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Musicality

As musicians and music lovers we all have

some instinctive understanding of what
“musicality” is, and perhaps we can even spot it
when we see (or hear) it. Do we truly
understand the full range of skills and
experience bundled up in that simple word
though?

Musicality is a set of “inner skills” which let

you freely and confidently express yourself in
music. This is a very useful catch-all for “being
musical”. It encompasses many of the skills we
teach here at Musical U.

→ Learn about Musicality

Ear Training
Ear Training is the process of developing your ear for music. If you love music, and especially
if you play a musical instrument or produce music, ear training can help you to develop a
musical ear so that you:

hear more in the music you listen to

understand what you’re hearing, and
have more creative freedom and control to express yourself through music.

People often assume that to have a good ear for music—meaning to play by ear, to write
songs, to have perfect pitch, and so on—you need to be born with the “gift” of music. This is
not true.

Musicality is learnable, and even the most impressive and natural-seeming can be learned
through dedicated ear training exercises.

In the past, ear training was a slow process involving tedious repetitive work. Now, in the
21st century, training can be easy, fun and effective by using modern technology to make ear
training perfectly suit you and your love of music.

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The main
benefits of ear
training for
musicians are
that it can give
you that “ear for
music” that lets
you play more
freely and
expressively,
play by ear, write
songs, and enjoy
music much
more. The main
benefits of ear
training for
audio
professionals are
that it gives you
a sharper ear to
hear the
differences that
can improve a
mix, add
excitement to a
song, or let you fix problems directly rather than wasting time guessing at what you’re meant
to be hearing.

Ear training is also intimately related to singing. Because the human voice is an instrument
that everybody has, it is the most natural and direct way to experiment with the musical
listening skills that you practice with ear training. You can use singing to help with ear
training, and you can use ear training to help with singing—by improving your tuning and
intonation, and helping you with sight-singing.

Who does Ear Training?

There are two main groups of people who do ear training:

Musicians: From every walk of life all over the world, people who play music, learn
instruments, write songs and compose symphonies… all use ear training to improve
their ear for music.

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 Audio professionals: In all areas of audio, from live concert sound engineers to DJs,
recording engineers and studio producers… audio professionals use ear training to
hone their sensitivity to the details in sound.

Musicians find that ear training helps no matter:

What instrument they play – guitar, piano, classical violin, and even singing
What style of music they like – jazz musicians, rock musicians, classical musicians,
folk musicians and church musicians
What their musical goals are – whether playing by ear, improvising, or simply
playing more expressively and accurately

By doing focused exercises for listening skills, a musician can enhance their inner musicality
and so improve their craft. That’s exactly why all serious music institutions like Berklee
College of Music make ear training a core part of the curriculum.

Audio professionals find that ear training helps whether they are:

Focused on frequencies – tweaking EQ at the mixing desk or using band filters to

improve recordings
Using audio effects – creating the perfect sound by employing state-of-the-art audio
effects
Troubleshooting audio – with live sound at concerts or in the studio, audio pros
need to fix sound problems quickly

By equipping them with the enhanced ears they need to hear the detail, identify problems
and areas of improvement, and apply their tools directly to get results, ear training lets audio
pros stay at the top of their game. That’s why we call the best of them “Golden Ears!”

Why Musicians Are Training Their Ear

Many musicians start out in ear training because it is an essential part of instrument exams,
for example the ABRSM exam aural skills tests. However, these tests are quite limited in
what they cover, and are often taught in a very non-musical way! This leads to musicians
thinking ear training is just about passing tests and learning music theory.

Nothing could be further than the truth!

Ear training is fundamentally about hearing and understanding music.

Musicians who spend time on ear training do it because it helps them be better at music. You
can spend hours practicing guitar or piano and still never be able to play by ear. You can play
scales and practice repertoire for hours on end, and still not know how to improvise a great
solo or write a moving song.

These kinds of “natural” musical skills rely on your brain and your ear.

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By doing musical ear training, any musician can gain these skills.

For example, although it can appear effortless and like a “gift” when the best musicians do it,
playing by ear is a learnable skill. By developing your ear for music by dedicated ear
training exercises, you too can start to instinctively understand what you hear in music, and
play it back on your instrument.

Another example: you may have struggled with melodic dictation, or music transcription in
the past. By improving your musical ear with ear training, you can connect the sounds of
music with their written form so that music dictation and transcription become easy, natural
activities.

Why Producers and Audio Engineers are Training Their Ear

Ear training has long been a part of audio engineers’ professional training, and anyone who
spends hours listening to music recordings and making minor adjustments to improve the
sound can benefit from training their ears.

