An Ear For Music

Ear training is all about Paying Attention

By request, I am posting an ear training exercise to help improve the ability to recognize chords  using a "top-down" frame of reference. See my previous post on this topic.  Always make a mental note of the subjective quality of the starting note because most often, this is exactly what is staring us in the face.  This is the note that will provide the clue to naming a chord that you are hearing. When you hear a melody note, either recognize immediately that subjective quality of that note or sing arpeggios as spelled out in this exercise, to hear what the chord is.   After getting this down, do the entire exercise with minor chords instead of major, and only when that is mastered, do it with 4 part dominant-7th chords, major seventh chords, minor seventh chords and minor 7(b5) chords - these are more difficult ( as you probably expect!).  ( 1 is the root, 3 is the third, 5 is the 5th, 8 is the root, 10 is the 3rd )

I suggest doing this without looking at the notes written out on the staff - this is not a sight-singing exercise.  (At the bottom of the page is the same exercise shown as written on the staff just for reference.)


 A.   pick a note in the middle of your vocal range 

 B.   play it

 C.   sing it

 D.  Do this:

1. sing up from that pitch (and back down) the 3-note major chord that has that note as its ROOT
             ( root position ) ( 1,3,5,3,1 )
2. sing down from that pitch (and back up) the 3-note major chord that has that note as its ROOT
          ( 2nd inversion )  (8,5,3,5,8)

3.sing up from that pitch the 3-note major chord that has that note as its THIRD
           (first inversion)  (3,5,8,,5,3)
4.sing down from that pitch the 3-note major chord that has that note as its THIRD
           ( 2nd inversion)  ( 10,8,5,8,10 )

5.sing up from that pitch the 3-note major chord that has that note as its FIFTH 
          (2nd inversion ) ( 5,8,10,8,5)
6.sing down from that pitch the 3-note major chord that has that note as its FIFTH
           (root position)   (5,3,1,3,5)