7/27/2019 Ear Traing

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Chord recognition

Complementary to recognizing the melody of a song is hearing the harmonic structures that support it. Musicians often practice hearing different types of chordsand their inversions out of context, just to hear the characteristic sound of the chord. They also learn chord progressions to hear how chords relate to one another in the context of a piece of music.Microtonal chord and interval recognition

The process is similar to twelve-tone ear training, but with many more intervalsto distinguish. Aspects of microtonal ear training are covered in Harmonic Experience, by W. A. Mathieu, with sight-singing exercises, such as singing over a drone, to learn to recognize just intonation intervals. There are also software projects underway or completed geared to ear training or to assist in microtonalperformance.

Gro Shetelig at The Norwegian Academy of Music is working on the development ofa Microtonal Ear Training method for singers[23] and has developed the softwareMicropalette,[24] a tool for listening to microtonal tones, chords and intervals. Aaron Hunt at Hi Pi instruments has developed Xentone,[25] another tool for microtonal ear training.Rhythm recognition

One way musicians practice rhythms is by breaking them up into smaller, more eas

ily identifiable sub-patterns. For example, one might start by learning the sound of all the combinations of four eighth notes and eighth rests, and then proceed to string different four-note patterns together.

Another way to practice rhythms is by muscle memory, or teaching rhythm to different muscles in the body. One may start by tapping a rhythm with the hands and feet individually, or singing a rhythm on a syllable (e.g. "ta"). Later stages may combine keeping time with the hand, foot, or voice and simultaneously tappingout the rhythm, and beating out multiple overlapping rhythms.

A metronome may be used to assist in maintaining accurate tempo.Timbre recognition

Each type of musical instrument has a characteristic sound quality that is largely independent of pitch or loudness. Some instruments have more than one timbre,e.g. the sound of a plucked violin is different from the sound of a bowed violin. Some instruments employ multiple manual or embouchure techniques to achieve the same pitch through a variety of timbres. If these timbres are essential to the melody or function, as in shakuhachi music, then pitch training alone will notbe enough to fully recognize the music. Learning to identify and differentiatevarious timbres is an important musical skill that can be acquired and improvedby training.Transcription

Music teachers often recommend transcribing recorded music as a way to practiceall of the above, including recognizing rhythm, melody and harmony. The teacher

may also perform short compositions, with the student listening and transcribingthe piece onto paper in a practice known as dictation.