Ear Training Fundamentals Part 1 - How to play music by ear for complete beginners | Michael Emenau | Skillshare
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Ear Training Fundamentals Part 1 - How to play music by ear for complete beginners

teacher avatar Michael Emenau, Music Maker!

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Welcome to Ear Training Fundamentals

      1:41

    • 2.

      Ear training fundamentals #1

      6:35

    • 3.

      Ear Training Fundamentals #1.2

      12:18

    • 4.

      Ear training fundamentals #2

      11:30

    • 5.

      Ear training fundamentals #3

      8:26

    • 6.

      Ear training fundamentals #4

      15:25

    • 7.

      Ear training fundamentals #5

      10:32

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About This Class

In this course, we are going to learn the absolute basics of ear-training, pitch recognition, as well as how to finds chords and melodies. We will be discussing how to recognize and name groups of notes on the piano by using "relative pitch" as well as the basic concepts behind harmony, tonality, and musical keys.

Each class will have the same format:

  • Introduce a new concept in ear training
  • Give examples/exercises of how to listen, understand and achieve this concept
  • Take a guided quiz based on what you have learned

What makes this class somewhat unique is that we will start at the absolute beginning, and once you understand the concepts of higher and lower sounds, we then explore very simple pitch recognition (note naming) quizzes and tutorials.

This is the perfect course for someone who want to learn how to play by ear, but feels overwhelmed by the fast pace of many "play music by ear" courses.

Meet Your Teacher

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Michael Emenau

Music Maker!

Teacher

Hello, I'm Michael Emenau, musician, composer, app developer and overall lover of music. I created these courses based upon my experineces teaching my kids and others about how to play music from a very simple, fun base.  Everyone can play music, we just need the tools.

