Ear Training/singing audio books? Books or Beato Ear Training

dean111music

Hi

One of my  students asked if i would recommend any material to improve his ear training/singing.

He would love to be at the point where he can listen to a song and know what the chords are, play melodies for ear etc Improvise etc. I think I have inspired him to start focussing on this as Technically he is efficient.

He travels to work by car and its 1 hour commute so he was hoping to use this time to focus on ear training or singing.

Is there any programmes, audio books anyone would recommend where he can do this while he drives? Don't know if that sounds dangerous to you  

Or is it best for his to study when he is at home with something like an app (Beato Ear Training) Or just use a book i have recommended?

viz

Honestly, I think the best way is to listen to music, actively. Choose music that is really harmonious and melodic, such as some or some rock ballads, or Ella Fitzgerald, or even some Christmas Carols, and just LISTEN, really concentrate on what the music is actually doing. Hum along, at times focusing on the melody, at other times imagining he's the bass player, singing the root of each chord.

Interspersed with those car journeys he can read up about theory, or go to some chord sheets and check whether what he's sung adds up to what he's reading. 

nickp

I have tried/am trying the beato app

stuck on third quiz - harmonic (ie a chord) identifying the major vs minor 3rd played as two notes (root and 3rd).  It's not that impressive as far as I can tell so far.  

bit pissed off as there is a short video clip then a test.  all for too much money although in fairness I haven't got far.  Had quite a few goes at it but it's not improving

I can tell a major vs minor if played onw after another same chord as it were but not random ones.  I could probably have a sporting chance if it was single notes played one after another and practiced singing the interval, but chords - na struggling

monquixote

My buddy Chris runs this site which is very focussed towards ear training and has a number of apps etc: https://www.musical-u.com/learn/topic/ear-training/

viz

nickp said:

I have tried/am trying the beato app

stuck on third quiz - harmonic (ie a chord) identifying the major vs minor 3rd played as two notes (root and 3rd).  It's not that impressive as far as I can tell so far.  

bit pissed off as there is a short video clip then a test.  all for too much money although in fairness I haven't got far.  Had quite a few goes at it but it's not improving

I can tell a major vs minor if played onw after another same chord as it were but not random ones.  I could probably have a sporting chance if it was single notes played one after another and practiced singing the interval, but chords - na struggling

There is no way other than to keep practising, and keep in mind this goal: if you can manage to identify the 1 chord, and whether it’s major or minor, correctly, every time, then you are at the start of a journey that ends with you getting a distinction in grade 8 theory. Just keep going!

viz

viz said:

nickp said:

I have tried/am trying the beato app

stuck on third quiz - harmonic (ie a chord) identifying the major vs minor 3rd played as two notes (root and 3rd).  It's not that impressive as far as I can tell so far.  

bit pissed off as there is a short video clip then a test.  all for too much money although in fairness I haven't got far.  Had quite a few goes at it but it's not improving

I can tell a major vs minor if played onw after another same chord as it were but not random ones.  I could probably have a sporting chance if it was single notes played one after another and practiced singing the interval, but chords - na struggling

There is no way other than to keep practising, and keep in mind this goal: if you can manage to identify the 1 chord, and whether it’s major or minor, correctly, every time, then you are at the start of a journey that ends with you getting a distinction in grade 8 theory. Just keep going!

Tell you what; listen to this a few times. Kabalevsky plays around with the major and minor, alternating between the two. 

The two sounds should become completely unconfusable with each other after a bit. 

https://youtu.be/iD2aAFuNauY

nickp

thanks @viz i will have a go

kelpbeds

Use the app Functional Ear Trainer - it is superb. Way better than all the other apps. And you can use it while driving on 'listen' mode. I do this a lot!

roman_sub

+1 functional ear trainer

guitarmangler

roman_sub said:

+1 functional ear trainer

+2

octatonic

Just transcribe songs.

You get the same skill set over time and you get context, plus a vocabulary.

dean111music

kelpbeds said:

Use the app Functional Ear Trainer - it is superb. Way better than all the other apps. And you can use it while driving on 'listen' mode. I do this a lot!

thank you! Just downloaded it but couldn't find the "listen mode" ? where would this be?

So you just learn intervals?

Blueingreen

octatonic said:

Just transcribe songs.

You get the same skill set over time and you get context, plus a vocabulary.

Don't think I agree with this.  I'd been transcribing songs for quite a long time before I tried doing specific ear training exercises, but I still got a noticeable improvement from doing them. 

