Ear Training Improves All Aspects Of Musicianship

Ear training is definitely the biggest key to becoming a better musician, songwriter, composer, and/or singer. Why is it so important to improving one's musical abilities? Because music is a hearing art. You can only play, write, and sing as well as you can hear.

There are two types of ear training. The first is relative pitch ear training and the second is absolute pitch ear training. What's the difference between these two?

Relative pitch recognition is the ability to recognize the relationship between two or more notes. An example of this type of skill is the ability to know what type of chord is being played. Another example is to know the interval between two notes that are played.

A person with relative pitch skills would not know what the exact chord was (for example a G Major 7th chord) he would only know what type of chord it is (Major 7th) unless of course he had a reference to go off of.

Perfect pitch recognition is the ability to know exactly what a note is simply by hearing it "cold" without any reference at all. A good singer with perfect pitch can sing any note on command. For example you could ask them to sing a C# and they would be able to do it, even without any reference at all (no music to sing along to.)

The ability of perfect pitch recognition was long though to be something that could not be developed. It was thought that it was thought it was something that one had to be "born with" but this is now known not to be true.

While it is true that some people seem to develop this skill very easily while others are lost. Using the proper ear training methods, perfect pitch can be developed by anyone who is not tone deaf.

Don't let that last line scare you away. Almost no one is actually tone deaf. Many people think they are tone deaf simply because they cannot sing well. This does not mean someone is tone deaf. A tone deaf person can literally not tell two different tones apart. It's a very rare condition and if you had it, you would not enjoy music the way you do. If you are reading this, it's extremely unlikely that you are tone deaf.

How does one go about training their ears? Well there are many courses available both off line and online. The online courses usually have all of the same material as the offline courses only they tend to be much less expensive. Another advantage to the online choice is that the materials can be downloaded instantly so if you are an impatient person you can get started immediately.

When a musician improves their ears, they will also improve their playing. If a musician can't hear what they are trying to play then they won't be able to play it. It's very important that you be able to hear music in your head. With the right training you will be able to develop this skill, even if it seems very unlikely right now.
Marvin J. Markus is an appreciator of all types of music and a contributor to the music blog at http://www.MusicByDay.com
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