Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Possible ear training (100 Melodies a Year Club)

hreichgott told someone who wanted to improve ear practice “Pick lots of melodies on the keyboard” (or something similar). That comment clicked for me in a way I had not understood before.

I think what some of us would like to do is to be able to just play some simple songs we know. People learn the typical chords accompanying songs with some practice and theory work. Once they’ve reached this point, what they need is the melody. I, for example, can get some kind of melody but just testing note by note until I find the note that sounds ok. To ever be able to improvise a simple song I’d need to get the note in the first attempt, and I am understanding the only path to this is Practice.

I don’t even know the chord theory yet, but I need to start the melody practice to be prepared for the day I finally learn all that other accompaniment world.

I’ve seen there were many Ear players in this forum time ago; most or all were learning with the same method. We can listen to what they can do on this thread: Mary had a little lamb

I’ve thought we could have a MOYD thread to encourage each other with this Melody work but I’m not sure how it could be carried out. Any ideas? I am afraid some like me are not technological, so ideally it would be something more simple than uploading videos or music sheet (those would be welcome though).

Do you think some kind of MOYD for Melody Training would be fun if we only say “Moon River”, for example? (I personally wouldn’t be working on it very thoroughly but just getting the main part of the song). How many Melodies a year should we get? One every day? Two every week?

What do you think? Could something like this work? Or do you have some idea for some possible Group Project that would encourage us to train the ear and be something basic and simple?

Hmm it's not MOYD but more like "40 Pieces a Year Club".

"100 Melodies a Year Club"?

I am following :-)

Sounds like a great idea!

I am not a natural Organizer, you look more like one, Qazsedcft! Would you like to initiate the thread after there's been some discussion here on what would be the best course for it?

Otherwise, I'll just call it "100 Melodies a Year" and suggest we write the titles. This is as simple as can get and maybe it is fun enough to encourage us to become Melody Makers.

One more possible idea: we could write the FIRST NOTE we start with, since some songs will be practiced by many and the different starting notes could lead to comments and ideas (I'm just speculating).

If you determine what the first note is (i.e. the 3rd, 5th, etc. rather than the letter name), folks can then figure it out in any key they wish to play it in. From that, you could come up with a list of tunes to figure out by ear, giving the name of the tune, and what scale member the tune starts on. As the list grows, it becomes a reference to go back to in the future for those well along, and a real help to those just starting out.

Tony

You see, Tony? This is the usual problem with these things. I am completely sure your idea is most interesting, but I can't understand it (like I can't understand normally when people talk of ear playing, improvising, etc).

Can you, please, please explain it in a different way, or give us some example.


I've just gone and played with "Raindrops keep falling on my head". I started it with D (Re) and it ended in D. The only accidentals were D# and Bb. I cannot say I've started it with "the third" because I don't understand what that means... Probably it would be better starting with a different note, but how can I know?

One more thing I am learning: it seems the same notes keep repeating.

Explain it, please. We need practical ear training projects that help us learn with fun.

I don't really have time to organize such a thread so feel free to do so.

I think that with the very different levels of ability in this forum it does not make any sense to have a fixed set of pieces. Instead, I'm all for a format similar to the 40 piece challenge - everyone commits to learning by ear a certain number of pieces in a year (or as many as they can). Since not everyone is so committed perhaps 100 is a bit too much. Maybe start with 40, like the challenge, and see how that works out.

Now since it's already mid-October I suggest that you start an experimental thread for this year and make a new thread in January.

This thread can be a Pilot Project, so bring some Melody already!

I've checked the theory for keys, and there are two possibilities that only contain Bb and Eb: Bb Major and G Minor.

So I can see I'll like to talk some in the thread, even though I am not sure what it all means. Some might only want to write the title, some would bring us a recording...all sound very nice to me.