See full profile

Level: Beginner

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Transcripts

1. Welcome to Ear Training Fundamentals: Hello, everybody. Welcome to ear training fundamentals. My name is Michael Emenalo. In this course, you will be learning the basic concepts of your training, the listening techniques you need to be able to listen to and play note by year, we're going to learn how to listen and how to make a connection between our ears and our voice. How do find in different shape pitches? And here in transcribe a series of notes and melodies, we're lost. Be learning about harmony and learning how to hear different types of major and minor chords. Each class will follow a similar pattern. There will be an objective. For example, how do you hear a three note musical sequence? I will then go over the techniques to achieve this objective. And finally, I will give you a quiz. And during the quiz, I will be giving you suggestions and advice to further solidify what you have already learned. I created this course for a very specific reason. Whenever I've had a student who wanted to test the rears, I would just send them to YouTube. There's hundreds. There's thousands of ear training quizzes and tests out there, but there are some students who struggled even with the beginner tests. I looked around a bit and found that really none of the videos dealt with true beginners. Nor did they provide information or techniques and how to get started, how to hear the relationships between notes and how to simply begin to play by ear. In this course, I'll be teaching you the fundamentals, the building blocks of how your training works and the stronger your ears become, the easier music is to play, and that seemingly magic ability to play music by years will soon become a reality. 2. Ear training fundamentals #1: Okay, The first quiz is going to be on higher or lower. I'm going to play two notes and you have to tell me if the second note is higher or lower than the first. Does the second note ascend or descend? Ascend is not direction and descend. So what I'd like you to do is to sing the two notes. I'll play the first note. Um, you sing it or you sing it. And then the second note Ah ah ah You see auras. You may feel your voice can get a little tighter. You'll feel a rise for an ascension. Okay, that is Ah, my recommendation for being able to hear higher, lower. This may be super easy. Or that may not be either way. I'm going to play a series of notes and you just tell me why you don't tell me. You just note whether they're higher than lower. I'll give the answers. Keep score if you want, or don't. If you don't want ah, and just sort of see how this feels to you. Here we go. - You okay ? I'm going to Ah, now do some very low notes. He's a little harder for people to perceive whether they're up or down. But let's just see how you do. Uh, - that's getting to be quite difficult for a lot of people when you're down there and so close in a couple of quick ones to finish off. - Okay , I hope that wasn't too hard. Or if it was, do it again. Do it slower. Just remember, you want to sing the knows he won't get all these sounds in your ears and that will help you. To be able to play by ear is a pretty fun thing to be able to do. If you took your score to put it down in the comments below, I'd like to see how you're all doing and any feedback and my going too fast. Am I going to slow any requests? Just put it on the comments blow, and, uh, we will try to answer all your wishes. Okay. See you at the next lesson. Bye bye. 3. Ear Training Fundamentals #1.2 : Hello, everyone. And welcome back to ear training fundamentals in this class, we're going to be learning low, medium high. And what that means is that I'm gonna be playing patterns of notes and you have to listen to them and tell me of the notes low, medium or high. We're not worried about the names of the notes. No, ABC is no door. Amy. We just want to hear the relationships between the notes and hear how the notes rise and fall. For example, if I play these three notes, way would listen. And then you need to figure out which is the lowest note, which is the lowest. Which one falls the lowest in your throat. Which one rises the most, and then which one is in the middle between those two? So the lowest note. Okay, so when these quizzes I'm gonna play three notes, lower medium in the high could be in any of them and where you will do it, sing the three notes, figure out which is low, which is medium in which is high, and then I'll play the different patterns and your enters are going to be in the form of low medium or high, just like in the previous one. It was low high. Weird is adding an extra note. Okay, here we go. Number one. Ok, here's your first years of three notes. You sing them, uh, and they are low, medium and high. Okay, here's the first pattern. Okay. And the answer. Waas low, medium low. No. Here's the high note up here. Okay. Next one, we're gonna keep using these same notes. Ah, just to get your ears used to these before we hop over to something else. Here we go. Second pattern, you notice. I've used all three notes in this one, and the answer is low, high medium. Next 11 more time with these three notes, and the answer is medium high high. Here's the three notes. So sing them three. No patterns sing along. And the answer next one on the answer. No. The one with the same group of notes here. Uh uh. And the answer. Uh, okay. We'll do three different notes. Okay, Here's the next one. And the answer is next one always sing along Boo boo boo boo. And the answer dio Next. One same notes and the answer. Okay, Here's three more nuts way. And the answer not high notes. Pretty high for me. Next one. Same three notes