Like in the music world, those who naturally start out with better ears are revered as “gifted”.
They even have a name for it: “Golden Ears”

But just like with music, in the audio realm, ear training can help you get those seemingly
instinctive skills.

For example, most engineers gradually develop a sense of how to adjust EQ bands to improve
the sound balance of multiple tracks on their DAW. By doing dedicated ear training these
skills can be tightly honed, so that rather than being a slow process of trial-and-error on a 10-
Band EQ, they can look at a 30-Band EQ and instantly tweak just the right band up or down
to improve the mix.

Audio ear training isn’t just about frequencies. It’s also about other aspects of sound, such as
the audio effects applied. This includes reverb, distortion, modulation effects and so on—
these all change the nature of the sound, and by doing focused ear training exercises, audio
pros can learn how to set FX to create the perfect sound for any situation.

With dedicated audio ear training, any audio professional or recording musician can upgrade
their ears until they too gleam like those renowned “Golden Ears”!

Why Music Fans are Training their Ear

Music is amazing, beloved by people of every age, gender, race, and culture. Wouldn’t it be
great if there was a way to enjoy every piece of music you listen to. (every song, every
chord, every note) more?

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Ear training isn’t just for serious musicians and audio professionals. Even if you are simply
an enormous music lover, musical ear training can help you hear more in music, understand
music more, and enjoy music more.

It’s like the difference between visiting a foreign country and enjoying the overall experience
of being immersed in the culture… and actually learning a bit of the language before your
trip, so that you can read signs, understand snippets of conversation, and actually meet some
of the locals.

Ear training for music fans can let you feel like a musician yourself, without the need to ever
pick up an instrument. You can learn the names of those musical elements that sound so
familiar, and get a better musical ear to appreciate a wider variety of musical styles and
genres in a meaningful way.

Why Singers are Training their Ear

Ear training is a powerful tool for singers too. Whether you’re a:

solo singer
vocalist in a rock band
singer in your local church choir or community choir, or
you just enjoy singing in the shower

you can learn to sing more accurately and more confidently by doing singing ear training.

The main benefits are that developing your sense of relative pitch with ear training gives you
better intonation (so you’ll never sing out of tune) and lets you sight-sing with confidence, by
using interval recognition skills to judge note leaps reliably and sing them accurately. Singing
harmony also becomes easier, as your musical ear is more sensitive to the other notes being
sung or played. A vital skill for choral singing!

Singing is one of the most fun and natural forms of musical expression, and singing ear
training can ensure you make the most of your inner instrument: the voice!

→ Learn more about singing ear training

Types of Ear Training

There is a wide variety of types of ear training—just like there is a wide variety of musicians,
music-lovers and audio professionals!

Pick a topic in music, and the chances are there is a corresponding form of ear training to
help you better recognize, create, or understand that topic by ear. Your ears are your primary
tool in music, and so doing ear training exercises to target whatever area you’re working on is

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a truly effective way to boost your improvement in that area.

Here are some of the most popular ear training topics.

Pitch Ear Training

Pitch ear training is all about the notes in music, and specifically their pitch: how high or
low they are. Every note has a particular pitch, and humans are naturally able to hear this
property. Even when you listen to somebody speak, you can hear the pitch of their voice go
up and down (important for language ear training, especially for tonal languages like
Chinese!)

There are two distinct ways you can tune your ear in to the pitches of notes:

1. You can identify them in “absolute” terms: without any other point of reference. We call
this your sense of absolute pitch or “perfect pitch”.
2. You can identify them by comparison to the pitch of other notes (for example, the note
before or after it). We call this your sense of relative pitch.

You can do absolute pitch ear training and relative pitch ear training. Relative pitch is more
important for most musicians, but in fact it’s most beneficial to do a bit of both!

Absolute Pitch and “Perfect Pitch”

One of the most controversial topics in music: Perfect Pitch!

Perfect pitch, or more accurately called “absolute pitch”, is the ability to identify a note by
ear, without using any known note as a point of comparison.

A musician with perfect pitch can tell you out of nowhere that a single note played is a C
rather than a C#, or a G, or any other note. They can tell what key a piece is in, without using
an instrument to check. They can write down music they hear in their head exactly, without
needing to play it on an instrument or use computer software to check it sounds how they
think it will.

So absolute pitch is certainly a powerful skill. But because it’s so impressive, and some people
naturally have a strong ability in this skill, many people incorrectly assume it is a “gift”,
something that “natural musicians” are born with and nobody else can do. Although some
people do have absolute pitch from a young age, abilities may vary (they’re not always
“perfect”!) and it is a learnable skill.

