difference between ear training and aural training

Now, the interval that was a sixth becomes a third, and the seventh would become a second. In practice this means “singing” it an octave higher in your head. What you do is to imagine shifting the lower note of the interval up an octave. This means you can do a bit of “mental gymnastics” to identify sixths and sevenths. And if you’re working on sixths and sevenths, you’ve probably long ago mastered seconds and thirds… Well, you probably find it quite easy to audiate octaves. In fact, here’s a bonus trick: a rule of thumb for remembering interval inversions: Similarly, you can work out that the inversion of a minor third is a major sixth, and so on. For example, a perfect fifth takes you up from C to G, so the inversion of a perfect fifth is whatever interval takes you down from a C to a G: a perfect fourth. If not, it just means the complementary interval which would take you to the same note in the other direction.

You’re probably familiar with the idea of an interval’s inversion. There’s one trick you can incorporate into your interval ear training to help with this: leverage your existing knowledge of smaller intervals, by listening for the interval inversions. It feels like there are too many options for what they could be. These intervals have such big pitch leaps it’s harder for the ear to immediately classify them. Many interval ear training practitioners get on well with seconds, thirds, and even up to fourths and fifths-but then hit a sticking point when it comes to sixths and sevenths. Sing a descending minor third as “minor” on the high note, then “third” on the low note. For example, sing an ascending perfect fifth as “Perfect” on the low note, then “Fifth” on the high note. Sing the name of the interval across the two notes. Whatever you may think of your singing voice, whether or not you consider yourself a singer, singing musical intervals is the most effective way to internalise the sound and size of each one. This is probably the biggest shortcut to effective interval training there is: These are a few shortcuts you can use to make your interval ear training more effective. Recognizing SecondsĪn extra point of reference which will help some is that the difference between minor and major seventh makes the difference between a dominant seventh and a major seventh chord, so if you know those chords’ sounds, listen for the same characteristic in the harmonic forms of sevenths, and use that to help you recognize the ascending/descending forms too. Once you begin to get the hang of it, start practising with the interval in different musical contexts to make your recognition skills more robust and reliable. Some of these serve just as a starting point to get to know the interval. Here are some specific tips for recognizing the different types of interval.

Interval training will be a lot more fun once you have!

Work out the intervals used at the start of songs you do like, and assemble your own personal set of interval recognition songs to use. Using interval reference songs is a great way to get started in interval ear training, but often the examples given aren’t songs you know or particularly like. Be serious and dedicated to pursuing your goal, but choose the techniques (and combinations of techniques) which appeal to you and get you results. Spend some time on chord progressions-and you find you can improvise more easily.Įven within a particular focus like interval ear training, practising different things in different ways will build up your listening skills quickly and robustly.ĭon’t be afraid to combine methods and mix-and-match them. Spend some time on intervals-and your chord skills improve. One of the wonderful things about ear training is how complementary all the different types of practice are. Each has their own corresponding interval recognition exercises and though they’re all effective, some will work better for you than others. Explore different interval ear training methods and see which suits you. Here are a few general tips for your training strategy when it comes to learning intervals: Tip 1: Choose your methodĭon’t assume that whatever approach you’re familiar with is the only way. Note: If the material below seems too advanced, you may want to start by reading “How to learn intervals”. Continuing on from our Interval Ear Training Help article, this time we’ll dive into some specific tips and tricks you can use to learn interval recognition more easily.įirst we’ll look at tips for recognizing particular types of interval, and then we’ve got 3 helpful tricks to use in your own interval ear training approach.

Difference between ear training and aural training