Basics of Ear Training

How is your singing? Do you wish to learn how to play your favourite songs just by hearing them? Are you envious of others’ ability to pick out an entire song perfectly? Do you want to perfect your musical skills? The first step is to train your ear or develop your aural skills. ‘Ear training’ is the process of learning to connect music theory and interpret notes, chords, scales, melodies and more using only sound. It is like building a bridge between the language of music and its sounds. Training your ears is not very difficult. This music theory course with Michael Emenau focuses on training your ears to identify sounds, name them, play them back and even sing along to them. In this course, Michael introduces musical concepts with examples. He then asks questions and you answer them after listening. He also explains the answers to each quiz so you can gauge your progress and improve.

This course starts at the absolute beginning. We explain how to recognise and understand the concepts of higher and lower sounds. We then explore simple pitches of a sound, looking at examples of ‘high’, ‘relatively high’ or ‘low’ notes played in a sequence. You will also get used to singing while listening to piano notes. This helps you to harmonise with the sound you hear and sing. This course helps you to identify the note that is being played either singly or in a sequence. Furthermore, we explain how note names are assigned to the pitches as you learn how to listen, sing and name the sequence of the notes. The course also introduces the concept of major and minor chords played on the piano and other musical instruments. Once you’ve familiarised yourself with chords, we outline chord progressions and chord tones.

Do you feel overwhelmed by the phrase ‘play it by ear’? Do you want to develop a better musical ear? Then this course is for you. Once you begin to train your ears, your musical skills will increase by leaps and bounds. All musicians need ear training and there are no prerequisites for taking this course. Both beginners and veterans can benefit from this course to keep their ears in shape in order to recognise the notes of the musical system. The best way to develop a deeper relationship with music is to practise. The trick is to follow through with dedication and consistent effort. Practising ear training exercises or quizzes in this course will increase all aspects of your musical skills. So why wait? Start training your ears and sing and play music like a pro as musical theory meets its practice.