p>Increasing Ear Training Sessions Each Day

Increasing Ear Training Sessions Each Day

Q: For the past month and a half I’ve been working diligently with the singing and listening exercises found in the Ear Training One Note Complete and the Fanatic’s Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing. Recently I’ve been able to do about four or five 15 minute listening sessions and the three 10 minute singing sessions per day.

Although I notice a some progress, I’m still getting only 55-65% correct answers. I must admit that a few times a week I do a session where I get over 70% correct (top score is 77%), but I also do 50% on some sessions too. As I mentioned, I do feel that I’m starting to get it (i.e. recognize the notes), but very, very slowly. At times it gets very frustrating and I almost feel like giving up. The fact that some days I feel that I’m almost about to break through and get it, but then the next day I don’t do hardly as well is extremely frustrating. Honestly, I feel I’m learning just as much about myself and will power as I am about ear training.

Any practical and moral assistance will be much appreciated at this point.

A: Your situation is common and depending on how much you want to torture yourself there are a few solutions. If you just continue in the same manner as you describe you will push over the 77% mark sooner or later. On the other hand if you want to push through to the next level you can try increasing ear training time and concentration level until you see progress. For some people adding in an extra 30 minutes to an hour a day does the trick for others it can be a real marathon. For instance for myself (which by the way you are progressing much better than I did) I had to push the ear training two note exercises and singing up to 10 hours a day for 2 weeks before I finally broke through to the next level. This took great will power on my part but I had been doing two note ear training for 1 and 1/2 years with hardly any improvement so I had to do something drastic. I doubt you will have to be that drastic but you will have to find that level of practice time and concentration that allows notes to stick in your internal memory.

Hope this helps and for God’s sake don’t give up now you’re almost there.

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.