One way to learn absolute pitch is to start with reference tone ear training, such as using a
tuning fork or the note “middle C” as a single pitch you will practice identifying regularly.
With this kind of perfect pitch ear training you drill the sound of the pitch into your brain—
and believe it or not, your brain is more than capable of learning the particular frequency of
that note.

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Once you have internalized one reference pitch like this, you can either extend your perfect
pitch skills by training with more notes, or combine it with relative pitch ear training to
identify other notes based on your reference pitch.

→ Learn more about perfect pitch ear training

Relative Pitch

For most musicians, relative pitch ear training is far more useful than absolute pitch ear
training. It is rare that one needs to identify an exact note without any point of reference, but
judging pitch differences and identifying one note based on another is a practical everyday
musical skill.

Relative pitch is primarily developed using interval training and chord training. An interval
is simply the distance in pitch between two notes, and by practicing identifying intervals, and
later chords (combinations of three or more notes), you improve your sense of relative pitch
and can apply it directly to help you in music. For example, whether you realize it or not, the
following musical activities all depend on your relative pitch skills:

playing by ear
composing music
writing melodies and chords for songs
improvising or playing solos
sight-singing music and harmonizing in a choir

Relative pitch also helps you to connect traditional music notation with the actual sound of
the music. At first when you learn to read music you probably connect it with your
instrument, learning how to move your fingers to play the notes written. But add in relative
pitch ear training and the notation comes to life, as you can look at the notes on the page and
actually hear in your head how the music would sound. This skill is called audiation—and it’s
fundamental to developing real musicianship!

Doing relative pitch ear training helps you with note recognition in a variety of musical
contexts, from working out chord progressions to play songs by ear, to writing down the
music you hear in your head, or improvising more freely and creatively on your instrument.
If you also practice perfect pitch ear training you can anchor these skills to particular keys
too, knowing not just the relationships between the notes, but exactly which notes they are.

→ Learn more about relative pitch ear training

Being In Tune

Have you ever worried about whether you’re in tune or not? It’s a point of concern and
sometimes embarrassment for a lot of musicians. Nowadays, with electronic tuners,
instrumentalists like guitar players don’t need to worry so much about being able to hear if

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their instrument is perfectly in tune. But it’s still important to be able to recognize whether
you’re playing in tune, whether your string bends are pitched right, and so on. Pitch ear
training can help develop your musical ear in this way.

There’s also one group to whom the digital tuner is no help: Singers!

If you’re singing in a choir, performing solo, or fronting a band, you need to be able to pitch
your notes accurately, and be confident that you’re singing in tune. Even if you’re on backing
vocals, or just occasionally want to sing something to express a musical idea, pitch ear
training can help you develop your sense of tuning and connect it with your voice so that you
always sing in tune.

Interval Ear Training

Interval recognition is where most people get started in ear training. It’s the fundamental
skill for relative pitch: identifying one note based on another, by accurately hearing the
difference in pitch, which we call the “interval” between the notes.

For example, with interval ear training you can learn to hear that one note is a “perfect fifth”
above another note, and if you know that the first note was a C, you can work out that the
second was a G. In this way you can work out all the notes in a melody, or figure out chord
progressions by ear. Other types of interval you’ve probably encountered in music theory or
aural skills tests are perfect fourths, octaves, major thirds and minor thirds.

Intervals are the building blocks of melody and harmony, and so if you want to understand
the notes of music, interval training should be central to your ear training practice.

You can improve interval recognition by doing specific interval ear training exercises where
you practice hearing the difference between one type of interval and another. Most people
will start with a small set of intervals (e.g. just thirds, or fourths and fifths), and gradually
introduce the inversions and harmonic forms.

→ Learn more about intervals ear training

Chords Ear Training

Chords are how musicians tend to think about harmony in music: multiple notes played at
once. Different combinations of notes will have different characteristic sounds based on the
relative pitch relationships between their notes, and chord ear training teaches you to
identify these different chord types by ear.

Any chord is a combination of notes above a root or tonic note, and using relative pitch ear
training and specific chord ear training exercises you can train your ears to hear what makes
these combinations distinctive. Chord recognition like this is useful for playing by ear and

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writing music, but also just enriches your enjoyment of music by building your harmonic
appreciation skills and letting you hear more detail in the music you listen to.

One you’ve mastered recognizing the basic types of chord you can move on to training more
advanced chords (like jazz chords) and recognizing chord inversions. These are all a part of
relative pitch ear training, so your skills combine and you can actually identify a chord using
your ability to identify an interval.

