff, this is helpful for me. He was self taught and just played by feel on several instruments with real skill and natural instinct. But he couldn't say why the tones should change, for him it was just obvious and natural where to go with the melody and progression, i wish i could do that myself. He gave me his song book but it was just lyrics because he didnt need to know the chords lol 😂
That's great ✨
I can't describe how much I appreciate this video! This is the best ear training I've seen so far! You're amazing! Thank you very so much!
This is so true for technique, writing etc. art is so intellectualized because of the educational complex where people are just trying to make a living while “explaining” music, but so much of it is…. Not at the core of actually learning it.
Videos that describe the truth are few and far between. Thank you.
Agreed!
Sometimes I find myself watching videos like these, and then remember that I've been playing music for 15 years and I've already trained my ears
Success!
The thing I love about music is that it teaches me to learn to feel!
This was good thanks In my experience don't think anyone has ever done something like this
To all the prods, he's refferring "routenote" as the tonic
To clarify:
Root note = the generating tone or home-note of a chord.
Tonic = the generating tone or home-note of a key/scale.
Man the first 4 seconds, what a wizard
Hey thanks for the info, I would also recommend that after you watch this video watch it again with your eyes closed and just feel the difference with your hands on your laptop feel the difference with your eyes open then closed......
A feeling state. The word "Tonic" might be on my mind for the rest of the day. Thank you. 😮
THE SONG YOU PLAYED SOUNDS AMAZING. Will def check out all your playlists, especially weekly productions
I have never left a comment on youtube (almost lying), but here I have to say I fell in love with the sound of the intro. So holy deep... (deep... deep...) (still vibing)...
Ha! Glad you enjoyed it. The intro chord is tuned in what's called "just intonation", which is essentially nature's tuning. Perhaps that's why it feels as it does! This particular chord uses what's known as a harmonic seventh interval, which is potentially my favourite musical sound!
@@maxkonyi hey, super thanks for that feedback. Unique and powerful sound. I have had that kind of natural sound experience when playing some tunes with glass cups and random water levels... I would call it, "the magic tuning". Haha thanks again, brohug!
Lately Ive been trying to rework the way I think about music, using functional harmony and some Barry Harris techniques. I think this is one of the main concepts to grasp, being able to feel and identify the direction of music and how each part 'relates' to its counterparts. Really cool video man!
Very interesting approach. I’d LinkedIn to try.
Amazing video. I didn't think it could be so easy to get the tonic in a complete song.
I guess the years of playing guitar and singing allows me to recognize tonics easily. I never learned a lot of music theory so I’m now going through from the start to try and up my skills.
Wow, what a different take on it! I can really appreciate this-thank you!!
Thank you for this! It was so surprising and exciting everytime i got it right. Super engaging and compelling, will keep practicing ❤
Good stuff!
I can identify the tonic on all of those. I also know a lot of theory, scales/modes, extended chords, harmonic analysis.
I also have what I can only call tonal memory, don;t know if there is a term. I just heard a song from the Police from whatever album, I can't remember, and having heard the album in order years or decades ago I knew/felt next song in the album was Message In a Bottle. I remembered the starting note, and checked it on the piano and I looked for the recording and it was correct (C#). Now, I don't know what relation (or interval) it had to the previous song, but I just remembered the note. I can hear songs and in one or two notes can "Name that tune", but it's also using the instrumentation, timbre of voices, etc.
Anyway, I haven't found a way to use those abilities to follow in my head what the progression or just the bass note of the chords are. I could do it if it's just I - IV - V, but I can't do it on more complicated songs. I can identify and sing the bass note in the chord progression, but don't feel the interval between notes if it's more than stepwise motion. I can identify intervals if presented melodically and given time, but not follow the movement up and down. Perhaps I haven't worked at it enough or not had the training and method needed. I will check out your other videos.
Great! Yeah, I address things like this in some other ear training videos. It's about the feeling of each scale degree and/or chord position as opposed to melodic interval distances between them.
the quality of this channel insane!! def subscribed
Thank you very much for a perspective I have not seen before and more importantly I relate to seemingly innately. Congratulations and again thank you.
This was awesome. Just bought the ear training course since it’s on sale! I’ve got tons of theory resources but the method of ear training you show in this video really clicked with me in ways other content hasn’t before.
You bought which ear training course?? I don't have one...yet
@@maxkonyioh I meant MWD1! My point was that I'm primarily interested in the ear training section
@@oscarwong67 Got it!
Stumbled across this vid today and I felt compelled to say that your delivery is fantastic! These demo tracks sound amazing too, definitely going to deep diving your discog! +1 Sub
this just came up on my recommended..thankkyouu universe
great video with great value
Thanks for this great video, Max. Music = Emotion. That's why it transcends all languages and effects us as at a very organic level. Someone once asked me at a songwriting workshop, "How do you know if a song is good?" I replied, "If it doesn't make you feel something, it's not."
Yessir!
Jesus christ you are so terrible wrong.
