Bass players and ear training

If you are a bass player you might be wondering: do I need ear training? I mean, come on, I play a simple bass line in a band, what good will ear training do me?

It's often said that a bass player, besides the drummer, keeps the rhythm and the support for the entire band. I mean, when the bass player plays in sync with what's going on in the song it's wonderful. But when the bass player doesn't, it's awful. Ask me how I know, I've been there.

The difference usually boils down to whether or not the bass player has a good ear, that is, is ear trained in both perfect pitch and relative pitch.

It's way worth the effort for any bass player to acquire these skills for it will take his or her playing to a new level and enhance the experience of the entire band.

I highly recommend the following resources which have helped me when I played bass in a band:

Perfect Pitch Ear Training

Relative Pitch Ear Training

The following are helpful resources as well:

Music Theory Course

Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

I hope they help you as well and please let me know how and in what way these courses are helping you!

Vasili-

Ear Training and Drums

If you are a drummer, either in a classical setting, jazz, big band, or rock and roll band you might be thinking to yourself: "I don't really have to have a good ear for music, just a good feel of rhythm and time to be a good drummer."

Many drummers perhaps feel this way. But the superior drummers, those that are legends in their own right also have very acute musical ability and talent as well. This is the key to their being able to play more artistically. They understand music at a deep level and also have a good sense of musical hearing.

Many drummers play another instrument besides drums such as keyboard or guitar in order to reinforce their understanding of key musical concepts.

If you want to be a legendary superior drummer then learning about all aspects of music and being able to distinguish them by ear is a must. How can you accomplish this?

I highly recommend the following resources which have helped me personally:

Perfect Pitch Ear Training

Relative Pitch Ear Training

The following are helpful resources as well:

Music Theory Course

Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

I hope they help you as well and please let me know how and in what way these courses are helping you!

Vasili-

Do you really need ear training?

Ear training has been a lost skill that many musicians do not do or try to do on a systematic basis. They may think it unimportant or irrelevant to what they want to accomplish.

So, do you need it! The answer is: YES!!

Why? Because music is a HEARING art and your skill in music is directly linked to how well you can hear it when others are playing or you are playing your own music.

Being aware of the need for ear training is at the very core of the message I try to get across to every musician and student I teach.

If you want to progress to your maximum potential as a musician then you MUST involve yourself with some form of ear training.

I highly recommend the following resources which have helped me personally:

Perfect Pitch Ear Training

Relative Pitch Ear Training

The following are helpful resources as well:

Music Theory Course

Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

I hope they help you as well and please let me know how and in what way these courses are helping you!

Vasili-

Relative pitch - how long to establish?

I question I get asked often regarding relative pitch is: how long does it take to establish? Are there any shortcuts? Can I speed up the process?

These are good questions which deserve more than an answer like "it just depends".

First question: how long to establish? Well, for each person it is different. Some are quick to catch on and for others it takes more time. For some, 2 - 3 months or sooner and others it takes years.

Rather than ask such a question, the real question you should ask is: am I improving my musical ear awareness every day and learning to recognize and categorize what I learn better and better? That is, is my ear improving? Acquiring relative pitch may take months or years but having an ear like a great composer like Mozart takes a lifetime.

This leads to the answer to the second question: can I speed up the process? Sure you can by practicing more often your ear training drills, but the amount of time it will take depends on how fast your ear can grow accustom to the sounds you are hearing.

So I would advise to not take any shortcuts to your ear training and develop at a moderate pace that you set. If you haven't begun yet or don't know where to start the following resources will help:

Perfect Pitch Ear Training

Relative Pitch Ear Training

Music Theory Course

Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

I hope this helps and please let me know how these courses are helping you!

Vasili-

Is good ear training all you need?

Some have asked me about the value of ear training, is it all I need to be a well polished and accomplished musician?

The answer is if course not. To be a good musician you need to know your instrument, have a good technique, understand music theory, be exposed to a variety of genres, and develop your own artistic and interpretive style.

Ear training is merely a tool that will help you to get where you want to go faster and more effectively. It is not an end in itself but is a very good means to your musical end.

By having a well developed ear for music you can do much more than if you do not work on developing it. How do you begin?

The following links will provide you with what you need to start:

Perfect Pitch Ear Training

Relative Pitch Ear Training

Music Theory Course

Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

I hope this helps and please let me know how these courses are helping you!

Vasili-

How to get the most out of an ear training routine

So, you've started an ear training routine and you want to get the most out of it.

How do you do this?

First of all, you need to not stress out while doing any ear training. If it does not come natural and effortless then take it easy. The ear has to grow accustomed to the routine of training. It's sort of like working out. You don't go to the gym and do a 3 hour intense workout right at first. That would wear you out and perhaps be damaging.