in answer. Uh, same three notes. We're gonna ah, make it a five note pattern this time. And the answer 83 more notes. That's the theme, NBC, anyway. Here we go. Five. No pattern low, medium high. Ah. Ah. Next one. And the answer, I one more with this answer. Okay, three new notes and these are gonna be seven note patterns. This will be a Z bigas. We go today, but ah, here will be the three notes. Okay, seven, No patterns. Here we go. Uh, so if this seems too much, just try to sing back What I just played. I'm gonna play once more, see if you can sing along when I play, Okay? And the answer is next one, uh, and the answer next one on the answer. Okay. I hope that wasn't too hard for you to get your ears active and, as always, right, your results down below if you want to and tell me if there's anything that is confusing you, anything that would like me to go over to clarify a bit more. Uh, any comments? Any thoughts is the too easy isn't too hard. Write it down below and we will see you next time. 4. Ear training fundamentals #2: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the music lesson. Your training fundamentals. This is class number two. Okay, we're going to continue where we left off, dealing with high and low. But this time we're going to define what are the high and low note for right now, they're going to be a C and A D doh on rape. And they sound like this. So the first thing we want to do it seeing these notes, I wanted to get the sound of a dope. I want to get the sound of a D in your ears. So let's sing this boo and d one more time. I'm not gonna play to see if you can recall them in your ears. Uh, so you okay? What I'm gonna do, I'm gonna play different patterns just with these two notes. They're going to be groups of three notes. So what you're going to do? Listen, sing it back, and then right down or no, Tate. What? The group of Notre, for example. If I play the first thing, you would do it. Sing it. Do you go? Then you need to figure out what are those two. Note. Boo is a c sido boo array. Boo is a seat. So then you're gonna write that down. And just in case, if you missed the first class, I switch back and forth between ABC and Door Amy all the time. The reason is some of my students are comfortable with ABC. Others with door Amy. Different countries differ. Nationalities use the different naming systems for notes. Ah, they're both fine. They're both totally valid. Okay, so we're gonna start now. There's going to be 20 little sequences. The 1st 5 are gonna be three notes than five mawr with, uh, five notes and then I guess seven notes and maybe eight notes. I'm not exactly sure. At the end, I'm gonna play them. And, uh, good luck. Okay. As I said, we're going to do 20 examples. The 1st 5 are going to be with three notes. So what you do, you listen. You sing back what you hear, and then you ah, right down the notes. Or just try to remember them in your head, and then I will give the answer. After that, the most important part is to sing it after you hear it. What we want to do is in print The sound of the pictures directly into your brain from your ears. Not using your eyes. So listen and saying that is the fundamentals of your training. Here we go. Number one Dio dio number two Do Teoh do number three Do Teoh do then before number five. Okay, Now we're gonna do groups of five notes. Same technique. Listen, saying no tape. Figure out what the notes are. Number six, number seven. Boom, boom, boom. Okay, I'm not gonna sing along after. Just do it now yourself. Number eight. Number nine. Number 10. Uh huh. Okay, We're not going to go up. Two groups of seven notes. Just sing after you. Here. You can do this. Number 11 number 12 13. Number 14. Uh 15. Okay, the last five I'm going to do as groups of five Note and not gonna play faster. So that means you have to sing back faster and again. Listen, sing years to brain number 16. Don't Don't go. Number 17. Number 18. Number 19 on 20. I hope that wasn't too hard for you. And, uh, your ears are a little stronger now than they were a few minutes ago. so again in all your training, you listen. Get it from your ears into your brain and then you can start. Teoh, figure out what the? No. Top. So we did two notes a date. Next time, we're going to do three notes. OK, Bye bye. 5. Ear training fundamentals #3: Welcome back to the lesson on the first class, we just talked about whether pitch is higher, lower by just listening, singing and listening. Is the no rising or is it descending in this class? We're going to take three note, and I'm gonna play them in different sequences. And then you have to tell me what the notes there that you just played. This may seem hard, but we're going to go through it step by step. So the first thing is, we're going to sing each of the notes. So the first note is a C. Listen to it. Sing it, See? So the next note is a D or array. Mm Ray. And the third note is an E for a Meet me. Can you sing that first note? Try to sing it, Doh The second note, Ray, they're Note me. Okay. The quiz goes like this. I'm gonna play groups of three notes. You have to tell me with the notes are Here we go. Number one. Oh, si si. Seen number two. See? Seeing you'll find it easier if you sing along while it happens. Number three a number four. So a number five number six. Number seven, number eight. So this time I'm going to do a sequence of five notes and just sing along. Once you heard it, sing back. So you're going to sing back after I've played it once and try to visualize What are those notes? Okay, five notes number nine. Uh huh. Number 10. You sing it. The the the ah, number 11. No, the, uh uh uh uh. The most important thing is, what is the first note? Uh, number 12. Do do todo so and just a note. I