Ear training: learning to hear music better

In short: Ear training is targeted practice in recognising notes, intervals, chords and rhythms by listening. It helps with playing by ear, improvising and singing in tune.

In more detail: Almost anyone can improve their musical ear considerably with regular practice. What matters most is relative pitch, meaning the ability to place notes in relation to one another.

In detail

• Relative pitch: You recognise the distance between notes, for example whether a melody moves by a whole tone or leaps a fifth; this skill can be trained.
• Perfect pitch: A few people can name a note without a reference note, but this is not necessary for making music well.
• Recognising intervals: Many people remember intervals by the opening of well-known songs that begin with exactly that interval.
• Major and minor: A good starting point is telling major and minor chords apart; major is often perceived as bright and minor as darker.
• Rhythm: You clap back rhythms you have heard and then write them down.
• Singing: Singing back notes and intervals fixes them in your memory better than just listening.
• Melodic dictation: In a dictation a short melody is played and written down in notation, a classic exercise in music lessons.
• Working out by ear: Figuring out the melodies and chords of your favourite songs yourself is a very effective form of training.
• Regularity: Short daily sessions, for example with practice apps, usually achieve more than occasional long ones (intervalle-in-der-musik, akkorde-grundlagen, instrument-effektiv-ueben).