Same with ear training. You must start gradual and slow, adding to your routine little by little. You should always do some sort of ear training every day and keep pushing yourself and challenging yourself. In this way your growth as a musician will continue and your horizons and opportunities will expand further and further.

What if you haven't even begun any ear training? What courses can help you begin?

The following links will provide you with what you need to start:

Perfect Pitch Ear Training

Relative Pitch Ear Training

Music Theory Course

Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

I hope this helps and please let me know how these courses are helping you!

Vasili-

Is interval training a waste of time?

I've read several articles about interval training which cast a bad light upon it basically saying that it's a waste of time. I'm going to personally debunk this line of reasoning.

When you learn any foreign language, you first learn its alphabet. Then combinations of letters and how they sound together. Then words, then sentences and then thoughts and ideas. You have to build your knowledge on a solid foundation and it must be progressive.

It's the same with music. The basic building blocks of all music are the intervals. When you learn them and learn how they formulate chords and scales this helps you to understand structure in music. Without it you are lost. There are no shortcuts to solid ear training.

Don't let anyone into suckering you into buying a shortcut "ear training course" which doesn't solidly drill every interval, up, down, melodic, and harmonic into you. This is what you will be building your musical foundation upon.

So what courses are there that will help you to set a real ear awareness foundation?

The following links will provide you with the education you need:

Perfect Pitch Ear Training

Relative Pitch Ear Training

Music Theory Course

Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

I hope this helps and please let me know how these courses are helping you!

Vasili-

Getting down your melodic and harmonic intervals

Melodic and harmonic intervals, how do you learn them?

One way is to study the structure by learning music theory. This is head knowledge and it is very useful to know as a musician.

To really excel though, it has to be more than an intellectual exercise. You must be able to recognize the quality of the interval by ear and be able to do this lightning fast.

How does one do this? By studying relative pitch and doing ear training exercises.

Where do you begin? The following links will provide you with the education you need:

Perfect Pitch Ear Training

Relative Pitch Ear Training

Music Theory Course

Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

I hope this helps and please let me know how these courses are helping you!

Vasili-

Practice makes perfect, does it?

Practice makes perfect, how many times have you heard that expression? Probably countless times. Your music teacher had probably drilled in your head the importance of practice. This was for good reason, if you didn't practice you would never master the musical concepts taught.

But does practice alone make perfect? No, for if you practice incorrectly or the wrong thing you will just learn bad habits and your playing will be perfectly awful. Not a good outcome!

How do you avoid this? By knowing how to practice right. Perfect practice makes perfect. That should be your motto. Also, solid ear training and theory will help your practice to be 1,000 times more productive.

Check out the following links for making your practice "perfect".

Perfect Pitch Ear Training

Relative Pitch Ear Training

Want to learn music theory? Click Here!

Click here for Virtual Sheet Music - Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

How long does it take to learn a song?

When you sit down to learn a piece of music, how long does it take to learn it?

For some, it takes a couple of months whereas others a couple of days or even hours.

It all depends on 2 things:

1. The complexity of the piece of music you are learning.

2. The skill level and experience of the musician learning the piece of music.

The first thing you can't really change unless you chose a piece which would be easier. The second thing you can by increasing your skill level as a musician.

How can you do this? One way is by developing your ear and awareness when  you listen to music. Perfect pitch and Relative pitch are vital in this regard. Another step is to increase your musical knowledge and technique. The following highly recommended courses will help with this:

Perfect Pitch Ear Training

Relative Pitch Ear Training

Want to learn music theory? Click Here!

Click here for Virtual Sheet Music - Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

Do you need ear training?

Well, do you need ear training? Some say you can do without. In my opinion, your musicianship will explode by leaps and bounds with it. And having a finely tuned and sensitive ear can help you excel in other areas of life such as language. Your appreciation for music will deepen and you will enjoy it far greater with good ear training than without.

Music is a hearing art. It's true that you need good technical skills on your instrument or voice as well but without ear training your growth and development will not be as acute.

So what ear training should you receive? You could go through some college courses on this but in my opinion, the best courses can be found here:

Perfect Pitch Ear Training

Relative Pitch Ear Training

Want to learn music theory? Click Here!

Click here for Virtual Sheet Music - Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

Relative Pitch Ear Training

If you want a truly GREAT ear for music, then check out the Relative Pitch Ear Training SuperCourse, by David Lucas Burge. I've found it to be the most effective way ever to develop Relative Pitch. You'll learn to recognize intervals and chords at lightning speed.

Ear training is required in every college music program. It's essential. But in college courses, the instructor must teach you a certain amount of material over a given span of time. It's too easy to fall behind and become lost. Students often refer to it anxiously as FEAR training, not EAR training.

