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Last week I began to do some more work on ear training. My first teacher started be letting me sing notes with the piano. Back then, I found it dreadful, I wanted to play piano! Now I think I see some good points for doing it.

What I have been doing since watching this video, was trying to imitate the guy, but it was damn hard the first days. After a week, I began to hear the similarity between all "do, re mi's" on the piano, and was able to hear and recognize more and more notes. The most difficult ones to distinguish are do, mi, sol - as the are matched to each other, 3rd, 5th. What you train this way is relative pitch, and maybe you even discover that thing work out without playing that first "do", that's absolute pitch (right?)

It is a great feeling when it start to work. I only work with the white keys for the moment. But the same thing should work with all keys mixed, black&white.

I great excise I found is to sing from "do" to "do" within 1 octave (your reach), and play at the same time the notes on the piano, but in random octaves (a "do" in this octave, a "re" in another octave, a "mi" in again another octave and so on). This way you have to listen for similarities between the notes heard. It is rewarding if you start to hear it. I hope this will help me in the future on the piano.

I would like to hear for more exercises on the piano to practice ear training.

many thanks, Johan

I use sightreadingfactory.com and sight sing from the score. You can turn on the sound and sing along, which provides immediate feedback when you make mistakes, and it's a lot more fun than trying to guess intervals. Sight signing not only trains your inner ear but it also helps with regular sight reading. After a while you start to hear the melody in your head before even playing a note, which is great.

I am afraid it's only for the chosen few that owns an ipad, no android version available. Besides, hearing the sound coming from my acoustic piano gives so much more that out of little tablet speakers. Thanks anyway for the tip. If it becomes available on android, i might give it a try.

I use the web version on my laptop. For signing you don't have to sit at your piano.

Anyway, SRF is just a tool. My point is that sight signing even with a paper score is a good method of ear training.

i found a simular program on android, you can even install "real" piano tones:-)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kaizen9.fet.android

PC software at http://www.miles.be/
It's good for when not have access to a piano, but I prefer the real deal.

I'd say listening for when chord changes occur during a song is pretty beneficial. Take something basic like "Silent Night":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba_ZZtFYCg8


Did you hear the chord change on the lyric "all" then change again on the second "all'? See if your ears can tell if the chord change was to a I , IV, or V chord ... then get the ears in the habit of listening for all chord changes/possibilities coming up beforehand, but start with easy tunes for your ears' sake.

Ear training? A must see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6tB2KiZuk

Hi Johan d,

For all my ear training I use a program called Ear master. Check it out! I do a little every day. http://www.earmaster.com/

It only works on computers PC and MAC not tablets or phones yet but I think the company is working on this at the moment.

All the best

Greg

Great!
I try to do it also daily, with this app.. The guy has also great articles about it on his site. Very handy during breaks when no acces to a piano. I already manage it to recognice (80%) of notes in the key of C Major, which is the beginning of course, but... I think the main goal is to recognize tones in relation to a key, what are their characteristics.

I'm using the free EarBeater Classic program and I love it.

It's quit amazing. After practicing for 1 week, I start to recognize every single note degree on the piano just by listening to it. That is - after hearing a I-IV-V-I chord progression, no matter in what key and over all octaves.