Building on the foundational skills covered in Part I, in Part II of this book we’ll focus on Ear Training, as a way to open up new possibilities in our musicality.
This is a topic particularly near and dear to my heart. Perhaps not surprising, given that I originally founded Musical U as “Easy Ear Training”! If you read my backstory in the Introduction chapter, you’ll understand the impact that discovering and exploring ear training had on my own musical journey.
I have to admit though, it was a shock to me when I found that almost every musician I mentioned Ear Training to had one of these two reactions:
- “Ear training? What’s that?”
Or
- “Bah! Ear training… I hate ear training.”
In this chapter we’ll briefly dig into why these were (and still are) the two most common reactions to the mention of “ear training”, as well as introducing the approach we now use at Musical U, called Integrated Ear Training.
We’ve found that this unique approach avoids the most painful aspects of traditional ear training, and serves as an enjoyable and effective way for any musician to unlock all of the ear-based skills mentioned in Chapter 1: Musicality. Equipped with this approach and the “building blocks” introduced in the chapters which follow, you’ll be well prepared to dive into the specific applications in Part III, such as Playing By Ear, Improvisation, and Songwriting (including composing).
So whether you’ve never heard of “ear training” before, you’ve tried it and struggled, or you’re an Ear Training aficionado looking for some new ways to improve even faster and with more joy, I think you’re going to be excited by the new possibilities that this part of the book opens up for you.
Overview
In this chapter we’ll begin by defining what “Ear Training” is, and the two distinct skills all Ear Training consists of. We’ll then cover the two most common approaches (Passive Ear Training and Traditional Ear Training), their limitations, and the root causes of the frustration and limited results most musicians have experienced when trying ear training before.
We’ll then share how our approach at Musical U developed over the years, into what we now call Integrated Ear Training, and how this relates to the H4 Model introduced in Chapter 1: Musicality. We’ll discuss the experience and results you can expect when adopting this new approach, and then give a brief overview of the chapters which follow in Part II.
Let’s begin with the most basic question…