The secret is having a framework which helps you recognise what possible chords are coming next – and then adding the age old discipline of practice. With a bit of practice, you could adapt the same chord sequence into a variety of different keys, without music. Learning to go further and recognise a sequence of chords really is possible. Most people can recognise the difference between a happy sounding major chord and a sadder sounding minor chord. You can then apply exactly the same principle to any chord in a song.
Just as you can remember the melody of a song you can actually train yourself to ‘remember’ how many steps higher or lower your note has travelled as the melody has changed.
Playing by ear is really about recognising the number of musical ‘steps’ between the note you have just played and the one that comes next. This skill of playing by ear can be developed in the same way as anyone can improve their musicianship, with practice, patience and most importantly, by increasing your musical listening skills. Getting familiar with this ‘music theory’ that frees us to know exactly what to play over any song we hear is not the daunting process it appears and couples a little theoretical knowledge with honing your ‘musical ear’. Alternatively if we create a melody line that goes just too high for our congregation to sing, how do we know what the correct chords will be if we find that the melody best works in a lower and unfamiliar key? And for some of us who haven’t had any formal musical training, what on earth is a ‘key’ anyway? Alternatively, if you’re in the type of church where someone starts a spontaneous worship song wouldn’t it be nice to be able to locate the right key and anticipate what chord is coming next?Īnd for songwriters too, wouldn’t it be good to be able to hear and try out every chord that is available to us in any key rather than just try to shoehorn the melodies we create into familiar chord sequences that can make a new song sound a bit predictable. Yet, as church based musicians we often have repertoires that consist of perhaps 150 songs that we need to be able to lead confidently in, and preferably without having to locate the music at a moments’ notice. It’s often considered a gift rather than a skill that can be learned and constantly improved on.
#Chord finder and ear trainer how to
They are very similar and they both let you create your own custom exercises and track your progress.Learn how to play by ear Ear training for song writers (and any other worship musician)įor many people, the thought of playing “by ear” or being able to anticipate the chords, notes and musical charges in a song you’ve never heard before seems like an impossible task. One for the Web, that runs in your browser, and one for iOS devices, that runs on your iPhone and iPad. They are: interval size comparison, interval recognition, chord recognition, chord inversion recognition and scale recognition. The app currently has 5 different ear training disciplines. You can train your ear with more than 200 individual exercises covering intervals, chords, and scales. We created EarBeater to help music students train their aural skills. What is EarBeater?ĮarBeater is a tool designed for people who wants to become better musicians. It gives you more freedom in your playing and will ultimately make you a better musician.
That’s why ear training is a crucial part of your musical education.
When transcribing music, when learning new songs, when improvising and playing with other people. As a musician you need to rely on your ear all the time.