Ear Training Using Chromatic Intervals

Updated

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.

Read the transcript
...different things. This is the first one. The next main one is to identify chromatic intervals in relationship to one. All right, now the first step to this is to find a comfortable octave singing range for your voice, to where you can get to, wherever that is for you. All right, so what you want to do then is basically do this. Okay, you're recording this, right? Yeah, okay. One, flat two, one, flat two, one, two, one, two, one, flat three, one, flat three, one, three, one, three, one, four, one, four, one, sharp four, one, flat five, one, five, one, five, one, sharp five, one, flat six, one, six, one, six, one, flat seven, one, flat seven, one, seven, one, seven, one, one. Now I recommend that you spend more time on each one that I just did. Then, oh yeah, you know, I mean, like, you know, step, do it, you know, like one, play, one flat two, one flat two, one flat two, one, play, then move to the next one, you know. But it's singing it, you know, get it, get it in your voice. So that if I went like this, if I went like, oh, what is that? What I heard, huh, was that a minor third? Major third? I made third. Okay, you know, just by listening to it, that, you know, from there to there, that, that always, a major third always gonna sound like that. Okay, all right. I don't practice that before. Yeah, I guess, because all of the technical aspects of studying ear training will come down, the success of which will come down to your ability to identify chromatic intervals, which is, yeah, all right. Now, those are chromatic intervals ascending. We also have to do descending chromatic intervals. All right, so basically just do the same thing backwards. One, flat two, one, flat two. But a question should come up about now, why am I calling that flat two and not seven? Those are, this? Yeah, good, good, I'm glad, that's a good sign. Oh, no, no, no, no, I know, anytime you have a question, please ask. Questions are good, you know. It's, I, anyway. But the reason I'm calling that flat two and not seven is that I'm referring to its intervallic relationship, not its note function number designation. There are really two different things that happen to be the same. When you go up, this happened to work out that way, but, so, since that is seven, if I go, that's one, that is seven, we've established that, right? But seven is a minor second, an interval down from one. This interval relationship is still a minor second, or a flat two. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, I don't think of it that way, but yeah, it doesn't make sense when you say it. So we're talking about intervallic relationship, not its note function number designation. It's the same thing. Like, if you say, if I'm on D and I go up a fourth to G, but if I go down I have to go down a fifth to get to G, so why isn't it the same distance going up and down? It seems like it should be, right? Yeah, but if I compare half steps, if I'm on D and I go up in half steps, I've got one, two, three, four, five. But if I go down from D to G, I've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven half steps. So it's not the same distance, but up a fourth, down a fifth, take me to the same thing. And what do you call an interval relationship between one and each number, and we're talking about chromatic interval relationships? Yeah, okay. So if I go down: one, flat two, one, flat two, one, two, one, two, one, flat three, one, flat three, one, three, one, three, one, four, one, four, one, sharp four, one, flat five, one, five, one, five, one, sharp five, one, flat six, one, six, one, six, one, flat seven, one, flat seven, one, seven, one, seven, one, one. Now you might have noticed that a couple of them get two names. Yeah, right, though, one sharp four, one flat five, because you'll actually be dealing with both of those names. So that's why we call them both. Also, sharp five, flat six. So, you know, I should be able to play a note and then go up, or play a note and then go down, and you tell me what number it is. Now, this isn't going to happen overnight. That's right. So the thing is, you know, after a couple of months of doing this, you'll start to get to where you can recognize it, it'll be very cool. All right, so that when you hear something, somebody will play, and they'll go play this, major six, down half step, down a major second, you'll hear the relationship and be able to figure stuff out. So what we're doing really is just putting names to these sounds that you've already played a million times anyway. Yeah, and this gives you control over identification, and all this stuff is really mainly when you're working with other people, that's when all this stuff really helps you out. And since we're all playing in bands, you know, it makes sense to be able to, you know, this, if people are trying to communicate stuff to us that they want us to play, or stuff that you won't play, if you say, all right, play this, what is that, that's one, flat three, four, oh, okay, you know, they think, I know the numbers and know what you're doing. Yeah, these guys aren't, it's not too much, it's a theory, but the good players, really good. Yeah, but then, you know, you can just play it for them. I mean, you're going to communicate differently with different people depending on how they look at things, you know, and what kind of experience they've had as far as any kind of formal training. I mean, because, as you know, when I play with different people, everybody knows different stuff at different levels. So what you do is you figure out where their comfort thing is, and you communicate with them that way, which makes you a successful player and band associate. In different situations, it's your ability to size up where people are and find ways to communicate with them, because if I'm working with a guy who has no idea what a major third is, then I'll just go, hey, play this. Okay, when I first joined the band, I was like, I wasn't into like the numbers like I'm getting into now, I was more like into, you know, a Dorian, a Lydian, a Phrygian. So I was talking to the guitar player and I was like, yeah, you should try a Phrygian on this, and he was like, he didn't even know what that was, he didn't even know what the modes were. Yeah, he's a great guitar player, but once you played it for him and he played it a couple times and heard it, he said, okay, yeah, yeah. It's not a problem, what I'm saying is, he couldn't identify what I was saying, like Phrygian, he couldn't just go to a Phrygian, right? So, yeah, you know, knowing this stuff just speeds up communication amongst musicians. You know, my whole point is, because, you know, if you were never playing with anybody but yourself, right, you could call this stuff anything you want to. It doesn't matter. Okay.

Liked this post? Talk to Russ about lessons

Online bass lessons via Zoom for students of any level. Reach out to talk through your goals.

404-386-0983russrodgers@gmail.com