In the following chapters we’ll be covering the “building blocks” of pitch and rhythm which empower you to relate instinctively to all the music you hear and play.
We’ll be following the Integrated Ear Training approach, so you will learn the concepts, practice the core skills, apply them to real musical tasks, and develop your intuitive connection to the music.
We will begin with pitch, introducing the topic of Relative Pitch, and how it’s distinct and preferable to an Absolute Pitch (or “Perfect Pitch”) approach. We’ll look at the Solfa system for naming the different notes of the scale, and the Intervals system for naming the distances between musical pitches. We’ll use these to explore melody (one note at a time) and then look at harmony through Chords and Progressions, formed when we stack multiple pitches and they vary over time.
Then we’ll shift tack and look at Rhythm. We’ll first look at ways to hear and connect with the Beat, and then the rhythms that are created on top of it. We’ll learn a particular “rhythm syllables” approach which is a powerful addition to the traditional “count chant” method for understanding the timing of notes.
It’s important to mention that although we’ll cover pitch and rhythm in sequence, that’s no indication that you should learn them sequentially! In fact, our most effective training for learning these skills, in the Spring Season of Living Music, elegantly weaves the two together module-to-module. Music is itself a combination of pitch and rhythm together, and your Ear Training can be too.
These chapters are not intended to be a comprehensive course on any of the topics covered, but they should be plenty sufficient to get you up and running, and enjoying real, tangible benefits from the Ear Training you do.
More importantly, the Integrated Ear Training process you’ll learn, along with the frameworks for Playing By Ear, Improvisation, and Songwriting you’ll find in Part III, will equip you to continue designing your own successful Ear Training journey, up to any level of skill your heart desires.