Reading something else now, I've remembered I have some Music Notebook (those with lines for the Staff), because my music friend told me to buy some when I started. Should we write the notes we get for our melodies? I personally write them in the style of Do Re etc. but will start using the music notebook now. ¡¡¡Hopefully!!! after some time we would become faster at it and then writing it would make no sense. I am so slow now that writing makes sense to me.

Reading you now, Qazsedcft. Maybe this one can be the experimental thread until January?

40 a year sound little to me. In the end, this is only an exercise to get fluency at finding notes. If we say 40 for the year, we'd have to say 10 now till the end of the year. Doesn't sound as very little? Have in mind that we don't even know if they are correct or anything...it's just some "note" finding exercise, but one that can keep us interested by sharing titles with others, like the Sight Reading thread.

Well, finding notes is one thing but remembering them is different. Perhaps you can treat this like sight reading, learn a melody by ear and then never play it again. If you do it like that one per day seems reasonable.

But maybe it could be nice to learn a melody like we learn pieces - i.e. until we can play them fluently with some chord accompaniment. If you do it like that one per week seems more realistic.

Anyway, even the 40 piece challenge is more of a loose suggestion. Some people do more, some do less. Do as many as you feel you can manage.

The way you see it, with accompaniment, is very different indeed. Even 40 could be too much.

I have played adding notes in left hand sometimes, but I am aware a bit of theory can help a lot with that, and I am not into that theory yet.

It could be flexible and people choose if they want to sign for 100 melodies or 40 songs....or a mix of 70.

Let's see what others think. I see a huge difference between melody and song with accompaniment.

Yes, but all levels have the need to learn and advance. The trouble I often encounter is, what to play, or what to learn next.

Perhaps in the order of and by the sign ups, a tune is posted for everyone in the list to learn. Three days later (or whatever interval is preferred) the next is posted (with sample audio). Occasionally, someone may voluntarily post results to the thread, or post their completed list progress to the thread, like is done with 40 piece challenge. 100 a year would be good goal, I think. That would be a new tune posted for the group every 3-4 days. Yes, it would be fun to try for a couple of months to see if it catches on. Just a thought.

Ah, Greener, so you think it would be funnier if we all were trying to find the same Melody/Song? I see that as viable! The idea is different since we wouldn't be personally bringing our personal list like in the "40 Pieces" thread, but we could each just give our comments: "I started it in C", "I am using 3 chords", etc.

We would have something like:

OCTOBER - SATURDAY 15, SUNDAY 16, MONDAY 17 HAPPY BIRTHDAY

OCTOBER - TUESDAY 18, WEDNESDAY 19, THURSDAY 20 OLD MacDONALD

(I chose those songs to start with the basic)

Fabulous, I've always wanted to learn this Happy Birthday one . Great choice. At a timely time of year too.

My progress to date:

1) Happy Birthday (Pending)
2) 0ld MacDonald (Pending)

I'm in if this gets off the ground. I've been having fun creating basic arrangements of different melodies. Not very good at it yet, but it's a skill I'd like to hone.

I'd prefer if we created a list of top 100 melodies to get people interested, but let them work any melody that strikes their fancy.

Mainly interested in people sharing different techniques -- without finding myself drowning in music jargon ;-)

Seems it is already off the ground.

Sure, but how bout' either or though. Follow the provided list, or choose your own and update us on your list.

I'll prefer to follow the provided list as I'm few on ideas already. I'd suggest Love Story after Old MacDonald, but cuz I already know it. I've learned Happy Birthday now. Whew, just in the nick of time.

Ahh I think we can start a thread for each of them. Is that what you mean, Groove On? I'll do it now (quickly because Greener is ready with Happy Birthday).

Meanwhile, we can have here discussion about the project, and this is the 3rd song for October 21st, 22nd and 23rd. This one is a new dimension because it starts with a piano! I personally will try to reproduce the melody as played on that piano at the beginning of the song. The quality is not perfect, but others were different versions, not as helpful as this.

The famous song with lyrics by Andy Williams.