→ Learn more about chords ear training

Recognizing Triads

There are four types of triad chord which are the basis of most commonly-used chord types,
so if you’re starting chords ear training, learning to recognize triads is a good first goal. The
four types are major triad, minor triad, augmented triad, and diminished triad, and each has
quite a different character.

(embed sound examples)

If you want to practice chord ear training, start with triad ear training and particularly
learning to distinguish major and minor triads.

Recognizing Jazz Chords

One thing which makes jazz music distinctive is its use of more interesting harmonies than
other musical genres, and this boils down to using particular types of chord. Loosely called
“jazz chords”, these include seventh chords (which are four-note chords featuring the seventh
note of the scale) and extended chords (which add in notes further than an octave away from
the tonic).

Ear training for seventh and extended chords, and jazz ear training in general can let you
recognize and understand these advanced harmonies in music, and use them in your own
composing and playing.

Scales Ear Training

Let’s be honest: most musicians dislike scales. They are often simply a dull part of instrument
practice and an unwelcome part of instrument exams! But fundamentally a scale is simply
the palette of notes you draw on in a particular musical context—so connect the theory of
scales with their actual sound (by doing scale ear training) and scales can become a powerful
tool in your musical arsenal.

Just like with chords and intervals, there are different types of scales, and scale ear training
lets you learn to recognize these by ear. At first you learn to recognize the scale when played
up and down in sequence from the tonic, but as you improve your scale recognition skills you
can learn to recognize scales when they’re used in melody and harmony too.

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If you play an instrument you’re probably already familiar with major scales and minor
scales. Use scale training to build on this to more advanced scale types and more versatile
scale recognition.

Chord Progressions Ear Training

If you want to learn to play songs by ear, the best kind of ear training to do is chord
progressions ear training. A chord progression is just what we call a sequence of chords in
music, so if you’re trying to work out how to play the accompaniment of a song by ear, chord
progression ear training is the key.

This is another relative pitch listening skill, as you recognize the sequence of chords based on
the relationship between each chord and the next chord, or each chord and the key’s tonic.
You listen for the interval between each tonic note. Practicing chord progression ear training
builds up this kind of relative pitch ability in your ear.

Here’s a surprising fact: a staggering proportion of songs use just three or four chords! That’s
why three chord songs and four chord songs are hot topics in chord progressions ear training.

3 Chord Songs

If you’ve ever wondered why so many modern songs sound the same, or why a new pop song
on the radio can sound really familiar even the first time you hear it, the reason is: three
chord songs. There are three chords which work particularly well together, called the “one”
“four” and “five” chords, normally written in roman numerals “I” “IV” and “V”. Doing chord
ear training for just these 3 lets you play a huge proportion of popular songs by ear.

If you’ve wondering what people are talking about when they say:

“play a one four five”

“its a 1, 4, 5 in G”
“it moves to the dominant, and then half a bar on the subdominant”

.. or you’re looking for the fastest way to improve your playing by ear skills: it’s time to do
some three chord song ear training!

4 Chord Songs

Just one notch trickier than three chord songs, you can improve your play-by-ear skills even
more dramatically with some ear training for four chord songs. By adding the “relative
minor” or “six chord” (written “vi”) even more chord progressions are unlocked. Again, you’d
be amazed just how many classic pop and rock songs use just these 4 chord!

There’s a reason they call these the “magic four chords”. Chord progressions ear training with
the 1, 4, 5 and 6 chords can keep you playing songs by ear for a very, very long time…!

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→ Learn more about chord progressions ear training

Rhythm Ear Training

Many musicians neglect rhythm ear training or take rhythm skills for granted, but having a
tight sense of rhythm, and the ability to keep the beat and have accurate timing when you
play is a big part of what distinguishes a professional-sounding performance from an
amateurish one.

Some people are born with a strong natural sense of rhythm, but for most musicians it’s
something that takes practice, and rhythm ear training can help you improve your rhythm in
music. This is of course particularly important for players of rhythm instruments (drums,
bass guitar, etc.) and percussionists but every musician can benefit from training their sense
of rhythm!

Rhythm ear training doesn’t just help you become a more polished performer, it also unlocks
your awareness of different musical genres, since rhythm is so often key to what defines a
musical style or genre. Doing rhythm ear training exercises teaches your ear to distinguish
rhythmic style in a more sophisticated and useful way.

A closely related area is tempo ear training: learning to keep a steady beat, and judge changes
in musical tempo (BPM) accurately and reliably.