Ear Training is a lot like math. You have to know your basic addition and subtraction before you try algebra. The great thing about Burge's course is he starts you out from scratch and then moves you through it step by step. You go at your own pace. And you move to the next lesson only when you've passed the lesson you're on. He'll drill you up and down, left and right, backwards and forwards on all your chords and intervals, so that by the end of the 41 lessons, you'll know what you hear -- which is the goal of ear training.

I wish I would have had this before my ear training classes in college. I would've sailed through instead of having nightmares over them.

Burge is now THE ear training coach, also known for his classic Perfect Pitch Ear Training course.

Go here for more information on his Relative Pitch Ear Training SuperCourse.

-- Vasili Kulikov

Absolute pitch - absolutely necessary?

Does it help a musician to have absolute pitch? Some argue that it does whereas others say you don't need it.

What is absolute pitch? Simply put, it is the ability to recognize a pitch, like C or C# without any relation to any other pitch.

Some say you need to be born with such a skill. I wasn't and I have developed it fairly well. In my opinion, it's not absolutely necessary but it does add a layer of hearing perception and enjoyment to the music I listen to and play.

I would highly recommend developing this skill. How do you do it? I will be talking about this in a future blog. Stay tuned!!

Along with absolute pitch or "perfect pitch" you do need to understand the fundamentals of music and basic theory. A great course which I highly recommend is found here:

Click here for course!

Hope you enjoy it!!

Master your hearing, master your instrument

Music theory vs music technique, which is more important?

It depends. Are you a composer or a performer? What genre are you pursuing?

Both elements are essential to any musician regardless of musical preference. But developing one without the other is detrimental. Both must be mastered to have any fluency as a musician.

Want to learn how? Click here for a good starting point!!

How to develop good sight reading skills

Any musician will tell you that one of the most valuable skills they have is the ability to read music quickly by sight.

How do you develop this skill? Most begin by memorizing the musical staff and note locations. But this method will only yield limited results. It's like trying to read one letter at a time with words.

You have to read musical thoughts and ideas more than just the individual notes and then group them in a way that makes sense to you.

Would you like to learn how to do this? Click here!!

Musical education, when does it end?

When you were first learning about music, perhaps how to read music or play an instrument, there were a lot of new things to learn. Notes, scales, chords, technique, and many musical terms and symbols.

There are a basic amount which every musician should know, and then there is a specific knowledge which relates to the genre of music you want to play and study.

When does the learning end? Quite simply put, never. A musician's musical education and progression is ongoing and expansive. After a while mastery of an instrument and a musical form may take place, but this only leads to new and exciting paths.

In the beginning it may seem boring and monotonous but if you can make it past this stage, the rewards for your effort are well worth it.

Where do you begin? Click here for your start!!

Classically trained - does it make a difference?

Many musicians today in a variety of genres have a classical background, that is, they studied classical music as a foundation for their musical education. While some might say that this is not needed depending on the genre of music you want to perform or study, in my opinion it does help and makes a huge difference. Allow me to elaborate.

I studied classical music when I was learning the piano. The music was very complex and yet so beautiful that it motivated me to want to understand it and music in general in a more deeper way. This in turn has helped me in playing a variety of genres, rock, jazz, and others with greater ease. I also appreciate the history of music and the progression as a whole thanks to my classical training.

At present, I am immersed in trying to learn the works of the great masters and enjoy studying the musical scores of chamber music and orchestral works. My goal is to broaden my knowledge and understanding and have greater influences on my own compositions.

Would you like to learn how to compose music? The first step is to have a solid understanding of music and how it works. Click here to start today!

Health and musicianship - are they related?

Being a good musician and health, are they related?

Consider being a musician to being an athlete. Do athletes stay in good physical shape? Of course they do! Is it likewise important for musicians to stay in shape? Absolutely! Their performances will reflect this. Especially is this the case for singers.

Good health is essential and is too broad of a subject to discuss in this blog post. However, in addition to being healthy, there are exercises every musician does in order to stay musically in shape. Chord progressions, scales, and other exercises to name a few.

Do you have a good workout routine? How about one for ear training?

Stay tuned for my new ear training course which will help you stay in shape!

Learning music theory - is it fun?

When teaching music theory to their students, most music teachers will admit that their students find it boring. Endless drills, memorization of musical spellings, chords, scales, Latin, Italian, French, and German terms, and on and on. Most students just want to play and enjoy the music they play.

Is it possible to make such a subject fun and exciting? Yes indeed!! The secret lies in how a subject is taught. Anything can be made interesting or dull. It all depends on how it is presented and what the learning style of the student is.

