Developing Relative Pitch - How to Learn Aural Skills

Relative pitch is the ability to recognize the intervals between tones in music. This skill is very useful to musicians because, once they can readily identify and utilize the intervals between notes, they can easily handle previously difficult tasks such as playing by ear, transcription, and even playing effectively in a group or singing without accompaniment, among other things.

Ear training programs include the development of relative pitch among their goals.  Learners can attain the skill of relative pitch through a number of methods, but there’s really one central tenet to all such exercises: intensive listening. The ear is trained through listening, and with sufficient training, students can learn to hear those intervals and gain the insight into music that comes with that hearing.

The most basic way to train toward relative pitch is to listen to the different intervals until they can be easily and quickly distinguished from one another. Instructors might simply play an interval on an available instrument, or use familiar pieces of music to bring the student’s attention to a given interval.

Another long-standing method for developing relative pitch is the use of solfege-based exercises. “Solfege” refers to the “do, re, mi” system of naming tones. In what’s known as “fixed-do” solfege, students learn to compare and identify specific pitches independently, while the “movable-do” method involves relating pitches and intervals to given musical contexts (chords, scales and so on).

Instructors might also encourage their students to reproduce single pitches or series of pitches, either on their instruments – this is a particularly important exercise for violinists – or their voices. This type of exercise can be done unaccompanied or over a backing of a note or chord. These exercises will help students get a feel for pitches and intervals in a variety of musical settings, so that they’re prepared to go on and play without restrictions.
 
Ear training exercises for developing relative pitch generally aren’t overly complicated or difficult. The important thing for students is to take the time necessary to attain this crucial skill. Once they’ve got it, it won’t go away, and they can focus on enjoying and playing music as freely and comfortably as possible.