→ Learn more about rhythm ear training

Ear Training and “Playing By Ear”

Playing By Ear is one of the most highly-prized musical skills, and musicians who can play by
ear have an unparalleled freedom and enjoyment of music. Despite the popular
misconception that only certain musicians are capable of playing by ear, it is a learnable
musical skill which depends on your listening skills.

By doing ear training focused on the various aural skills necessary to play by ear, any
musician can learn to play music by ear. If you play an instrument you can almost certainly
already play some things by ear. Clapping back a rhythm. Singing back a melody you have
heard. Slowly working out how to play your favorite song by ear. These are all basic versions
of playing by ear, and you can build on them with ear training exercises to increase your
ability and play more advanced music by ear.

Many people interpret the phrase “playing by ear” to mean “play songs on guitar without
written music”. This is indeed one form of playing by ear, and chord ear training can help any
guitar player learn to do this. But it is just one part of a broader set of play-by-ear skills.

→ Learn more about playing by ear

Ear Training for Improvising Music

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Improvising music can seem like a very advanced musical ability – the territory of
professional jazz musicians, or “natural” blues musicians. Some musicians spend time
learning to improvise, but in very restricted ways, like the guitarist who meanders up and
down the pentatonic scale but can’t really venture beyond that sound.

Improvisation ear training can build up your ability to bring the music in your head out on
your instrument, and improvise in a far more creative, expressive and confident way. Rather
than being trapped in particular scales and known patterns, you can use the relative pitch
listening skills developed through interval ear training and chord ear training to know which
notes you want to play to achieve the musical impact you intend.

Whether you play rock music, jazz, or blues, learning to improvise is a very empowering
experience, and can lead to a confidence on your instrument that’s hard to reach when you
always depend on written music, or playing other people’s compositions by ear.
Improvisation ear training builds the core listening skills you need to improvise freely.

Ear Training for Composing Music

Composers and song writers depend on their musicality to create new and interesting music.
When a composer sits down to write something new, they depend on their “mind’s ear”, the
ability we call “audiation” to first hear the music in their mind, and then bring it out, on
paper, through software, or on an instrument. Ear training develops this core musicality.

If you want to:

write better songs

compose more innovative music
make the process of writing music more easy and natural

you’ll find that ear training can equip you with the “inner ear” you need.

Audio Frequency Ear Training

For music producers and other audio professionals, audio frequency recognition is the
number one priority in ear training. Audio frequency ear training teaches your ear and brain
to more precisely process the incoming sound and classify it into “bands” of frequency. For
example, the bass bands (20Hz-262Hz), mid bands (262Hz-2kHz) and treble bands (2kHz-
21kHz).

By doing frequency ear training exercises, you can learn to hear the EQ balance by ear and so
adjust your mix to improve the sound. You might hear that the 240Hz band is too loud, and
tweak that slider on your mixing desk or DAW software to cut it by a few decibels.

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Frequency ear training can start off from the basic appreciation of bass/mid/treble, move on
to 10-band EQ training (with white noise or pink noise, and then real music) and then even
into the third-octave bands of a 30-band equalizer!

This sensitivity to the frequencies in music, and ability to act accordingly to improve the mix
or fix problems is what gives the best studio engineers the name “golden ears” – it’s all in the
ear, and it all comes from ear training.

→ Learn more about frequency ear training

Audio Effects Ear Training

These days it’s rare for recorded music not to feature audio effects (FX) of one kind or
another. Depending on the genre and the artist, it could be a distortion effect, compression,
reverb, modulation effects, or other weird and wacky audio processing! There’s almost
certainly some audio effects at work.

Doing audio effects ear training can teach you to:

hear when FX are being used

judge the settings for FX and know how to adjust them
combine FX to achieve exactly the sound you have in mind

You might be a guitar player using effects pedals to control your tone, or a producer making
adjustments in the studio when recording an album, or a live sound engineer responsible for
creating the band’s characteristic sound. Whatever the case, honing your audio effects
listening skills with FX ear training can help make sure you know exactly what impact effects
have on music.

→ Learn more about effects ear training

Ear Training Apps

In the past ear training was a slow and boring process, most often done by sitting at a piano
and bashing away at notes for hours trying to drill particular sounds into your head.

Now, ear training can be fun, varied and exciting, and one of the best ways to achieve that is
with ear training apps. There are iOS ear training apps and ear training apps for Android, not
to mention lots of online ear trainers. They can all be used to do ear training in a way that
suits you, at whatever time and place is convenient.

For example, use an interval app to develop your relative pitch, or a melody app to practice
playing by ear

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Do mobile ear training or ear training online, but make sure you take advantage of modern
technology to make your ear training exercises enjoyable!