One thing that always makes it interesting is if the student can understand the subject on a deep level and see the why of what is taught. How can this be accomplished?

Ear training is a start and the better a student can hear, the more fun his or her learning will be.

Want to learn music theory? Click Here!

How to increase your enjoyment of music

Many people love listening to music. In fact, most listen to it every day. It's like food to them. But like food, it can only be enjoyed if the sense which is used is sensitive and responsive. For example, if your taste buds ceased to work, you would not be able to enjoy the rich variety of foods you like.

The same thing can happen in a musical sense. Some musicians and non musicians have not trained or sensitized the organ which processes sounds, their ear. Thus their enjoyment of music in all its rich variety is stunted.

How do you overcome this dilemma? The only way is to train your ear to be more sensitive and hear the depth and breadth and length of the richness of sound in the music you listen to each day. 2 skill sets are essential in this regard - perfect pitch and relative pitch.

In future articles I will explain this in more detail. Stay tuned!!!

Want to learn music theory? Click Here!

Click here for Virtual Sheet Music - Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

Understanding music

To understand music, what does this mean? It means to understand it as a whole, the sum and all its parts.

For anyone who has studied an instrument perhaps you were taught how to play and even how to read music. But rarely will a student be taught how to understand it. Many teachers do not teach this but it is an essential skill for any aspiring musical student, regardless of the instrument or genre of music performed.

What is a key to understanding music? Stay tuned and I will be writing about this in another post.

Want to learn music theory? Click Here!

Click here for Virtual Sheet Music - Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

Relative pitch - why important

Any musician will tell you the importance of a good ear. Some have trained their ear so well that they can hear a song once and be able to play it. Mozart had this ability as well as many of the classical and modern day masters.

How do you develop it? Well not just by practice, but you need to know what to listen for and have a specific training routine. If you don't it would be like going to the gym and just lifting a couple of weights and thinking that you can become a bodybuilder just by doing that from time to time.

Would you like to have such an awesome routine all laid out for you? How about one that you could just listen to and practice to in your car on the way to work?

Stay tuned and I will be releasing more information about a brand new course specifically tailored for you.

Want to learn music theory? Click Here!

Click here for Virtual Sheet Music - Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads

What is Relative Pitch?

What is relative pitch? A definition from Wikipedia defines it:

The term relative pitch may denote:

• the distance of a musical note from a set point of reference, e.g. "three octaves above middle C"
• a musician's ability to identify the intervals between given tones, regardless of their relation to concert pitch (A = 440 Hz)
• the skill used by singers to correctly sing a melody, following musical notation, by pitching each note in the melody according to its distance from the previous note. Alternatively, the same skill which allows someone to hear a melody for the first time and name the notes relative to some known reference pitch.
• developed through intense training, practicing hearing differences between major, minor, diminished, and augmented intervals

This last definition, which applies not only to singers but also to players of instruments who rely on their own skill to determine the precise pitch of the notes played (wind instruments, fretless string instruments like violin or viola, etc.), is an essential professional skill required to be able to play with others. As an example think of the different concert pitches used by orchestras playing music from different styles (a baroque orchestra with original instruments might decide to use a much lower pitch).
Unlike absolute pitch (sometimes called "perfect pitch"), relative pitch is quite common among musicians, especially musicians who are used to "playing by ear", and a precise relative pitch is a constant characteristic among good musicians. Also unlike perfect pitch, relative pitch is common among non-musicians and can be developed through ear training.^[1] Computer-aid ear training is becoming a popular tool for musicians and music students and various software is available for improving relative pitch.
Some music teachers teach their students relative pitch by having them associate each possible interval with the first two notes of a popular song. (See ear training.) Another method of developing relative pitch is playing melodies by ear on a musical instrument, especially one which, unlike a piano or other fingered instrument, requires a specific manual adjustment for each particular tone. Indian musicians learn relative pitch by singing intervals over a drone, which is also described by W. A. Mathieu using western just intonation terminology. Many western ear training classes use solfège to teach students relative pitch, while others use numerical sight-singing.
Compound intervals (intervals greater than an octave) can be more difficult to detect than simple intervals (intervals less than an octave).
Interval recognition may allow musicians to identify complex chord types, or to accurately tune an instrument with respect to a given reference tone, even if the tone is not in concert pitch.
Relative pitch has not been known to develop into absolute or perfect pitch. Most North American universities develop relative pitch in their ear training courses. This can pose difficulties for students whose musicianship is more dependent on perfect pitch, although absolute and relative skills are not mutually exclusive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_pitch

Why is it important?

Stay tuned........

Want to learn music theory? Click Here!

Click here for Virtual Sheet Music - Virtual Sheet Music - Sheet Music Downloads