switch back and forth between ABC and door A. B because some of you are used to door Amy, some of you are used to ABC. They're both completely valid. And what is? Whatever you are comfortable with. Okay, two more. And then this lesson is done. Number 13 the the the the ah, uh, that was a fan for all of you little lamb lovers. Okay, And here's the last one. And again, the most important thing is what is the first note in the sequence? Number 14 The, uh, boom. Okay, um, I hope you enjoy this. I hope this is helping make your ear stronger. eso again if you want to. Ah, leave Any comments? If you have any ideas or thought to my going too fast, too slow Other things you want to learn Write it in the comments below. And if you kept score then just write it down. I'd love to hear how you're all doing. See you in the next lesson. Bye bye. 6. Ear training fundamentals #4: Hello, everybody. Welcome back. This is class number four. Off ear training fundamentals. Hope you've been having a good time so far and getting familiar with different pitches and then moving up and down were to do something different. This time it's a different type of your training, and I'm going to try to answer a very nebulous question. What is the difference between Minor and Major? How did they sound different? How can I hear the difference between these two types? Of course. So the simple answer is that a major court sounds happy in a minor chord. Sound sad now? These air very subjective terms, and I don't really like to use these terms so much. I feel their bit subjective, but they do get the point across to certain people. What I think the best thing to do is to listen to comparisons between majors and mine accords to help you hear them. How I discern between the major and minor court is I listen to the brightness of the cord, and what I mean by brightness is well, if you know how ah court is created, things is a major chord that C major, a zoo 135 of a C major scale. That's not important right now. What's important is that the sound of it is quite bright versus a C minor chord. I take the middle note and I put it down a semi tone, not to see minor chord. And I guess I say it's brighter because this middle notice of a higher pitch major, minor major. So that's one way of of discerning, whether it's major a minor, a game that I do with some of my students, sometimes on this sort of related to film scoring. Just how we emotionally ready to music has released images is I'll make a statement. And then, uh, I'll play a major, a minor chord and you tell me if that chord fits right. For example, uh, my dog, my dog got hit by a car versus my dog got hit by a car. The question is, which one sounds better? Theo. Visit him. This is a minor court. Does that minor make more sense with the dog getting hit by the car? Or is it the major? For me, it's minor. I love my dog. I love my dog because he's a happy dog. Yeah, kind of works. That makes me sad because I love my dog. Because you make me so happy. Doesn't make much sense. It has a heavier, darker song. Tow it for me on for a lot of people so you can make a statement. I just had the best day of my life. Kind of makes sense. I had the best day of my life. Doesn't make much sense as a minor court. This is a technique. There are different ways that people find out. The most effective way I find, though, is just to listen to a major court. And then here the minor chord next to it. And after a while, your ears will hear the brightness as it swings back and forth between major and minor. This is a major by comparison. This sounds heavier, sons darker to me. Major, minor, minor, major. It just sort of has a lifting sound. The major part. We're going to do 20 cords. I'll plate the court twice. You decide whether it's major minor and give you the answer. And then I'm gonna play the major and minor of each of these chords so you can hear. Compare and hopefully that is going to get you going. Okay, here we go. Number one, There's a some bright is a sound dark, major minor. It is a major chord. And here's the minor version. Major number two Bright, dark, major minor. It is a minor chord. Here's the major. Number three, this is a major chord. Here's the minor number four. It is a major core ray Minor danger number five. Ah, and this is also a major chord. Major minor. It's just this one note. Uh, liner. Okay. Ah, for this next set, I'm going to open up the cords of it before we've been playing these courts in close position. Meaning, uh, which is called a root position cord. I'm just going to move the notes around a bit. So for example, I may take this note and put it up here. Thats is still a major chord. It's so the same notes. They're just in different positions. Number six, major or minor. And this is a major chord. Here's the minor version. Number seven. Yeah, I find this one hard and I even know the answer. Yeah, it's a major chord. Here's the minor. Like I say when you hear them beside each other becomes much more Number eight and this is a minor chord. Number nine. Oh, here, that was a minor. Here it is a major minor major number 10. Oh, and this is a major. There's the third. That's the major, third, minor third major minor number 11. Uh oh. I find this one a little difficult to hear, but it is a major is the minor. It's this top know up here, I'm just telling you, if it's major or minor Number 12 it's a minor. Here's the major good, solid cord. That's the minor number 13. This is also major. Here's the minor. That's the note that's deciding whether it's major number 14 and that is a minor chord. Here's the major version. Major, minor major. Next chord and that is a minor is the major. I have lost count, so I'm gonna do five more support Boat that okay, these