Ear Training is not Music Theory!

Ear training is often associated with music theory, but in fact it is a separate skill and
something worth studying in its own right. You can view instrument learning, music theory,
and ear training as a trio which work together, each complementing the others, and each
bringing its own musical benefits:

Instrument Learning
Music Theory
Ear Training

None of these alone will make you a truly great musician! The fastest way to become a
confident and excellent musician is to study all three together.

It’s helpful to have some knowledge of music theory and music notation to do ear training, so
that you understand the basic concepts like intervals and scales. But really, ear training is
about developing the listening skills that correspond to those theoretical concepts.

Ear training isn’t totally abstract like music theory and it isn’t totally practical like learning
an instrument. Ear training is what bridges the two worlds and allows you to use your music
theory when you play your instrument. It brings the theory to life by giving you the listening
skills to recognize and use the theory ideas in real musical situations.

Can Ear Training Help if I’m Tone Deaf?

“Tone deaf” means being unable to hear how high or low notes are.

Sadly, many people go through life believing that they are “tone deaf”. This normally stems
from being told that they “can’t sing” or that they are “out of tune” when singing as a child.

In fact research has shown it is only a tiny proportion of the world’s population who are truly
tone deaf!

The vast majority of people are perfectly capable of having a good sense of pitch, and the
ability to sing in tune. Just two things hold them back:

1. Under-developed listening skills: they can’t hear whether they are in tune or not
2. Under-developed vocal control: they can’t reliably sing the note they want to

The combination of these two leads to unreliable singing performance, and many people get
frustrated or embarrassed and simply declare themselves “tone deaf” – and miss out on all
the joys that music can bring!

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There is one powerful solution to both of these problems: ear training. By doing pitch ear
training, most anyone can fix problem #1 and learn to reliably distinguish “in tune” from “out
of tune”. By using singing ear training, you can quickly improve the control you have over
your voice’s pitch and reliably produce the note you intend to.

A small amount of ear training can have you singing in tune in no time—and you’ll never call
yourself “tone deaf” again!

→ Learn about Ear Training

Pitch

Pitch is one of
the most
fundamental
aspects of music,
and developing
your ear for pitch
is an excellent
starting point
and area of focus
for musical ear
training.

Before you work

on more
advanced skills
like relative pitch
(interval
recognition etc.)
spend some time
honing your pure
sense of pitch:
how high or low
a note is.

→ Learn about
Pitch

Singing in Tune
Being able to sing in tune is an essential skill for all musicians, whether or not you are “a
singer”. Once you know you’re not tone deaf, what if you still sing off-key or out of tune? The
answer is that you need to learn to match pitch, develop vocal control and learn to sing

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confidently, reliably and accurately.

→ Learn about Singing in Tune

Tone Deafness

Many people (including musicians!) worry that they might be tone deaf. Tone deafness is a
real condition but it affects an incredibly small number of people. So it’s worth learning
about what tone deafness truly is and isn’t, and discover whether you are in fact tone deaf or
not.

→ Learn about Tone Deafness

Relative Pitch
Relative Pitch is one of the core listening skills of music. The phrase can mean both a
particular ability and a broad category of skills.

Any musician who’s serious about ear training will make relative pitch a central part of their
training plan.

Your sense of relative pitch is what allows you to recognise notes in music based on the
general musical context, i.e. the other notes being played. Unlike absolute pitch (or “perfect
pitch”) this doesn’t mean identifying a note when it’s played in isolation. Instead it means
that you can hear the relationships between notes, and use that to understand what you’re
hearing.

Relative pitch powers abilities like:

Playing tunes by ear

Working out the chords to a song
Improvising on your instrument based on what you hear in your head
Sight-singing from sheet music
Being able to hear music in your head when you see it written down

All of these skills rely on your ear being able to judge the differences in pitch between notes:
the pitch of one note relative to another.

Because this is such a central skill, we tend to use “relative pitch” to refer to a whole family of
ear training topics. You can study each one, and they all benefit each other and enable real
musical applications like those listed above.

Intervals

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Interval ear
training can help
you recognise
notes and chords
by ear. An
interval is the
distance in pitch
between two
notes. Different
distances have
different
characteristic
sounds, and so
the intervals
between notes
have a big
impact on the
way those notes
sound together.

Interval ear
training can help
you learn to
recognize and
reproduce
intervals, and connect the characteristic sounds with their corresponding names. This may
seem a little abstract, but it will assist you in a variety of real musical tasks.

