https://www.musical-u.com/learn/turning-the-piano-inside-out-with-sarah-nicolls/
The inner workings of the typical piano hide behind yards of carefully lacquered furniture.
As innovative concert pianist Sarah Nicolls collaborated with contemporary composers, she found herself exploring the sonic possibilities found inside the piano using various tools and body parts to produce otherworldly yet acoustic sounds.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/turning-the-piano-inside-out-with-sarah-nicolls/
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/who-moved-the-tonic-part-1-hearing-key-changes/
If you’ve been working on playing by ear – with or without solfa – you know by now that the tonic gives you most of the information you need to play and/or transcribe a melody without written music.
It tells you the key, the scale, the accidentals, the potential chord progressions and more.
And if you can pick out the subdominant (fa) and the dominant (sol) by ear then you can figure it out even faster.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/who-moved-the-tonic-part-1-hearing-key-changes/
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/choosing-music-performer-bandleader-studio-musician-and-educator-dylan-welsh/
Freelance guitarist, bandleader, arranger, and music educator Dylan Welsh is already an eight-year veteran of the vibrant Seattle music scene.
When he was still too young to hang out in bars and network, internet-savvy Dylan built a career by creating an online presence that now includes remote session work, Skype lessons, arranging/chart preparation and more.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/choosing-music-performer-bandleader-studio-musician-and-educator-dylan-welsh/
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/identify-major-and-minor-keys-two-shortcuts/
Learning to identify major and minor keys is an essential skill for musicians.
Once you know the key of a song you’re free to play it by ear or improvise over it. Keys come in two “flavors”, major and minor and so it’s valuable to learn to identify major and minor keys by ear.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/identify-major-and-minor-keys-two-shortcuts/
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/discovering-minor-chord-progressions-minor-scale-basics/
While most of the music that you hear on the radio sticks to basic major chords, it is important to learn how to use minor chord progressions in your music, whether you are a performer, producer, or songwriter.
You can hear minor chords in all musical styles from rock to hip hop and pop music.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/discovering-minor-chord-progressions-minor-scale-basics/
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/and-three-makes-triad-hearing-triads/
Triads are the basic form of chords, and can be combined to create harmonies and harmonic progressions.
Learning to distinguish between different types of chords is immensely beneficial for improvising and hearing backing harmonies.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/and-three-makes-triad-hearing-triads/
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/tension-release-bitter-sweet-relationships-chords-scales/
One of the best ways to begin playing by ear is to play chord tones and find your way around the scale by targeting the chord tones through a given chord progression.
But music is about Tension and Release. Release is an important aspect of music and life. If you think about it for a while you would realise our world is full of tension and release.
The following exercises explore the next step after learning to hit the chord tones. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/tension-release-bitter-sweet-relationships-chords-scales/
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/the-lydian-scale-part-2-lydian-meets-major/
Previously we began to look into the Lydian scale, constructed from the natural tonal gravity of the circle of fifths.
George Russell—the originator of the Lydian Chromatic Concept—places the Lydian scale as “Sun Absolute” in the center of the musical universe. What are the implications for music theory and for the venerable major scale?
Let’s compare the Lydian and major scales and we’ll find they answer these questions for themselves.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/the-lydian-scale-part-2-lydian-meets-major/
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/crazy-easy-weird-modal-improv-trick-part-2/
Oooo modal… it sounds so mysterious, so deep and so difficult. Like something you should really wait to learn until you’re way advanced, like a super-shredder metal guitarist or a jazz genius.
Even if you never take your modal improv beyond the white keys on the piano, there is so much to discover about how pitches relate to each other.
So modal is nothing to fear – enjoy the infinite benefits to your ears, and to your new found ability to create meaningful new melodies.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/crazy-easy-weird-modal-improv-trick-part-2/
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-do-you-use-intervals-to-recognise-notes-by-ear/
When musicians ask themselves “why learn intervals?” often the answer is “to recognise notes by ear”.
Intervals can be seen as the “building blocks” with which melodies and harmonies are created, and so interval ear training helps you to pick apart these elements of music by ear and recognise the notes present. However, where many music students get stuck is that even when you learn to recognise intervals, it is not immediately obvious how to use that new skill to recognise notes in music you hear.
There are three ways you can apply the knowledge of intervals to recognise notes by ear:
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-do-you-use-intervals-to-recognise-notes-by-ear/