Greatape

I got lots of the basics down through teaching myself nursery rhymes by ear. Sounds daft, but they are usually well composed and keep to the main intervals..

Cranky

nickp said:

I have tried/am trying the beato app

stuck on third quiz - harmonic (ie a chord) identifying the major vs minor 3rd played as two notes (root and 3rd).  It's not that impressive as far as I can tell so far.  

bit pissed off as there is a short video clip then a test.  all for too much money although in fairness I haven't got far.  Had quite a few goes at it but it's not improving

I can tell a major vs minor if played onw after another same chord as it were but not random ones.  I could probably have a sporting chance if it was single notes played one after another and practiced singing the interval, but chords - na struggling

I just started today and am baffled by the first "intervals" section on distinguishing between major and minor 2nds.  It's like you said, I can tell the difference if you play them next to each other, but out of the blue I'm just guessing.  The tones are totally blending together, I can't even pick out which is the root.  I keep going over to the piano to play the intervals to myself, and I've been trying to sing "do re mi" but with a flattened "re," it's totally foreign to my lazy western ears.

Cranky

Cranky said:

nickp said:

I have tried/am trying the beato app

stuck on third quiz - harmonic (ie a chord) identifying the major vs minor 3rd played as two notes (root and 3rd).  It's not that impressive as far as I can tell so far.  

bit pissed off as there is a short video clip then a test.  all for too much money although in fairness I haven't got far.  Had quite a few goes at it but it's not improving

I can tell a major vs minor if played onw after another same chord as it were but not random ones.  I could probably have a sporting chance if it was single notes played one after another and practiced singing the interval, but chords - na struggling

I just started today and am baffled by the first "intervals" section on distinguishing between major and minor 2nds.  It's like you said, I can tell the difference if you play them next to each other, but out of the blue I'm just guessing.  The tones are totally blending together, I can't even pick out which is the root.  I keep going over to the piano to play the intervals to myself, and I've been trying to sing "do re mi" but with a flattened "re," it's totally foreign to my lazy western ears.

Okay, definitely worth putting in the time.  I went from being totally clueless on harmonic minor/major 2nd to getting a 92% after about 30+ minutes of practicing.  It really helps to hum along with the notes and hum the interval, gets to be pretty visceral after a while. 

Thanks to @kelpbeds for the Functional Ear Training app recommendation.  Something productive to do on the phone now other than mindlessly browse gear whilst pretending that I'm about to open the Kindle app.

bwets

Cranky said:

nickp said:

I have tried/am trying the beato app

stuck on third quiz - harmonic (ie a chord) identifying the major vs minor 3rd played as two notes (root and 3rd).  It's not that impressive as far as I can tell so far.  

bit pissed off as there is a short video clip then a test.  all for too much money although in fairness I haven't got far.  Had quite a few goes at it but it's not improving

I can tell a major vs minor if played onw after another same chord as it were but not random ones.  I could probably have a sporting chance if it was single notes played one after another and practiced singing the interval, but chords - na struggling

I just started today and am baffled by the first "intervals" section on distinguishing between major and minor 2nds.  It's like you said, I can tell the difference if you play them next to each other, but out of the blue I'm just guessing.  The tones are totally blending together, I can't even pick out which is the root.  I keep going over to the piano to play the intervals to myself, and I've been trying to sing "do re mi" but with a flattened "re," it's totally foreign to my lazy western ears.

Eventually you just learn to recognise them but I find it easier to hear them with reference to a song. For minor second I use Jaws and for a major second I use the major scale.This website has plenty of examples:

https://www.earmaster.com/products/free-tools/interval-song-chart-generator.html

Blueingreen

There's a free and fairly comprehensive set of exercises available here.  It's a more traditional approach than functional ear trainer but the two would complement one another.

https://tonedear.com/

eog

I've recently started using an app called Earpeggio, which looks promising. Have also heard good things about Functional Ear Trainer

Rowby1

Been using the Functional app for a few weeks now (following the recommendations on this thread). I’m not sure if it’s making a difference yet but I’m really quite enjoying the challenge. I’m doing 10-15mins a day with the odd day off. 

allen

dean111music said:

kelpbeds said:

Use the app Functional Ear Trainer - it is superb. Way better than all the other apps. And you can use it while driving on 'listen' mode. I do this a lot!

thank you! Just downloaded it but couldn't find the "listen mode" ? where would this be?

So you just learn intervals?

The listen mode doesn't work on an iphone, only on android. I contacted the developer, but they have no current plans to add the function to the iphone version (they said maybe in about a year).