→ Learn about Intervals

Melodies

A series of notes one after the other creates a melody. Melodies are what we think of as the
“tune” but the same skills also apply to basslines, solos and accompaniment parts.

→ Learn about Melodies

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Scales
A scale is a series of notes in ascending or descending order of pitch. Scales are closely
related to key and provide the framework which melodies and chord progressions are built
from. Learning to recognise types of scale and the individual notes of a scale by ear can help
you throughout your musical life.

→ Learn about Scales

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Solfa
Solfa (also known as “solfeggio” or “solfège”) is the “do re mi” system of naming notes.
Although it is often associated with children, solfa is a powerful tool that can be hugely
valuable to any musician by allowing you to recognise notes easily by ear.

→ Learn about Solfa

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Chords
Chords are everywhere in music. From the rich harmonies of classical orchestral music to the
complex chord varieties used by jazz musicians and the young guitar player strumming away
in his bedroom.

Any time you hear more than two notes at once – that’s a chord. But what kind? Major?
Dominant seventh? Which inversion? What voicing?

Chord ear training can help make sure you always know.

→ Learn about Chords

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Chord Progressions
Chord progressions – the movement from one chord to another – is the harmonic bedrock of
music.

Certain sequences of chords are used more often than others, which is part of what we take
for granted as music sounding “normal”. Ear training can help you to recognise chord
changes and common chord progressions by ear so that you can write them down, play them
on your instrument, or solo over the top of them.

→ Learn about Chord Progressions

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Key
The key of a piece of music determines the set of notes it uses and you can learn to recognise
the two types of key, major and minor, by ear. Key is closely related to musical scale and
identifying the key can help you play by ear and transcribe more efficiently.

→ Learn about Key

More Ear Training Topics

Audio
The word “audio” is used to refer to the sound qualities of a recording or live music
performance. Aside from the pitch and rhythm of the music being played, there are also
many factors which fall under the term “audio”, such as the balance of audio frequencies
present, the way audio effects may be used to adjust the sound in various ways, and the way
multiple sound sources are combined to make a pleasing mix.

→ Learn about Audio

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All sounds are
made up of a
combination of
frequencies. In
music the base
frequency (called
the
fundamental)
gives gives the
pitch of the
sound and the
other frequency
components
(called
‘harmonics’ or
‘overtones’) give
the characteristic
timbre of the
note.

→ Learn about
Audio
Frequencies

Audio effects are designed to manipulate sound. They can be software (computer programs
or plugins), or hardware (like guitar effects pedals or rack-mounted machines). The effect
these devices have on sound can vary from a subtle colouration to all-out sonic terrorism!

→ Learn about Audio Effects

Audio mixing is the art of combining sounds to create a unified whole. When talking about
audio mixing we tend to think about musicians creating an album in a recording studio, but
audio mixing is just as essential in live music, film/television, radio, and computer games.

→ Learn about Audio Mixing

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Dynamics
Dynamics refers to the volume of a piece of music and how it changes over time. It is a key
part of the emotional impact the music will have. Learning to appreciate and manipulate
dynamics will make you a more sophisticated and effective musician.

→ Learn about Dynamics

Genres
Different genres (styles) of music use distinctive techniques to create their recognisable
sound. What makes rock different from pop? Ska different from reggae? Renaissance
different from Romantic? Train your ears to recognise the characteristic sounds of genres so
that you can identify them and even write, improvise and play music in these styles yourself.

→ Learn about Genres

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Perfect Pitch
Perfect pitch (or “absolute pitch” as it is more accurately known) is the ability to identify, or
reproduce a note without reference to any other sound. It is a skill considered by many to be
the holy grail of ear training.

The name “perfect pitch” hints at the mystery and intrigue which surrounds this skill. Those
who possess it are often seen as intimidating, naturally gifted musicians. We aim to clear up
some of that mystery and help all musicians develop their sense of absolute pitch to the
degree that’s useful to them.

If developing perfect pitch sounds like an impossible task, you just might be surprised! It’s
true that a select few people do seem to have an innate ability to identify tones by ear from an
early age, but it is in fact possible for any musician or audio pro to learn and develop these
skills.

You may find your own absolute pitch skills are already better than you think…

→ Learn about Perfect Pitch

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Rhythm
Along with melody and harmony, rhythm is part of the core foundation of all music.
Whatever the genre, era, instrument, player or context of music – it’s the rhythm that
provides the driving force to keep our ears tuned in and satisfy our deep instinctive
appreciation of music more than anything else.

→ Learn about Rhythm

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Tempo
The Tempo of a piece of music determines the speed at which it is played, and is measured in
beats per minute (BPM). The ‘beat’ is determined by the time signature of the piece, so 100
BPM in 4/4 equates to 100 quarter notes in one minute.

