Learn like a Concert Pianist

Question: How can ear training help singers?

– Jojo (Fairfield, California, USA)

Albert’s reply: It is essential for all musicians to train their ear, since music is sound after all and it is our duty as musicians to comprehend it. A musician without a trained ear would be like a...

Question: Here’s one I can’t explain… in specific ear training where the student is asked to do chord identification (major/minor with inversion) using 4-note chords, the student can only hear (and can sing back perfectly) three of the notes… and it’s not always...

Question: One problem faced by my students in aural tests is memorizing a long melody. Any tips please? Thanks.

– Achilles (Malta)

Albert’s reply: The most important thing in learning melodies by ear is to learn to hear the scale degrees. In C major for instance, we can hear C, E,...

Question: How can you learn to recognize intervals by ear?

Albert’s reply: There are several methods of interval ear training. The most common is to associate common melodies to each interval. For example, “Happy Birthday” may be used to recognize an ascending major second,...

Question: Hi Albert, I have for a while now trained to develop relative pitch and now I can recognize every interval when I hear them but I have reached a dead end. Even though my interval recognition is good all of that is just smashed when I try to write down a melody I hear. It is very...

Question: How is it possible to hear two or more voices at the same time, e.g. each voice in a fugue, with the so-called inner ear? I was once told that one can internally hear everything one can sing. Since I can’t sing many voices at the same time (I don’t think many people...

Question: I play the guitar which is a string instrument just like the piano, and I play in a little church band. Before I started going to this church I just played by myself, and now I have to play with other musicians and have to play in the same key. I struggle to hear the the right key and...

Question: I am hard of hearing… not really bad… but enough that I cannot hear very high soft sounds. I really want to learn to play but everyone keeps telling me that it is impossible. Wasn’t Beethoven deaf? Besides leaning his ear on the piano, how did he bring out the...

Easy Ear Training is one of the web’s finest resources dedicated to ear training. They recently asked to interview me for their wonderful site. They asked detailed questions about the ear training and general musicianship topics that will be most helpful to students and I did my best to...

Is your musical brain “wired” backwards?

Our brains naturally navigate towards what we assume is the easiest way to accomplish any given task. But what if what might seem easiest right now might actually crippling your musical efforts in the long term? And even be damaging your...

Question: For singing I do breathing exercises before bed. I believe in practising breathing and listening together because the listening helps to open the right spaces and even adjusts posture. To do this I just listen to the radio or a CD. Like the breathing I would like to know some specifics...

Question: Hello! What are your suggestions for how I could ear train during my daily piano regimen? Currently, I am simply memorizing the c4-c5 C major range on the piano, but as you could imagine, it is very boring. Any suggestions would be great! Thanks in advance and your work is excellent.

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