Day 1 | Playing by Ear

It's not really day 1, but it is the first time I'll be sharing what I've been doing lately for my ear training exercises.

I used this ear training site to train myself in hearing and playing intervals. That tool has a bunch of options, the ones that I'm using are shown below.

Now I want to say before you scroll down, we're not looking at my "workout" for the day just yet. I told you before I wanted to show you how I used these tools and why I chose the options I did, and how I feel they'll help me learn to play by ear. This is just to clear up a few things before I go into detail what I actually do everyday, to answer questions before hand such as why I learn intervals, or why I'm working with intervals in this particular way. The actual regimen may be short posts, as many may consist of the same exercises (intervals done this way for day 1, 2, 3, 4, etc) until I advance (melodies/chords/progressions/etc) or change the method, for which I will explain the changes in detail as I did with this post.


So these are the settings for the ear trainer above, I'll answer each option below:

• Setting the root to C
• Intervals played only ascending
• Intervals played melodically(played one at a time), and then harmonically(played together at the same time)
• Delay set to M(edium) for melodic intervals, and S(hort) for harmonic intervals
• We're playing with the intervals chromatically, meaning I'm using all of them
• No compound intervals, meaning we're sticking to intervals from minor 2nd to major 7, and not going past that into minor 9th, major 13ths and that sort of stuff

Questions to the ear trainer settings

You might be wondering, shouldn't someone learning to play by ear learn the intervals in all keys and not just in C?

I'll tell you one thing, once you know how intervals sound in one key, you know how they sound in all keys. Intervals aren't key-dependent, as far as how they sound aurally. And if you're writing them down using numbers, they don't change that way either: A major 2nd is a major 2nd whether it's from C to D or G# to A#. Sounds the same too, try it out (reminder to post a link to a virtual piano).

That brings something up that I should mention: I'm doing the intervals specifically identified, not just generally. There are some of you who might only know intervals by 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on. But others might know that intervals can be further identified into major intervals, minor intervals, perfect intervals and the tritone interval.

The latter group is what I'm working with: It's more specific - from C to D is an interval of 2. So is C to Db( D-flat). But to be more specific, C to D is a major second, while C to Db is a minor second. According to my understanding, the need to be more specific is because the sound of each distance is different. C to D sounds different than C to Db.

Hopefully you're caught up with how I'm working with intervals.

Now why the key of C specifically? It's the one I'm most familiar with, as I have been working with music for a while now, and it's just so easiest to work with - no sharps or flats. I could easily pick another key, but we'll start on C for now (but remember, a specific interval sounds the same across all keys).

Question 2: Ear training for intervals in both directions

Next question you may have: Why am I working with intervals only ascending/going up (C to D), and not descending/going down (C to B)?

For me, you can't just rush into everything at once- realizing you can't hear everything and know what's going on immediately is the purpose of training your ears, isn't it?


I'll compare it to learning math (this can be applied to any subject). If you're starting out with basic math, do you try to work on multiplication problems if you're still struggling while learning addition? With the intervals, I'm still learning how to associate with them going up/ascending, and doing them one way is hard enough, while trying to work with both is like cramming your studying the night before a final exam.

I'm just taking things slowly and trying to get my mind comfortable with intervals going only one way for now, and then I'll work with the ones going the other way. It's weird knowing that a major second can be seen in a different way: whether you're ascending (C to D is a major 2nd) or descending (C to Bb, also a major 2nd). Hopefully you see I have some things to work out before I advance.

Question 3: Hearing Chromatic(All) Intervals or Just Major (or Minor) Before Advancing?

Another question you might have: You're starting out with intervals, should you also be doing them chromatically(minor 2nd, major 2nd, minor 3rd, etc), or just working with the major(major 2nd, major 3rd, major 4th, etc) or the minor group first before adding more?

At first, with the FET, I actually started out only working with major intervals. At this time I barely knew how any interval sounded aurally, so I figured why dive in to struggle to hear all 12 different sounds when I can start with 7 of them (that's including unison/octave, C to C) instead?

But then I read an article on ear training that suggested I dive in and do all the intervals. Now, this was way down the road when I already had a good foundation on the sounds of the major intervals. So adding in the rest meant that I would be dealing with those few 5 or so new intervals, rather than dealing with all 12 at once. That may be different from what you are facing, some of you might be dealing with all 12 and might have it harder than I currently do.

If I were to do it all over, I think I would do the same thing: Stick with major intervals, then add in the minor ones (and the tritone). I like the approach of taking things slow for most of my projects. I still recommend you try a day or two or both approaches, and then figure out which one suits you better - which one is easier (you may want to choose the harder one to challenge yourself OR the easier option may be challenging enough).

Question 4: What About Compound (9th/11th/13th)Intervals?

Next question: Why am I not doing compounded intervals, meaning why am I not working with 9ths, 11ths, 13ths? The same, or similar reason to why I'm working with intervals in one direction: I don't feel ready yet! Now you might reason that the intervals sound similar, as a major 2nd in C is C to D, and a major 9th is also C to D (the difference lies in the pitch of that D, in a 9th interval it is an octave higher). I wondered the same, but I think that difference in pitch makes it unique enough even if they're using the same notes. It's more obvious playing the intervals harmonically.

Question 5: What about the delay settings?

Last question: Why did I choose different delays? Why did I choose these delays? I'll start with the short delay that I chose for harmonic intervals. I find with the ear trainer, the intervals are played long enough for me to hear and then figure it out on piano, THEN the delay kicks in to give me more time to respond. SS(super short) takes a shorter time, but I found that just using a short delay gave me enough time to hear and respond as fast as I currently can, while maintaining the ability to correctly play the interval.

For melodic intervals, I chose medium for the same reason. This time though, the melodic intervals are played, but the sound doesn't ring out as long as it did with the harmonic intervals, so I had to allot more time in the delay to give me time to respond on my piano.


That being said, that's all for the question part, and now to the actual training. Not all posts will be like this, but as I said before, I wanted to give you a little review of the program, as well as see how I use these tools my own way for the regimen.

Interval Training Diary Submission 1

What I did with the tool today (and will be doing for the next few days) was just play with intervals melodically for 20 minutes, and then harmonically for 15. The time wasn't anything specific, it's just what I figured should be enough time to practice the intervals. The explanation to why I'm working with intervals and not something else in terms of ear training will be answered in another post, as this one has gotten quite big already and we all need a break before moving on.

I also completed day 3 (major 2nd intervals, ascending) from the interval guide found here.

Next up is how I believe what I did today will help me in the future, you might just see some benefits for yourself as well.