Developing a solid appreciation of tempo is essential for the performing musician – after all
we can’t always rely on a conductor or a metronome to keep us on track!

→ Learn about Tempo

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Timbre
As well as pitch and volume, all musical notes have a tonal colour known as timbre.
Timbre is what differentiates the sound of one instrument from another. It is a somewhat
loose term compared to words like pitch and volume which we use to describe sound, but it
can still be broken down and understood.

→ Learn about Timbre

How To

Planning and Goals

They say that failing to plan is planning to fail, and that’s certainly true in music. It can be
tempting to just “wing it” with your musicality training and enjoy the free exploration of
learning music. But if you really want to reach your goals, you need to learn how to plan
effectively.

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→ Learn about Planning and Goals

Practice
Did you know that the way you practice music can have an enormous impact on how quickly
you improve? Don’t waste your time with ineffective practice methods. Learn the tips, tricks
and technologies that can accelerate your musical training.

→ Learn about Practice

Playing By Ear
Playing by ear is
a highly desired
skill among
musicians.
Although many
assume you need
to be born a
natural to do it,
in fact playing
music by ear
requires a
collection of
skills which can
all be learned.
Knowing the
right kinds of ear
training and the
truth behind
how playing by
ear works can
enable you to
learn to play by
ear quickly and
easily.

→ Learn about Playing By Ear

Improvisation
Improvising music is sometimes seen as an advanced skill or relevant for certain genres only.
However, improvisation has forever been a part of music in every style, era and culture.
Learning to improvise great-sounding music doesn’t need to be hard! With the right ear

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training exercises and some mindset tips you can literally begin improvising music and
enjoying the experience of improvisation today.

→ Learn about Improvisation

Transcription

Transcription is
the process of
listening to a
piece of
performed music
(a live
performance or
recording) and
using listening
skills to write it
down. This could
be as a score,
guitar tablature,
simplified
notation, or even
your own
informal
shorthand. Being
able to
transcribe music
relies on a range
of listening
skills, including
good absolute
and relative
pitch skills, along with chord knowledge and rhythm skills.

Many musicians develop ear training skills in order to improve their transcription, and as
luck would have it: not only is ear training the best tool for improving transcription, but
transcription is one of the best forms of ear training!

→ Learn about Transcription

Song Writing

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Have you wanted to write songs but not known where to start? Or perhaps you’re already a
song writer and looking for ways to train your ears and develop your musicality to bring new
expertise and inspiration to your song writing process? From melodies, to chords, to rhythm,
to lyrics, dedicated musicality training can help you to become a more expert song writer.

→ Learn about Song Writing

Arranging
→ Learn about Arranging

Active Listening
→ Learn about Active Listening

Audiation
→ Learn about Audiation

Performing

→ Learn about Performing

Band
→ Learn about Band

Choir

→ Learn about Choir

Sight Reading
→ Learn about Sight Reading

Instruments

Bass

Bass instruments bridge the gap between pitch and rhythm in music, connecting drummer
with singer and contributing a vital aspect of music.

Bass players therefore need a range of listening skills, broader than most musicians, and each
can be developed with dedicated ear training.

→ Learn about Bass

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Guitar
You can do ear training for the guitar and ear training on the guitar. Find out how to train
your ear to improvise solos, play chords by ear, and perfect your own guitar sound.

→ Learn about Guitar

Keyboard
There are many ways that keyboard (or piano) players wish to train their ears. With ten
fingers there are complex relative pitch challenges in playing by ear, improvising and writing
music for keyboard, and rhythm needs to be tight to whether you’re playing solo or
accompanying other musicians.

→ Learn about Keyboard

Percussion

Whether you play a rock drum kit, simple hand drums, or a full orchestral percussion section,
percussion players must train their ears in various ways if they want to sound great and be
precise with their playing.

→ Learn about Percussion

Singing
Every musician should be using their voice to train their ears. This goes double if you are “a
singer”!

There is a fundamental connection between your ear, your “mind’s ear”, and your singing
voice.

→ Learn about Singing

More Topics

Career
→ Learn about Career

Interviews
→ Learn about Interviews

Jazz

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→ Learn about Jazz

Music Theory
→ Learn about Music Theory

Musical U Spotlight Members

→ Learn about Musical U Spotlight Members

Children
→ Learn about Children

Teaching
→ Learn about Teaching

Websites, Apps and Downloads

→ Learn about Websites, Apps and Downloads

News

→ Learn about News

General
→ Learn about General

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