Musicality World

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/lydian-scale-seeking-ultimate-mysteries-music/
Anyone who loves music senses that magic lies within the relationship from one note to the next. What discoveries can you uncover in this article about the Lydian Scale?
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/lydian-scale-seeking-ultimate-mysteries-music/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-long-does-it-take-to-learn-musical-intervals/
Depending on your starting point with interval ear training, you will be able to start applying your new interval recognition skills after just a week or two of practice. However, as you see the benefits of interval ear training, you will want to continue – not declare yourself finished with it! https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-long-does-it-take-to-learn-musical-intervals/

The ear training journey is a long, yet immensely rewarding one. Along the way, there’s a trap that 90% of students will fall into, leading them to think they aren’t making progress and causing them to lose focus and motivation to develop their ear. Thankfully, one simple tip will prevent you from falling into this trap and will help you make the most out of your ear training practice.

Listen to the episode:

Links and Resources

• An Ear for Jazz, with Brent Vaartstra
• Learn Jazz Standards
• Instrument Packs at Musical U

Transcript

Over the years I’ve seen a lot of musicians make a lot of mistakes with ear training.

There are a few of them that come up a lot more than others, and one of those really common ones is what I call the ear training trap.

In our recent episode with Brent Vaartstra from Learn Jazz Standards we talked about his new ear training course and one of the things I highlighted was that he’s cleverly designed it to avoid this trap.

Before we dive in and talk about the trap and how you can avoid it, let’s take a quick moment to define what ear training is.

At Musical U we define ear training as “any activity you do to improve your ears for music”. That is a very broad definition, as it should be. But what we’re going to be talking about today is the traditional definition of ear training that most musicians associate with the phrase, and that’s doing dedicated exercises, drills, to recognise different elements in music by ear. Examples would be practicing recognising the interval between a pair of notes, or listening to a sequence of chords and trying to identify the progression.

There are loads of different areas where you can do useful ear training exercises, but with all of them you’re in danger of falling into the same trap…

Let’s start with an example. Jeff is a saxophone player who wants to improvise jazz. He’s heard that intervals are really important for having a good jazz ear so he grabs an interval training app or maybe some practice MP3s, and he spends a few weeks dedicatedly putting in 20 minutes a day practicing. He makes some progress, after a few weeks he can recognise a handful of interval types, ascending and descending.

But Jeff’s losing enthusiasm. He’s glad to have made progress, but when he picks up his sax he doesn’t really feel any different about improvising.

Jeff has fallen into the ear training trap. What’s gone wrong?

Well, he has treated ear training as an isolated activity. He’s done well with the ear training itself, but he has been doing drills that aren’t connected with his instrument or the music he loves, and he hasn’t had any way to make that connection.

If you never relate ear training exercises to your actual musical life, ear training can quickly feel pointless and it becomes incredibly hard to keep up your motivation – and that’s fair enough! You’re not really seeing any benefit from all your efforts!

So what’s the solution? Well, naturally, it’s to make sure your ear training efforts *are* connected to your musical life.

In the new ear training course from Learn Jazz Standards there is a section all about applying your new ear skills on your instrument. At Musical U, in our ear training Roadmaps we provide the dedicated training modules with the core ear training exercises – but then we always accompany them with recommended exercises you can do directly on your instrument to put it all into action. We also have a set of modules specifically about applying ear training to real musical tasks like playing by ear and improvising. And our Instrument Packs provide tutorial videos showing you exactly how to apply ear training on your specific instrument.

The ear training trap is simple – and once you know about it, it’s easy to avoid. Unfortunately the traditional ear training courses and methods leave you totally prone to falling into the trap, and in my experience 90% of musicians who pursue ear training do fall into the trap and it leaves them thinking that ear training is difficult and pointless.

Don’t fall into the trap yourself. Now you know about it, you can find ways to make sure you always connect your ear training to your real musical life, and of course if you need guidance on doing that we’re always happy to help at Musical U.

Before I wrap up I do want to mention one other thing.

Some musicians actually try so hard to avoid the trap they end up falling into another one. I was talking just the other day to a professional bassist who runs a popular website teaching bass guitar, and he was telling me how after years of gigging he had a really good ear and could happily sit in with a band and pick things up by ear. But he hadn’t really done any ear training exercises, he’d just learned it gradually by repeated trial and error playing his instrument year after year.

Now that’s good, and clearly it served him okay. But I found myself wishing he’d been shown a good way to do ear training. Because while the brute force instrument-only approach does work, it really does take years of playing, probably at a semi-professional level, before you get a really solid ear.

The beauty of ear training exercises is that they can dramatically accelerate that process by quickly giving you the building blocks required to do all the practical musical tasks. If you don’t give yourself those building blocks it’s a much slower journey.

So that’s another trap to be avoided: thinking that instrument practice alone will get you a good ear fast.

Ear training is a powerful and efficient way to get good ears. But you mustn’t fall into the trap of doing it isolated from your instrument and your real musical life. And you should also try not to swing too far in the other direction and miss out on the fast progress that dedicated exercises and ear training practice can provide.

I hope that whether you’ve never tried ear training before, or you’ve tried it and fallen into the trap of doing it in isolation, this quick episode has helped show you this dangerous trap and how you can make sure you avoid it in future.

