Ear Training Exercises - Learn Relative Pitch

Ear training is the process by which a student can learn to distinguish between different intervals, chords and rhythms. These aural skills are important for musicians as they allow them to transcribe, play by ear, and sight-read accurately, as well as having benefits in terms of composition (among them, being able to transfer the melody in your head to paper or your instrument), and more.

Aural skills must be learned by doing, and as such it’s important to have effective exercises in order to develop them. To begin with, students can try simple call-and-response-type exercises such as reproducing single notes: you can use a recording, or have a partner or instructor play one note, and then attempt to sing or play the same note. This is known as an “absolute pitch” exercise, and it will develop a sense in the student for what a given note sounds like; if you can identify the note immediately, you may have perfect pitch. This type of exercise can also be done with multiple notes played in a series, becoming increasingly complex, which will work on memory as well as identification of notes.

Another important area to focus on is the identification of intervals. Listen to two notes played one after another and try to determine the interval between the two, starting with the basics like octaves and perfect fifths before moving to other intervals. Being able to accurately determine intervals means you have relative pitch, which is considered an essential skill for musicians. Once you can identify intervals, you can use that skill to identify chords.  Students might also consider using similar exercises with the purpose of distinguishing quickly between major and minor chords. Additionally, once intervals have been mastered, students can move on to exercises to distinguish between different types of scales.

Exercises for rhythmic ear training can involve keeping a simple beat by tapping the hand or foot while singing over this beat. This method can also be made increasingly complex, moving all the way up to polyrhythms and incorporating reading in order to develop a sense for recognizing rhythms in addition to tonality. Sight-reading and sight-singing are also popular methods of ear training, as they encourage learners to quickly identify and reproduce intervals and rhythms. Finally, students can move on to fully transcribing pieces of music, which brings together all of the skills acquired through ear training so far.

The key to ear training, in addition to effective exercises, is simply to practice often. Ear training can be time consuming, but the benefits definitely make it worthwhile to any musician.