11.22.14 - Topic of the Day… Ear Training. Training your ear to recognize certain progressions or intervals (whole step, Half step) is a useful practice. There is actually an app that I have on my iPhone that lets you practice recognizing chords by ear. Technology today is great for musicians. All of the world’s knowledge is at our fingertips. Back in the day, I had a record player that would play at 1/2 speed where it would slow down the audio and drop it a complete octave. That was how i figured out quick runs by guys like Malmsteen. Pre internet, we did whatever it took to figure things out on our own. Listening to my favorite band or riffs and using my ear without tab as a cheat sheet, was very helpful in developing my ear. I would blindly turn the radio tuner until I’d hit the next station on the dial and whatever music was playing, I’d try to play along with it. I would also play an entire album from beginning to end (The Cure’s “Disintegration” comes to mind) and jam along with it. It was a nice way to develop a feel for what I was going for and over the length of an entire cd, I could really work out some ideas. Music is something we use our ears for first, so anything you do to help train them is a good thing. Force yourself to sing along with things. Sing the notes of a scale when you play it slowly on guitar. Find the pitches and tighten up your accuracy by singing them over and over. The difference of a whole step or half becomes more noticeable when you are singing the notes. I can hear things for the first time and play it back to you many of the times. Also, I can recognize the chords of a song and progression from just hearing the song. This is hugely helpful in a jamming situation and when soloing as well. I developed this skill from singing the notes of chords. even if you don’t consider yourself a singer, why not give it a shot? It certainly won’t hurt your guitar playing to work on these skills. Trust me, we all have the ability to learn this sort of stuff if we really want it. If I can, you can… It’s as simple as that! Saturday is here and I’m thankful this long work week is coming to an end. :)
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 01:12:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015