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Ear Training Using Chromatic Intervals

Practice & Mindset Intermediate 1 min read

Updated

Ear training has many components, but the one to develop first is the ability to accurately identify ascending and descending chromatic intervals. Almost every other ear-training exercise — hearing chord qualities, following changes, transcribing lines — depends on how well you know those intervals. This post walks through a simple bass-based exercise to start building that recognition.

Originally published June 26, 2014, lightly edited for clarity.

Ear training is a complex endeavor and there are many different ways to work on it. I believe one of the initial components that needs to be developed first is to be able to accurately identify ascending and descending chromatic intervals. The success of most other applications and exercises of ear training will depend on the quality of your knowledge of chromatic intervals. The following video demonstrates a simple exercise you can do on your bass to begin familiarizing yourself with the sound relationships of each interval to the one both ascending and descending. Ear training is one of the fundamentals I teach. If you want guided ear-training work as part of your lessons, online bass lessons via Zoom are available.

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