Overwhelmed by Ear Training One Note Complete book

Q: I just recently started learning the guitar a few months ago, at age 35. First off, let me tell you that I appreciated your book 1st Steps for a Beginning Guitarist and Music Theory Workbook for Guitar Volume One. They got me up to speed quickly. Following your recommendation, I also bought Ear Training One Note Complete. I’ve read through all the FAQs on your web site, but still have questions on the best method to learn the notes in the key of C major. Two days ago I started with it. The first day I just listened to the CD, all 99 tracks, at random order, many times during the day. After all of this I was being overwhelmed, and so I reduced the number of notes to listen to to C, E, and G – as suggested in one FAQ. On the second day, I started with this smaller set. I listen to it about 5 times every day, as you suggested – burned a CD and played it in my portable CD player in shuffle mode. Even with only 25 tracks, being overwhelmed is still very present. I know I need to persevere hoping for the light of the tunnel. However, I’m wondering if I can further reduce the problem set to even fewer notes and fewer pitches.

So, please let me know if my following idea has any problems. I’d like to start with only two notes and four pitches (four tracks), say two pitches for C and two pitches for G. Then I practice on those. If I can clearly distinguish those four, I add more notes to that set (or more pitches, please advise). Also, the pitches I start out with would not be too high or too low, because those seem to be harder to memorize. Once I’ve mastered those, I either add another note, or add new pitches for C and G. I then keep growing the problem set until I’ve learned all notes and all their pitches. If this is an OK idea, how would you advise to start out and how to grow the set of pitches (add notes or add pitches, start with medium pitches, then add low and finally very high ones)?

Instead of practicing something over and over for weeks and weeks, without feeling progress, I hope to be able to feel progress much sooner. I worry that I practice week after week without feeling any progress, which would decrease my motivation as well as confidence. I can also use a small MP3 player to easily add more files to it – the size of the MP3 player is also much smaller, making it easy to take it anywhere. It’s great to have new technology to create a more effective learning process. I’m hoping with this method I could see progress quickly, hopefully week after week. So, please let me know if this is a bad idea.

A: Nice to hear from you and thanks for reading the FAQs before contacting me. I guess my first concern is your expecting to see light at the end of the tunnel after two days. Do you really feel like you have given yourself enough time? Many students don’t see any progress for weeks, even months, but then their mind begins to remember and slowly but surely they master this technique. With only two days, its normal to feel overwhelmed as you do. I should also mention that I’ve never had a student that could get this ear training that really tried. All that said I’m wondering why you aren’t working out of the Fanatic’s Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing if you are having such a hard time. This book will greatly speed up your progress and would be a much better place to concentrate on smaller sets of notes.

You can limit your self to 2 notes if you want with the Ear Training One Note Complete CDs.

Personally I think it will take you longer to get to 100% correct answers. Remember you can’t know the true color of red without knowing all the other colors. Therefore limiting your palette will mostly confuse your mind in the long run. I will say that listening to fewer notes a few times a day is OK as long as you listen to them all most of the time. Overall I think your missing the point on how you learn this type of ear training. This is not referential learning where you are comparing one thing to other. It’s more like the type of learning your mother used to teach you how to speak. You hear a sound over and over until you memorize it. It seems you have a type of mind that looks for other answers when something doesn’t work right away. That’s a good attribute normally. In this case I think it will distract from your over all progress.

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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