Great video. I wished I was able to watch this as an intro to music instead of being overwhelmed with theory
Well somehow I just knew that it was an E and G being played when you hit the notes 😅 Love this method!
i was so excited that i screamed "YAAAS!!" when i resolved the last example perfectly! the E minor one, i resolved a octave lower than you played and it was bit off maybe but the G was exactly the same tone and pitch that you sang! this affirms me so much in that i am not too late, i can really do this!
i think how i learned to find the tonic is because when i watch movies and there's some movie music i've never heard before, i always guess where the music goes next! it has trained my ear without me doing actually anything ear training related ever!! i can't believe that i just have this accurate ear, it must be because of this! well, i am an high functioning autist so maybe that has something to do with it too!
bit context for interested, i was always a musical child, could sing well before my voice change but stopped singing in 7th grade. tried to learn a bit of guitar and bass as a kid and played a bit of drums in highschool, actually performed one song in our schools spring fest. after school i only listened music, didn't sing or play anything really.
in 2020 i was exhausted, i burned out in my job. i dropped to welfare to cure my depression that had lasted for years. i started to dabble with guitar when i met the first person i ever knew who can play a solo on a guitar. i wanted to do that, but in my experience the learning curve was so deep i thought it's mere impossible to try and learn instrument at age 26. but i tried and actually did learn some, but got discouraged for some reason after less than a year of playing. one reason was i didn't like my instrument, a cheap strat knock-off, not even a squier. i was disappointed in myself and got even more depressed.
two months ago i found my dream guitar, the exact one i knew i maybe could be able to afford on social security. Epiphone Les Paul, in black, even the colour was right! it must've been the universe looking out for me because i just happened to have the money for it since it was payday that day, i was looking to get strings to that shitty strat because i wanted some guitar to play. it was godsend. i bought the strings, left the store, turned back after hundred meters and bought the damn guitar, i said to myself this is something i cannot pass, let me atleast try it if it feels good to play. went to store, tested it briefly (ppl came in an i hadn't played in two years or more, sucked so much i was so embarrassed) and thought fuck it, i'll be hungry af this month but i have to get the guitar. and so i got it.
have played every day for almost two and a half months now and i got all i lost back very quickly with so much more. i'm so glad i did buy it. friend says i could have what it takes to be great because of how fast i learn. he bugged me to take a teacher for myself, i thought i would never dare bcos of my shyness. but i sent a message to his old teacher, a superb musician of 30 years. left him a long message introducing myself and evem though he doesn't really teach that much anymore, he was intrigued and accepted!! i start next month with a purpose to get in a music school here in finland in next 5 years. i am so excited and this video did actually affirm me that i do have musical proclivity, or even little bit of talent. now i apply hard work and see where all this goes.
wish me luck all, and thank you Max for these great ear training vids! most helpful stuff on ear training i have come across
if you read all the way down here, thanks and cheers from 🇫🇮!!
That's wonderful to hear 🌞 Thanks for sharing the story! Excited for you to explore the musical world. You will not regret it
@@maxkonyi thank you so much! i'm so excited too. the hard thing for me is, to stick with it when the excitement inevitably lessens. actually improving and getting deeper understanding of music through these kind of super valuable lessons helps with that for sure. but inevitably it's up to me and only me; and it has helped to reach this conclusion. as i was younger i searched for motivation from outside sources, or rather just waited doing nothing, for the inspiration to come around. now if i feel uninspired i just still pick the guitar up and the inspiration usually comes, or it doesn't. there's always s next day and there's no point to beat yourself up for not being inspired 24/7. it's all a learning curve and it all helps with other areas in life aswell. music truly is a cure for depression for example.
This is very interesting! I'm not a music professional or something but I listen to music a lot. I actually have like a radio in my head. I think this helps a lot to remember the notes exactly like in the original song. Sometimes I need to listen to a song multiple times (if it has a complicated melody) but I finally end up "feeling" the entire song. The problem is that I can't name or produce the notes, just feel them.
Wow you are so underrated. I really needed this since many months ago that I started learning music. Please let us know how we should move forward from this.
idk bout you guys, but while im watching the video he is always looking at me from every angle.
Great Teacher
Thank you sir. You're amazing
Looks like this video is popping off now man. Awesome! I bet it feels weird since it's been 10 months lol
But honestly about time. You did a GREAT job describing this and giving examples. Reqlly walked us through it. I pretty much copied your video and used this as a script to teach my own students the same thing!! Love it. The production level is also fantastic. Love it
Yeah super weird to see it take off all of a sudden! Glad you enjoyed it. I'm happy to hear you're using the ideas with your students! 🌞
Great exercise! Thanks for putting words to the feeling, Max
Thanks Annalee! Nice to see you here 🌞
praise be sent to ya whole lineage, this was so helpful in understanding
Yeah, i loved that first track you played at the ending section! it was the bassoon playing the tonic most of the time. Killer!
What an amazing video.
I have developed a quite finely tuned and discerning ear towards exotic scales, different textures and timbers of sound, individual to cultural styles and stylistic choices, and can count and produce odd time signatures with ease, while at the same time having the feeling like I have always been missing a fundament to my harmonic competency... This is like the central puzzle that I have been ignorant of for to long and which I am hoping to develop more now.
You have a super empathic way of teaching!
Looking forward to checking out more of your work. Thank you a lot!
So happy it was helpful for you! Sounds like you've developed some very useful skills in other areas, which also very valuable.
Very good advice mate, good vid. Music is all about feeling.
Informative for sure
music is not study music is feeling and art