The post About the Ear Training Trap appeared first on Musical U.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/5-key-skills-musical/
Becoming a musician means much more than just learning to play an instrument. There are a wide variety of skills involved in learning to become a capable and versatile musician beyond mechanical abilities and understanding music theory. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/5-key-skills-musical/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/music-life-spooky-halloween-song/
Make ear training easy this Halloween with a spooky song that explores major and minor scales in the key of C. Even if a child doesn’t know the difference between major and minor scales, most students can recognize a “spooky” sounding song in minor. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/music-life-spooky-halloween-song/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-tune-your-guitar-by-ear/
A lot of discussion can be had over whether the guitar should be tuned by ear or with the help of an electronic device. As we’re about to see, tuning by ear has multiple benefits over the “easier” path of using a tuner. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-tune-your-guitar-by-ear/

https://www.musical-u.com/masterclass-registration/
Did you know you that thousands of songs use just 4 chords? Write your own music, hear songs by ear, and improvise over chord changes by learning more about this fascinating topic. Join this FREE masterclass presented by Resident Pro Sara Campbell from Sara’s Music Studio! https://www.musical-u.com/masterclass-registration/

In this tutorial we’ll examine some famous melodies that were transposed into minor keys, and we’ll show you a simple process to help you create your very own macabre nursery rhymes.

While the traditional version of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” might bring back memories of bedtime stories or Kindergarten classes, the minor version just might give you goosebumps.

Parodies of old folk tunes certainly aren’t new. Children have been changing the words of well-known nursery rhymes and carols for ages. (Poor Batman!)

Minor Moves

Likewise, musicians have been transposing songs from major to minor keys since… well, probably since the aeolian mode (a.k.a. the minor scale) was created sometime in the late middle-ages.

Why? Because it’s fun. And it’s a great way to engage with an audience. You’re giving them something familiar, but also something unexpected at the same time.  

“Haven’t I heard that song before? Oh wait…”

Let’s take a look at a twisted nursery rhyme from a famous composer. Does this tune sound familiar to you?

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major features a macabre version of the French nursery rhyme “Frère Jacques” (“Are You Sleeping?”) in the opening of the 3rd movement.

Instead of the playfully sweet children’s round, his audiences were treated to a slow death-march inspired version of the melody with sparse ornamentation.

The resulting melody sounded downright creepy — a perfect match to the strange wood carving that inspired Mahler to write a funeral march in the middle of his symphony.

 

Let’s take a look at what Mahler did to the beloved French nursery rhyme. Here’s the original tune:

And here’s the solo that opens Mahler’s 3rd movement.

The melody is almost verbatim, with a few extra notes added in the first and second phrases, and also again in the sixth and seventh phrase. (Marked in red.)

What makes it sound so creepy?

Mahler transposed the melody from major to minor by lowering the 3rd and 6th notes of the scale. Add really slow tempo, and suddenly a happy tune sounds like a funeral march!

Ready to make your own creepy-sounding song?

Recipe for Macabre Nursery Rhymes

Follow these instructions to cook up your own spooky minor stew:

Step 1: Pick out a song.

Nursery rhymes typically have simple melodies that are easy to figure out by ear. Since most nursery rhymes are also really old, they’re considered public domain, so it’s also easy to find free (and legal) sheet music online.

Here are a few song titles to give you ideas:

• Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
• Did You Ever See a Lassie?
• Farmer in the Dell
• Hot Cross Buns
• Itsy Bitsy Spider
• Lavender’s Blue
• London Bridge is Falling Down
• Love Somebody
• Mary Had a Little Lamb
• On Top of Old Smoky
• Pop Goes the Weasel
• Rain, Rain, Go Away
• Ring Around the Rosie
• Row, Row, Row, Your Boat
• The Muffin Man
• This Old Man
• Three Blind Mice
• A-Tisket, A-Tasket
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Step 2: Figure out the key of your song.

This will help you know what notes to change. If you’re working by ear, look at the ending note of the piece — most pieces will end of the tonic (or “Do“). That’s the name of your key! If you’re working from sheet music, use the key signature to figure it out. Reference the Circle of Fifths if you’re not sure.

Step 3: Time to Transpose

Now it’s time to transpose the melody into a minor key. We’ll use “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” as an example, but first, let’s take a look at the major scale vs. the minor scale:

Notice that the 3rd, 6th, and 7th scale degrees are all lowered one semitone (or half step). This is what gives the minor scale its spooky sound.

It’s worth mentioning here that there are actually three different forms of the minor scale. Depending on your preference, you may wish to use the harmonic minor scale, which doesn’t lower the 7th note.

Don’t worry though — most nursery rhymes use a very small range of notes, and the song you choose may not even use the 7th scale degree. If your song does use it, experiment and see which sound you like better: “te” (flattened) or “ti” (same as major).

Now let’s take a look at what you have to do to change the melody of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” from major to minor.

Here’s what the original melody of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” in C major:

And here’s the transposed melody, where we’ve changed the la and mi to le and me by lowering them a semitone. Listen to the difference those tiny changes make!

If you’re playing a melodic instrument, then you can skip over the next step. But if you play a harmonic instrument or if you want to collaborate with someone or create a backing track for your song, continue to step 4.

Step 4: Minor Harmony

Now it’s time to add some harmony! Remember that you’ve changed several notes of your scale, so the chords you used with the song in a major key won’t necessarily be the same in a minor key. We have a handy guide on minor chords, if you require a refresher.

Here are the chords for “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” in major:

And here are the chords in minor:

One more note: while the melody of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” doesn’t use the 7th scale degree, one of the chords does use it. The G7 chord contains the notes G – B – D – F.

If we stick to the natural minor scale and use a B♭ it produces a Gm7 chord which doesn’t quite have the intensity as the regular G7 chord:

You may come across this in your song! Experiment and see which sound you prefer.

Crafting Chilling Tunes

Whether you’re a soloist, playing in a band, or just playing at home for sheer enjoyment, we hope you find this major/minor tutorial helpful. Exploring familiar tunes such as nursery rhymes, folk songs, or other traditional music can be a great way to hone your musical skills and creativity. It can also be a jumping point for further composition — perhaps it will inspire you to write some of your own Halloween tunes!

The post Transpose and Terrify! appeared first on Musical U.