last five are going to be a little different because I'm not going to play the route as the bottom notes of the chord. Until this point, all the courts have been playing. For example, if I played a C major chord I've got to see at the bottom time playing an F sharp major record have sharp at the bottom. Wanting to do now is use a different base note, but these air still major chords or minor chords. Here we go. Okay. Two Major, Here's the minor version. Major minor. Next one, and that's a minor. Here's the major version. Next one, Uh, and that's a major chord. May have sounded minor, but it was major. Here's the minor version. A major, this note right here. A couple more chords and we're done. Um, and that's a major. Here's the minor. It's actually the base notice of one that is the third of the cord. That was kind of tricky. If you got that wrong. No worry about it. And the last one again. Minor, major, late, dark, heavy. How are you feel? This was a minor chord. Here's the major version. Minor major here is that same court in route position, a open position, bulls position. All that to be said that this is challenging, especially when the cords get wider, doesn't begin to be harder and harder to tell whether it is a major minor. But your ears will get used to this over time. It's really is a matter of just becoming familiar. Next week, we're gonna do another major minor thing, but it's gonna be on different instruments. And overall, if you were enjoying these classes, please ready the comments below. And also right. Tell me how you're doing. I want to know if these are too easy. If they're too hard. If there's anything specific that you would like to learn in these your training, fundamental courses. All right, See you next class. Bye bye. 7. Ear training fundamentals #5: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to ear training fundamentals. Class number five. This time we're going to do something very different. We're going to continue along with major and minor chords, meaning we're gonna listen to accord. And you have to tell me if it's major minor. The difference is going to be instead of playing it on the piano, which is very typical for all your training quizzes, test tutorials. It's generally stunning the piano, which is fine. I do it too, but I thought it would be fun to do it on different instruments so you could listen to the different characteristics of different instruments. How they sound, how they lay out. It's easier or harder for you to get the tonalities. So we're gonna start with the classic instrument, the guitar, and I'm going to be playing major and minor chords. I'll play a chord. You listen, you figured out where you decide what you think it is, and then I will play the major or minor variation on that so we'll start with the classic. Is this a major or minor chord? Listen to it doesn't have a bright sound. Is it a sort of a heavier darker sound. Don't look at your fingers if you don't look at my fingers. If you can play guitar that's cheating. Use your ears. Okay, this is a major court. Here is the minor version of it. Major minor danger on Just like the piano. There's just one. No difference. That's a major. That's minor. Major. Next one. Number two. Is this a major or minor? E heard this quarter 1000 times? Is it a major? A minor? The answer is, it is major. Here's the minor version. Sorry, there's minor, major minor. All right, Number three, major or minor. How's it sound to you? This'll is a major. Here's the minor version. Major, minor, major minor. Here's the next one major or minor. I think this is a minor court hears the major way. They got a guy in a little closer. There's a small instrument, this Ah, little ukulele. And so what do we got here? Major minor. It's a little trickier in this intimate, actually major minor. Here's the miner that was a major minor major. Next one major or minor? Major, a minor. The answer that was a minor. Here's the major version. Finer major. It's that one note defines the tonality major minor. Okay, welcome back. Now we have something called a P. Annika also called him a logica. It's kind of this accordion slash harmonica type piano thing anyway. Sounds like this. Just tell me Major Minor. I was major. Here's the minor. Next one, major or minor and that's a minor. Here's the major version. Next one, Here's the hater version. Next one. If I could do a big one here, Night is a minor. Here's the major version. Ah, just that one note. Okay, one more. That's a major. And I'm playing the third the moat, and I'm playing the third at the top in the bottom. That's the note that indicates whether it's major and minor. So here's the major theme. The minor. Okay, say goodbye. The P Annika. Okay. And last things last. This is a vibraphone. This is actually my main instrument, and I'm gonna play major and minor chords. Okay. First chord. What is this, Major? A minor minor chord. Here's the major version. Uh, second card thing is a major court hears the minor version way. Third card. Oh, I think is a major. Here's the minor version. Oh, major Minor. Next one. This is a minor. Here's the major Loathe the on the last one. Oh, thats is a minor chord. Here's the major version. Minor major, minor major. So that's it for this week. I hope you enjoyed this different kind of ear training quiz. And like I said, every instrument has a different tonality as a difference. Sonority. And it's ah easier or harder for people to hear major minor chords, depending on the instrument. And please write comments. Tell me what you like a both these classes. What, you don't like what you would? Is it too fast? Is it too slow? Is there anything specific you would like to know about? And I will see you next time. Thanks. Bye bye.