Ear training

[singlecoil]

Let’s assume I am playing in the key of C. I am picking my way through the melody of a song I know well. What I want to be able to do is to actually know which note I need to play next, to know that it is an A, for instance. Most of the time I can do this, maybe 75% of the time. But of course I would like to be able to do it 100% reliably.

I’ve tried various ear training methods but no luck so far. I suspect that it might be one of those things that can’t actually be taught, that if I can’t do it now then I will never be able to.

Any thoughts on this?

[GetCarter]

Not sure I can help much, but I 'visualise' it.

A really good test for this is playing the tune 'Alfie' (from the 1966 film). It's a bh, but if you can 'see' it, you'll know which note it is before you play it.

Not sure what instrument you are using, but I think it'll be easier on a stringed instrument rather than a keyboard.

As I say, can't help much!

[Yahonza]

You'll never get it right 100% of the time. We aren't machines. But that is why knowing the key is useful too, because if you hit another note in the same key, it usually works.

Just pretend you are playing jazz.

[GetCarter]

Yahonza said:

You'll never get it right 100% of the time. We aren't machines. But that is why knowing the key is useful too, because if you hit another note in the same key, it usually works.

Just pretend you are playing jazz.

I pretended to play jazz for a few years (mostly in Ronnie Scotts), and I never found where 'one' was... let alone scales

ETA... I should probably explain that joke. (I have written this before on PH, so forgive me if you know it, but it is well worth repeating)

I was in the Ronnie Scotts house band for a couple of years, and we would support the main acts. As we were a 'scratch' band, we never knew who would be in the brass section, as they were all (brilliant) session players. We were a latin salsa unit, so rhythms were kinda' not mainstream.

One night, Phill Todd (tenor sax) was on stage with us. I had never worked with him before, and looked down to find him crawling in front of me on his knees in the first tune. I shouted to him "What are you doing", and he shouted back "LOOKING FOR ONE".

I have never before or since cried with laughter so much on stage.

That guy is a legend. Proper class.

Edited by GetCarter on Saturday 9th May 18:13

[cherryowen]

Rick Beato has an astonishing ability to play single note runs and complex chords for a given tune just by ear, so maybe invest in this:-

https://beatoeartraining.com/

By identifying individual notes in a solo or a chord, you can avoid being tripped up by.....

Borrowed chords
Secondary dominants
Outside passing notes
"Back door" ii-V-I progressions
Tritone substitutions
Chromatic mediants

And such like.

A good example of something unexpected is the second bar of "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath. Bar one is some heavy riffage using the root (E) and b7 (D), then bar 2 uses the major 3rd (G#)!

[Elderly]

Look up the Kodaly Method.

It worked for my kids and later it made the learning of their instruments
much easier as they it had already had given them musical literacy.