Different Temperaments for Ear Training

Q: I’m quite intrigued with your Ear Training One Note Complete method. I am a singer who does a lot of medieval music (I also sing more recent music). Therefore, I wonder how your method would help or hinder me in adjusting to mean/just temperament when working with different temperaments in my medieval music. Is the third in just temperament going to sound enough like the third in equal temperament for me to adjust easily? Or am I going to get stuck in equal temperament with your method? Or, am I worrying about nothing and making it all more complicated than it needs to be?

A: I don’t think you will get stuck in my method and be unable to hear just intonation but I do think that some exercises would certainly help you to hear and memorize the differences. For example, if you had a CD with the just and equal tempered notes on it with a key reference to start so that you could start to hear and memorize the differences in relationship to the key center. Sounds like a great ear training book with a CD. Unfortunately, at this time, I wouldn’t have time to make such a book and CD for you. Many synthesizers allow you to use just intonation so if you happen to have one of these you could use that to help you make a CD to listen to.

Basically the bottom line here is you would need to memorize the sound of the just and equal tempered notes against a key center. The key stays the same it’s just the pitch of the notes.

It is also recommended that you read Bruce Arnold’s Blog at his artist site. It contains more discussion of the musical topics found in these FAQs as well as other subjects of interest. You will also find the “Music Education Genealogy Chart” located here which shows you the historic significance of the music education products found on the Muse Eek Publishing Company Website.

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