Repeating Cadences in Ones Head During Ear Training
Repeating Cadences in Ones Head During Ear Training
Repeating Cadences in Ones Head During Ear Training
Q: I started working extensively with the beginner CD for Ear Training One Note Complete this week. Due to the pause between the cadence, I find it helpful to repeat cadences in my head during the pause, which makes it easier to compare the note I hear against the key. Is this an ok strategy or is this cheating per se? I find it almost impossible to hear the right answer without doing this. Right now I think my key retention is weak so I hope the singing exercises with the Fanatic’s Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing will help with that. So far I’ve been working mostly with the notes C, E, and G. I notice that I’m able to identify E most of the time, but mix C and G up a lot. Related to my last email, the David Lucas Burge course spoke about how correcting mistakes was a vital part of ‘culturing’ and developing the ear. If I’m listening and playing along with the Ear Training One Note Complete CDs and guess the wrong note (like C instead of G) is it ok for me to hit pause on the CD so I can compare the right answer with the wrong answer on my guitar while imagining the cadence in my head? It seems like this would help the different sound of the notes against the key sink in better. In the meantime, I’ll definitely heed your tip on listening to all 12 notes more often as well and will look into Single String Studies for Guitar Volume One. Does this book require the ability to read music on a staff? I’ve done this on a limited basis before, but in the past I’ve played mostly original songs or just chords for covers, so I’ve haven’t really needed to read music and solo much in the past. But, certainly it can’t hurt and it sounds like being able to read music would help with the ear training?
A: You may want to work with the Ear Training One Note Complete Intermediate CD, which has less of a space between repeating cadences and hearing notes. It is also an OK strategy to repeat cadences in your ‘head.’ You can either repeat the tracks that you get wrong so you can hear the right answer or play the right answer on your instrument. You will also find that the Fanatic’s Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing CD will help you a lot because it just repeats the tonality over and over so you can sing and hold notes to learn their unique sound. You will have to read note on a music staff with the Single String Studies for Guitar Volume One book. It’s actually a good idea to play the Fanatic’s Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing CD and find each note in a particular key by ear. It’s OK to play the Single String Studies for Guitar Volume One very slow. Some people even write the names of the notes above each pitch until they get better at recognizing the pitches on the music staff and relating them to guitar. You should think of the Single String Studies for Guitar Volume One Book as a long term project to learn all the notes on the guitar and where they are on the music staff. But it’s also a great ear training tool when used over a vamp from the Fanatic’s Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing book or make your own.
Remember that everything is interrelated. So ear training, music theory, repeating cadences, and fretboard knowledge all work off from each other to make music easier for you. This process takes a long time to develop but in the long run will make you a much better musician.
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.